widerberg

I'm of two minds when it comes to what I'd like to see with expansion. The practical side of me says the best schools possible from the best media markets to try to shore up the TV money. The passionate side of me, though, says schools that are geographically close to us and similar-ish in football potential. I still want some kind of natural rivalry because, well, rivalries are part of college football (just like an OCS is) and it's hard to have a rival that's five or six states away. That part of me, I think, would like to see USF in the best possible position to play some classic traditional college football when the SEC and Big 10 become NFL Lite super conferences and USF and all but 30 or so teams get left behind. I can't see a situation where we'd get a seat at the table for that abomination, so in that context it would be better for USF to be in a conference with other schools that are at least relatively close geographically. If that doesn't happen and the P5 stay solvent, though, then I guess I'm hoping for whatever will keep us alive until we get called up to the Big 12 (or, really hoping on this one, the ACC if Miami and/or FSU go to the SEC one day).

It feels like a smaller number of larger conferences is where this is going, so maybe being first to go larger would be a good move. I guess it's a balance between staying alive as a conference and not diluting the TV money too much, but I don't hate the idea of going larger.

I know nothing will be unannounced until it's all said and done, but the silence from Aresco is pretty deafening. After the CSU/Air Force thing, I haven't seen anything at all that's not total fan speculation. Where are all the well-placed sources? Someone needs to start talking!

So, who would be in a southeast conference? The article didn't mention in. The AAC is pretty crap as it is, so would it really make that much of a difference if we joined a regional conference? I don't know. On paper, it would be cheaper for schools and easier for students due to the shorter travel. The TV money would be a big question, though. We're in a dumpster fire, I don't know that it matters where in the dumpster we're sitting. Maybe one end is slightly less hot?

We've just gotta make it to OT then, I guess. LOL.

What I don't get is that, if this guy's an ND professor, what's his beef with USF and whatever we do? I guess he's an alum, but what makes him an authority or any kind of insider of current goings on? Seems odd. Also, for some strange reason I decided to read through some of his tweets. Seems he's mainly moaning about some big scandal or something and complaining about mishandling money for the OCS. At this point, I don't care who's palms are getting greased, or how the money is mismanaged, as long as there's an OCS standing at the end of it.

Someone cut the line? Took her food? Food Truck food isn't anything to play with (although I couldn't really see what truck it was).

Odd that she and her teammate were canned now when the Dream knew about the video months ago. So, it's okay that it happened, just not that she posted the video about it? Modern day sports, though, I guess? Although, she should have known better than to put herself in that situation. Hopefully, she'll get picked up by another team since she's now a free agent. She's played in Europe, too, if that's the route she ends up going. Bummer, though. My kids and I met her when she played here and she was really nice.

That's nice to see. Go Bulls!

Those numbers really do look terrible if the AAC is supposed to be P6 or whatever Aresco bills us as (or billed us as pre-exodus).

Yeah, I don't like them because of the Lacrosse/BMX racing look. I did like the logo and color, though. Clean with a little flash. But, the Transformer-looking lid itself, not so much. I've been told I have bad taste, though. So, who knows?

Immediate playing time can be a huge carrot to wave in front of a kid. Also, like CJL did, hopefully we can extend offers to some diamonds in the rough that other schools pass over and develop them (but this would require solid coaching from HC on down).

Someone in another thread mentioned that it looked like some of us were in the bargaining stage of grief. It was a joke, mostly, but I think there may be some truth to that. These "what if" and "because this thing then this other thing" mental gymnastics might make some of us feel better about our situation, but they don't mean anything. I'm with you. USF isn't going to beat an FBS team until we beat an FBS team. It doesn't matter how teams who beat up on us were ranked, are ranked, or will be ranked. We lost and we'll keep losing until we don't. Hopefully, the coaches and players decide they're going to give that 110% to break this bad run and hopefully the fates/refs/luck all go our way during that game.

Thanks, Python. Always appreciate you doing this.

Bold prediction.

No worries at all. I think we all want the same thing, ultimately. To have some exciting, fun football to watch and just maybe collect some hardware here and there to be proud of.

Tomato tomato.

Like I posted in my other reply, I honestly don't know what will fix USF football. Nick Saban can come in here tomorrow and then, do what? We've got the talent we've got. I'm sure he'd do better than we're doing now, but he's not going to do great with the talent we've got, the facilities, etc. It feels like literally everything at USF has to change. That's going to take time. But, you've got to start somewhere. And, starting somewhere, an OCS is a pretty big, tangible step. It's a giant real symbol of intent that will help rebrand the program, show some level of commitment by the admins, hopefully excite students, players, future recruits, and alums, and ideally be part of the rebuilding process of everything related to football at USF. Unis and things like that are just low-hanging fruit (cheap stuff) that can hopefully contribute to making stuff more exciting until the real big changes come. Fake it until you make it or something like that.

I hear you. Honestly, I don't know what's going to help our football program. Possibly nothing. We've had a massive bad run of coaches since CJL. Then again, so has a school like FSU. After Bowden retired, Jimbo won one more National Championship, and then it's been a downward spiral ever since. We just never really got off the ground, certainly not in a P5 sense. Maybe we never will. But, if we still have a team, I'd rather we play on campus than somewhere else because, to me, it should be for us and for the kids playing.

Have you ever played an organized sport at the high school or college level? High school kids with multiple offers make their decisions based on all sorts of things you'd probably find whacky, how "lit" the uniforms are being one of those potential things that swings a decision. To ignore that is to lose out on potential recruits and we're not exactly spoiled for choice here. Anything to attract someone who might be a good fit is a good thing to do. It also gets the USF brand out there when we show up on blogs, shows, and websites because of our unis.

You do realize that the OCS is for us, the alumni/fans who have supported the program? Nobody but us will be rewarded by it being built. Coaches come and go. University admins come and go. An OCS is for us just as much or even more so than it's for the university or the brand. "Punishing" craptastic coaches and admins by, I guess, withholding an OCS hurts alums and fans, doesn't impact coaches and admins one bit, and just makes us even more bush league than we are. (Spoiler: coaches and admins are going to get paid regardless) And there's an issue with too many uniform colors/designs now? Giving players and fans new looks to be excited about is rewarding them? You're going to "punish" kids who are at USF to get an education while also playing football because, what, they weren't natural born athletic freaks who were 5 star recruits since freshman year of high school? We're not Alabama. There's no reloading every year from your deep roster of blue chips.

Man, if football could be what WBB has been, we'd be doing great. Maybe CJF can pick up a book on football and coach the FB team, too?

That's pretty hard to discount. Some kids have the dream to play D1 and they'll take any D1 offer they can. Who wouldn't? We are definitely not fighting UF, FSU, and Miami for recruits or transfers anymore.

Totally disagree. We're not a pro team, we're a (not very good) college team and should be playing on campus and not in a pro stadium across town. Campus and RayJay are about the same distance from my house, so the travel time/distance is a wash for me, but I'd much rather go back to campus on Saturdays. Because it's campus. My campus. And that's where college football should be played, on a college campus.