Ghost

Whatever works

Computer Science

As someone who works in the field, this is awesome. Just awesome. 

I graduated this past December. Having the entire graduating class walk across the stage took long enough. It may have been an hour and a half. Selfies only slow this down even more. 

 

Holding the degree seems a bit excessive though.

This. Time and a place. I dont know about holding back degrees though. 

I will say that I think the whole "selfie" is beyond stupid. How much attention do you really need?

I like them both. Not sure about the Giant U on the green one, but I guess Tampa is about giant logos on helmets as the Bucs have shown. Just win. 

lol I must have missed some good rants. 

The only issue with the loyalty points system is that it bets when the reward is considered cheap or valueless. You wouldn't enter a 1 dollar raffle to win a 10 dollar gift card to chipotle. You would if the prize was a dinner at say, Sideberns. 

 

I was a student when the loyalty point system was implemented, and back then, it worked fantastically. The nonrevenue sports got excellent attendance and quite a few students found sports they like attending. Volleyball and Soccer got major boosts out of that. 

 

But now? Who wants to attend a football game? Sure, there are some die hards, or fans of other schools who will show up (see Miami last year). But until the product on the field itself is valuable,  you won't see students show up. 

 

A few years ago, I wouldn't have endorsed reducing the student section from it's current capacity. Now I feel it needs to happen-those are prime seats in the 200s that are being wasted while not having any students there, and they could be selling for 200-300 a year in season tickets. 8000 is enough until we show we can be big again. You can pull the upper deck ticket holders back down to the lower levels and give them a discount to upgrade-say let them come down for 50 per ticket.

 

 

 

Because again, there's currently no value or real demand for football tickets. The system worked great in 2008-2010 when we were winning, but by my last year in 2011, we were starting to see a little bit of the fall back and I no longer had trouble getting tickets even without going to other events. 

 

Now, if you put in a new incentive system, perhaps students would start going again. For example, offer more face time to students with USF leadership. So, let's say you get 1000 loyalty points, you get an invitation to a students only event with Mark Harlan to talk athletics. If you get 1500, you get to participate in an hour long meeting with 9 other students with Dr. Genshaft. If you get 2000,  you get assistance to go to a Bulls road game to one of our more premiere opponents (for example this season getting a trip to Camp Randall or Cincinnati, or at FSU in a few years). Give people something valuable and you'll see turnout. 

 

dang. Took the words right out of my mouth. From 2008-2010 when we were good and football tickets were a hot commodity I remember going to literally every event on campus if it added up to points. I remember getting to apply for my student ticket before the freshmen did in 2009 because of all the points I had accumulated. Stuff like that adds up. It is like a business. You need to treat your customers like they are part of a special club. They may not be, but people like that feeling and will pay money/time for it. That feeling no longer exists for USF football. I can get a front row seat 3 minutes to kickoff for $10 now. Why would I need to sit through a chess club match for 50 points?

I'm ok with giving him another year. Perry and Egbunu played really well and improved as the season went on. If we can get a healthy Collins and some wings who can hit threes, we can be pretty good imo. I think if we have another losing season next year I really cant say anything to defend him. 

dang the butthurt from the USF crowd is palpable. Take it easy guys. He is right lol. 

Ronald Reagan obviously. 

wow such thread

Best 4-8 team in the country.

Gotta agree with smazza on this one. Cant even look at them. I try to just look at one fixed spot on the court when I am watching instead of looking at the players. 

 

For those that are giving up their season tickets, think about what happens WHEN we build an OCS. I assume that ticket priority will go to corporate sponsors first, and then to some combination of donation level and priority points.

Granted, short term you can save some money, but WHEN we move, where will you be?

This would be a good reason for USF to announce something now and let it be known that current STH's will have priority.  Might make a few die easies hang on to their tickets.

 

My feelings as well. Couldn't hurt. 

All about the media. We can win the AAC for the next 30 years. Wont change anything. Need to win those games on TV (major networks) and be on FS1, ESPN, etc at least once a week. Exposure is what matters most. Out of sight, out of mind. Someone on page 1 said that CMU dominated the MAC for a decade. I had no idea. That is exactly the point. 

 

I don't even know why I respond to you most of the time...

Auburn is 3 years removed from a National Championship. 2 years ago they went 8-5. They play in the SEC. They have history. They have money and tradition. What exactly do they have in common with us? Nothing

Missouri is 3 years removed from a 10-3 season. 2 years ago they went 8-5. They also play in the SEC. Not as much history as Auburn but they've had more success than us and they've been around a lot longer. What do they have in common with us? Nothing

Michigan St 3 years removed from an 11-2 season. 2 years ago they went 11-3. Last year they went 7-6. They play in the Big Ten. They have history. They have money and tradition. They have had a great defense for years. What exactly do they have in common with us? Nothing

Yes all three teams had down years last year, but they are pulling in better recruits overall because of the things mentioned above and they have better base teams than we did this year. We have been terrible for years. I know smazza thinks recruiting top guys is easy but it isn't. Look at USC. They were a national power for years and recently they have been so-so at best and that's with great recruiting classes. Ole Miss had the number one recruiting class this year and they only went 7-5

I hope we improve a ton next year but I'm thinking 6-6 or 7-6 is probably our max

We're 6 years removed from beating Auburn at Auburn, that SEC team with all that money, history and tradition. What exactly is your point?

 

not sure if srs

Losing to UCF

Someone tell me why switching this team from a spread offense to power running team caused us to have the worst record ever.    QB has to be biggest issue. 

??? We dont have the O-Line nor the running personnel for a power running team. Not even close. O-Line should be Taggarts biggest concern imo this recruiting season now that it appears White will be the QB. 

O-LINE is the most critical position on offense followed closely by the QB.

this. Everything flows through them. 

Because athletics probably wouldn't announce it until the day after.

zing

Can't fundraise for it without announcing it. Gotta think there's too much red tape to make it viable, or Judy or the Board just doesn't want it for some reason.

this. So much this. I dont see why just announcing it would be harmful. Even if it takes 10 years. You want it sooner? Give more money. You cant donate money to something that is not there. I am not going to donate extra towards an OCS for them to just renovate the bathrooms in Cooper Hall. 

Parking is not an issue. There is no parking in Gainesville and somehow they manage to get 90k into the stadium. There not all students living on campus. You just park all over the place and have to walk, it adds to the experience as you walk past all the tailgaters spread around the campus. USF could not ask for a better advertisement of the school and campus if 40k were suddenly on the campus 6-7 times per year.

this. Would be awesome to replicate the atmospheres at UCF, UF, and FSU when you can just park anywhere and just walk over when you're done tailgating. 

I think its also fair to wait to see how much the fanbase continues to dwindle as the team continues to lose. If the fanbase won't support a team during a losing spell, which all programs experience, why spend hundreds of millions and incur the debt that can't be serviced through ticket sales?  Does anyone think that a new stadium in itself is enough to put butts in the seat? And if they add a PSL, you have to pay hundreds or thousands before you can even buy a season ticket.

I would say the opposite is true. Why spend money on a stadium if RJS is filling up with 60k+ every game? Take that money and spend it where there is a NEED. Were you guys at the SMU game? If that wasnt a testament for how badly USF needs an OCS, I dont know what is. There were 18 students there. Students make the environment at a CFB game. They are the ones who start the chants, make the noise, etc. If we can make it easier for the students, why wouldnt we? Those of us who drive to the game would still drive anyway. If you could keep 10-20k people from driving to the game, why wouldnt you?

So if this happens then how long until the ******** starts when (I said when) usf agrees to a home and home with (big time opponent) where our home game is at ray jay? Arguably FSU agreed to play us again since their fans had no issues getting tickets at ray jay.

WHy is that a problem? Doesnt bother the teams who play at Cowboy stadium. Playing at RJS would be reserved for the marquee games. As you can see with FSU, these game would sell well and get excellent exposure anyway. Dont see how it harms the school. This would only be for less than a handful of teams anyway. Not like Tulsa is gonna demand that we play at RJS. 

Yes, I would love to have a OCS like Minnesota's new stadium. But we are forgetting one thing now. When we were talking about building something like that, the BIG EAST was part of the BCS collecting tons of money for our school. Now, USF is in the AAC and the TV contract is giving us a drop off in money from what we had coming in. There is no way that I think USF will try to build a gem like Minnesota's now giving the circumstances.  I believe USF needs to look into how Colorado St and Houston are doing it. That is more of our price range right now. Now maybe just maybe, USF has something going on behind the scenes.  Like an invitation to the BIG 12 on the horizon ( yeah I know wishful thinking).  A potential invite to the P5 is the only way that I can see USF attempt to build an OCS like the Gophers. 

TV money would, at best, just fund the expenses of the stadium. Even if we were in the SEC, it wouldnt pay for our stadium. Obviously, it would be nice and we would have money left over, but our stadium is going to be built from donations. Period. Even in the Big East it wouldnt have come close to creating a foundation for a stadium. Colorado State and Houston are not in power conferences and they built theirs. UCF was not in one either. 

 

The best time to start a fundraising campaign for an OCS would be when the team is playing well again. Morale and impulse donations would likely be higher, IMHO.

 

You could look at it that way.  Another way to look at it is, "we're rebuilding USF football" and part of that plan includes building an OCS.  Sometimes, when a team is doing well, people think that the team already has everything it needs to succeed, so donations go down.  I know that's incorrect, but some people think that way.

 

this. You guys dont think the students and Greek houses wouldnt increase their fundraising efforts if it meant getting more money to build the stadium sooner or get a brick/section/whatever named after them or their house? Come on...

Just announce the plan and let everyone else do the work. Hell, make a kickstarter for it lol

dang that is a ***** move. Glad his coach is holding him accountable though. Hope Heath would do the same if it were the other way around. 

I was at the Notre Dame game as were many of you. It felt great despite the weather problems. After watching it on video, I tend to agree with the ND fan sitting behind me. Outside of one solid scoring drive, we thrived on ND's errors. In his words they "gave us the game". In my words they played badly enough to lose. We got very lucky. They moved the ball on us at will. Their turnovers were the difference.

Just like the UCF game (same score), we just couldnt capitalize as well this time around. Should have beaten UCF by double digits. Notre Dame game should have yielded the same result. 

The team's body language bothers me too. When things seem to be bogging down their body language just makes it worse for 2-3 minutes before something happens to wake them up like a block or 3pointer. 

Indeed

 

Didnt read the thread since its been done before but yes, obviously. 

 

I'm new to the forum, but i was posting thinking aloud based on my observations on recent actions taken by the university.  Namely, the recent announcement of renewing the Unstoppable campaign really piqued my interest.  They have a lofty goal of $1 billion and seemingly no where to put the Athletics portion of that sum.

 

Not a problem. You will get used to the bevy of threads that are created every week over and over. This is def one of them, although the conversation is usually ok. 

Yeah I feel the same way as you do. A lot of us do. I would prefer growing into a stadium as opposed to going from 0-60. Similar to buying your first home and fixing it up the way you want it to and growing with it as your life changes and your family grows. Instead of renting an apartment for 20 years before buying the end product. Obviously, there are some who would choose the latter.