Gismo

Are you up to the task Smazza?

This looks like a post NFL athlete success story in the making.

Amazing how much has changed in less than 5 years. None of these were in place in 2007 when I enrolled. New MSC + all new athletics + new rec center + new dorms.... USF is on the rise!

And I know a few folks that prefer the view from the 200 level over the 100 level. They would take 200 level front row over any seat in the 100 level.

Rivalries should be healthy, respectful, with some crazy college kid antics mixed in. Not full of hate and resentment . Why? Because it leads to nasty things like the historic trees killed in Auburn. Or the way some visiting fans are abused at Ray Jay.

I love this rivalry story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Axe

That's awesome. I never knew the whole story behind the axe. One of my favorites is the USC-UCLA tradition of trying to paint the opponents statue. I could see USF-UCF doing that with our Bulls in front of the Marshall Center and their Knights (one in front of the Alumni Center and one in front of BHN Stadium). For example......

....it would be awesome to go and paint the base of that statue Green and Gold.

(I also have no problem if they want to take out Chia-Bull-Giraffe)

As much as I dislike UCF, I must admit that is a pretty awesome statue. While it would be quite epic if it the black stripes were painted green, I am not in favor of defacing property in such a manner. I think it would be even more epic if the knights Mohawk was painted with vertical green and gold stripes... You have to remember these antics between Cal and Stanford started at the turn of the 20th century and I doubt the penalties would have been as sever as they are now for their antics.

I think the Big East would have a strong case against ESPN if they can bring forth enough evidence that ESPN is purposely devaluing their brand by advising (or manipulating) the other conferences to invite teams from the Big East. I think making a case against the other conferences would be more difficult than making a case against ESPN.

What has happened is pretty clear. The Big East said no to ESPN's offer, and ESPN is trying to reduce the value of the Big East in case they are outbid for the TV rights. ESPN wants full control on college football and the more teams they can get TV rights to the better it is for them. This is why they are trying to pick off Big East teams, so that the TV rights for these teams will not belong to another network.

The sooner the Big East gets a good bid for it's TV rights the better. I believe all it will take for the Big East to stick it to ESPN is to sell their TV rights to any network that isn't ESPN. My theory is that while ESPN may still try to steal teams from the Big East the law of diminishing returns will apply. Conferences have expanded to the point where there's not much to be gained from expanding unless your adding a team with a ND or Texas like reputation, and even the PAC didn't expand when they could have had Oklahoma AND Texas. Once the conferences see that it's no longer profitable or logical to expand and the Big East gets a TV deal from another network ESPN will be the loser when it's all said and done.

For the first time ESPN will have real competition. They have been paying these conferences a lot less than they are worth because they've had no competition. The SEC realized this and added teams so they could renegotiate their contract (this was made easier for the SEC because of the bad blood in the Big12). The Big East also realized ESPN was under paying and was the first to say to ESPN "we think we can get more". I believe that ESPN is behind the moves by the ACC and Big12 and that they're only interest is to reduce competition with other networks over TV rights. The defections from the Big12 I believe were because of bad blood in the conference.

So far evidence that espn advised big 12 and ACC. Only target schools for either conference have been from the big east, ND, pitt, cuse, WVU, TCU. Likely retaliation to devalue the brand and reduce competition with other networks that might win big east tv rights in the future. Speculation that this may not have happened if big east accepted the espn offer.

Talk about conflict of interest. So these are only big 12 memos. Maybe espn and fox have been advising every conference, even the big east. It wouldn't surprise me if this is the case.

Wow rated worse in the state? I wonder how it makes the players feel who play this game.

I found this on another board and thought some of my fellow bulls might be interested. Of course, this is purely speculative rumor, but it supports a claim in another thread that Slive wants to ditch the Big East. I'm starting to believe this may actually be what the big 5 are conspiring.

http://texags.com/ma...6698&forum_id=5

Spoke to a friend of mine who works for IMG College... Says the ultimate goal is to go to an 8 team playoff ASAP...

Current step was to get a true playoff, work out the kinks, ditch the Big East, put ND in their place,, and move to an 8 team playoff ASAP...

Bowls are too stinking' entrenched to come up with a home/home system... Wetzel's article is spot-on...

8 team model will most likely feature "Big 5" conference champs and 3 at large teams chosen by committee...

His comment is that bowls will ALWAYS be a part of it...

Couldn't go to to 8 teams initially, but 8 teams over 3 weekends is where it will end up...

And we won't have to wait until 2025 to get there... Those dates were a smokescreen... They can change it at any time... The bowls want it, and will pay for it...

all FL schools on phil steele cover?

This is one of those intriguing message board topics that has an absolutely zero chance of becoming a reality ...

Best analysis I've seen so far.

We don't know who had knowledge. The name of the person who approved F&F has not been released/determined. This is what congress is after.

He was probably just over thinking everything trying to impress the coach. He was probably thinking about his release form, timing, footwork, where to hit the receiver, and coaches instruction all at the same time and it just wasn't coming together.

Very fair analysis in my opinion.

My school for an A was

AP = 5.0

Honors = 4.5

Regular = 4.0

I think they should just set everything to an A = 4.0 and let the college admissions weight their course difficulty or do internal reweighting. Colleges already have internal weight scales but this GPA inflation has really made it so that I don't give anyone credit for their GPA. if you told me you had a 3.9 and took 4 AP classes I'd be more impressed than if you said you had a 4.7 GPA.

I don't see a large enough skill gap between the acc and big east to justy one league be in the FCS and not te other. I really think the best three conferences are big XII, SEC, and big10 but after that I feel the leagues aren't the different.

Our "FCS" team in 4 seasons has toppled FSU, Auburn, Clemson, Kansas, Miami, Notre Dame. These are all "big 5" schools. How many average teams can list this many OOC wins like this in against big 5 schools in their last 4 seasons?

If Slive really believes this because of a talent gap he's insane. I could see him wanting it only to reduce competition. I don't think it will ever happen.

Mutiny, you're as arrogant and condescending as a Gator fan.

Have you gone to the boards for every school that gave him an offer to boast and feed your ego?

Obviously if we offered him our staff thought he could be a contributor to our program. Also Miami thought the same. he chose your camp and to verbal to the canes. He may or may not change his mind and sanctions may or may not be a factor. Until the i's are dotted and t's crossed on NSD things can change.

I don't understand your need to come to our board and defend your universities NCAA Violations and sanctions in our recruiting forums with a tone of condescending arrogance.

The only way the looneys in mouse town will ever have a better team than USF is in an EA video game and in their hometown news paper. Every year we visit the bounce house will be a dose of reality.

Guys our SOS will be fine. We won't need any marque OOC matchups as long as we have UCF on our conference schedule.

Also, 4.22 GPA but 3.55 un weighted. HS grade inflation is out of control.

I bet Holtz has a good eye for these under the radar talent based on his success at ECU.

As excited as we are as fans to be getting such great commitments, I can only imagine as the head coach this must one of the most exciting times for Holtz throughout his entire career. I wonder how our team will look in 2015.

umad? Orlando

The heat were the best team this year. Did they break any league rules by signing together? Even in their collusion they still lost to Dallas last year. James looked amazing from the two championship games I watched.

He's not my favorite athlete because he seems to have no humility what so ever. His espn "decision" special and other examples are why I don't really like him and I know I'm not alone in that opinion. However I'm not going to knock him for having the smarts to join a winning team. I can see the whole "collusion" taking only 3 sentences.

"hey, our contracts are up at the same time, want to sign for the same team as free agents?"

"Sure, let's sign with Dwayne in Miami."

"okay sounds good, see you in Miami."

Well if it's a bidding process what if other venues out bid the orange bowl for those #2/3 spots so they might be left with us as their best option. If I'm wrong please say so because I don't know these bowl negotions too well, but this is my guess.