BullsOnParadeTG

Most Excellent. 

I have 6 season tickets I split with a friend. We always have a few that buy individual tickets to hang out with us. Our tailgate is usually pretty decent. I have been working hard to get as many people I can to the game. 

I usually grill at the tailgate.. I do smoke meat but it takes so long that it is not worth doing at a 5 hour tailgate. I might have to step up the food game a little this year.. Burgers, dogs and brats have been done a lot. 

5 hours ago, CousinRicky said:

This is like being #2 at one time.   What have you done to it lately?  

We got a bigger TV. Better sound system and Antennae for when the network bogs down out hotspot. 

My group of friends have a tradition. Once we are all on the escalator on the way up I lead the S-O-U-T-H  F-L-O-R-I-D-A chant (mostly because I am the loudest). We stream it on facebook because we have family and friends that can't make the game but love being a part of it. 

2 minutes ago, Grateful Dad said:

Nice Truck!  You say there's a trailer in that picture?

J/k.  Great job.  Enjoy in health and victory!

Saving up for a School bus to convert. HAHA 

1 hour ago, puc86 said:

I think we all are on this side but that isn't fun to debate so the fight has to be which if held in a vacuum and you cant have both is more valuable, winning the games people care about or losing all of those games and winning all of the games no one cares about but you get a paper weight that has magic powers to make people care about games they have shown for 6 years they care nothing about? Hopefully we just go with your plan, win them all and then just don't have to worry about the harsh realities that come with a 9-3 AAC championship. 

I would argue that neither mean much without the other. Winning a couple splashy OOC conference games isnt much if they can say "well they can't even win their own conference so it was a fluke." Also Winning the AAC doesn't mean much if they can say "Well their conference isn't made of much plus they showed they cannot win against P5 schools." Truth is we need both. The OOC wins would put people in the seats for a game but if the next game is a loss to SC State those gains are short lived. Winning all of the conference games will build over the season and get people in the seats as the season goes along but it all goes bust when the conversation turns to "Who did they really beat anyway." and we end up at the Oil Pan Bowl game. 

1 minute ago, CousinRicky said:

My wife is by my side at all of them.  She puts up with me being on this site while she does her Facebook/Pinterest stuff.  The only problem we have is I hate to watch our games live on TV.  For some reason (could be less alcohol) I get more nervous watching on TV than in person. She wants to watch them live.

My friend and I have 6 seats. Our wives come to two games and we take our sons to 2 games. The rest of the seats for the season are open to our friends. The tailgate food is stepped up a bit for when the wives come. 

On 8/15/2019 at 5:30 PM, mj796 said:

Pictures of the trailer?

Here is a video link of the Buildout from last year. 

None of these things are mutually exclusive. I say we win all of the Splashy OOC games. Take the AAC and play a big Bowl game. 

37 minutes ago, CousinRicky said:

Probably most of us on this here 'pen that are married have very tolerant and wonderful wives.

Yeah my wife has "Football Widow Parties" when the guys and I go to the games. 

32 minutes ago, puc86 said:

Missing a game I can deal with. I think we have some sort of anniversary thing ( it’s I guess the anniversary of when we got engaged, I don’t think that’s a real thing but I will take her word for it) and my wife can’t make it so I’m going to drive over after the game and meet her for the rest of the weekend . The divorce would be  for making me go to a Florida Georgia concert.

I get it. I like FGL though so it is all good. The concert should be a fun time too. 

4 minutes ago, puc86 said:

I would just get divorced

Being that my wife gets me the Season Tix every year and also was supportive in the purchase and outfitting of the Tailgate Trailer I think I will keep her. lol 

Just now, CousinRicky said:

Good work on that.  And, yet to be determined, you may be glad you were at the concert and not the game.  But you WILL kick yourself in the butt if we win.

Win or loose I would rather be at the game. The tickets to the concert were an anniversary present so I am locked in there. 

1 minute ago, CousinRicky said:

Didn't they announce this game like a year and a half ago?

It was piss poor planning on my part. However I made sure my seats would still be filled. 

Unfortunately we will be missing this game as we have Florida Georgia Line concert tickets that we bought long before the schedule was released. That said our 6 seats will not be empty. I have transferred them to a friend that will use them all. 

7 hours ago, JTrue said:

If your bits hang all the way down the seat, you’re one of our older fans and gravity is winning.

**** I am both older and got autocorrected. My boys don’t hit the seats yet. LoL. 

Truth be told we don’t have a strong conference. We have to win our division AND win those splashy OOC games to get bits in the seats. 

On 8/17/2019 at 8:45 PM, Brad said:

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10 hours ago, puc86 said:

We went all gimmick all of the time to try to force the relevancy that was obviously lost. We named our conference what would appear to be something to be confused with ACC and to fall at the top of alphabetical rankings and started labeling ourselves P6 even though we lacked any of the money, prestige, television or access of the P5 programs. The end result is everyone just put the ACC at the top of the alphabetic rankings and everyone dismissed us as irrelevant hangers on. It is no wonder UCF went with a delusional game plan of self professed national championships because its a cornerstone of the conference. The Big East was a name with at least some brand equity and when the basketball teams wanted to split we should have said no problem go start whatever conference you would like. When they replied but we want the name we should have said no problem see you in court. We thought we could do some cute reinvent, force ourselves in places we did not belong and grab some cash for the deal, we were woefully wrong.  

I agree. The powers that be really botched that one. I wonder if the right path is to try to build up the relevancy of the AAC or try to get pulled into a power 5 conference. Do you think there will be another conference alignment and will our school be more prepared?

6 minutes ago, BullyPulpit said:

I am extremely excited for the upcoming season. I can't pry myself away from this message board in anticipation. However, I find it my duty to prevent revisionists from altering or diminishing our past. I can look forward while remembering what I have. It is the memories of how great things used to be/feel that keep me a fanatic. It is having that taste of success at the highest levels of college football, no matter how brief and fleeting it was, and yearning for that sweet, sweet nectar once more. That is why the games against Wisconsin, Alabama, Florida, etc. still matter. Drinking the blue blood of our slain opponents from the golden chalice of college football upsets is about as close as we will get to the excitement of the Big East days. I can live with that. 

Ok you have convinced me. Those days were as wonderful as I remembered. Let us hope we see better days like that again. Now that we are getting bigger better OOC teams scheduled in the future I am hopeful. I also cannot pull myself away from the board. We are definitely getting excited. We have our tailgate trailer all rigged up again. This time with a better TV! 

Ok. So I didn't realize we played Alabama while in C-USA. I get you have to see where you have been to see where you are going. However the purpose of this thread was to get those who only focus on the past to look forward. To be happy for what we have currently and look to the future. Sure we all miss CJL. Sure we lost out on the conference scramble but neither CJL or the Big East are coming back. You can move forward if you are always looking behind you. 

Can we please let the healing begin and have a fun season? HAHA 

4 minutes ago, BullyPulpit said:

Again, I think recency bias is playing a role here. The last 3 seasons of the Big East saw a conference that was in the throws of death, but from 2005 to 2009 the Big East was a major player in the college football landscape. An undefeated Big East Champion would NEVER have been kept out of a 4 team playoff (if one existed at the time). An AAC team will never be ranked preseason top 3. The perception was different. They may not have wanted the Big East at the big boys' table, but they were there and the media had to pay attention to them. You can't just say "if you take away the BCS Bowl" because that is a big part of what differentiated the Big East from the AAC. Automatic access. Not to mention the difference in the financials back then. This revisionist history where the current AAC is somehow equivalent in perception to the Big East is lunacy.  

 

It is entirely possible that my memory of then is a bit skewed. However the reality is those days are gone. Do we sit here and morn or do we move on. Try to be better and attract better teams? I don't remember us playing Alabama back then. We need to focus on winning our conference and having big splash wins with the out of conference play. That will turn heads much more than the likes of UCF announcing their "championship." 

4 minutes ago, Dave_Glaser said:

This is DEAD ON. Big East football was trashed annually by the media - despite huge bowl wins like WVU's over Georgia and Oklahoma. They were treated the same as UCF's over Auburn and Houston's over FSU - with a shrug. There is little difference in perception nationally between the AAC today and the former BIG EAST when it comes to college football. Yes, the BE was a BCS league, but most of the pundits thought it shouldn't be after the first round of conference hopping that brought us in, and they were happy to run their mouths on TV and in print to say so. If you don't believe that, you weren't paying attention in those days. 

I agree. Most of the people I introduced to USF football back in my college days didn't even know who the Big East was. I remember those times fondly and maybe have some rosey tinted glasses of that time but looking back if you took away the BCS Bowl it would be the AAC now. I do remember people wondering why the Big East got a bowl bid anyways. Would I like us to be in a bigger conference? Sure. However we are not going to convince a P5 conference that they need us if we can't fill the stadium and compete. Go to the games. Bring friends. Hell where else are you going to get a cheaper ticket in town? 

3 minutes ago, puc86 said:

That is a reasonable approach to life and I have no doubt that you and yours will show up in mass but when predicting an overall event we would need to look at how much motivation this will give the general populous and while it would be great if an AAC championship would be the secret sauce to draw them all in there really is nothing we can point to in our fandom, the AAC or similarly situated events that would make that likely. 

Well they just need to advertise the Corgie races and they would fill up the 3rd bowl.