Mike Stuben

I've been to most of our games up there. My memory is it feels like almost always uncomfortable. Snow, rain, wind, even the best days are just all gray.

Twice non-Conference (including one on their campus, which no one seems to remember) .... then our whole time in the Big East, and most of our time in the American. Now back to non-conference.

Lots of winning seasons, same issue. it is more than just wins and losses. But you are right, the more compelling the game, the more that find their way inside.

Rice was expected. 3 weeks in a row, and it was clearly the least appealing game to students. Day game. Everything set up to have a weak student (and overall) crowd. FAU had the homecoming effect, was a great student crowd. Ever since day 1 in 1997, hundreds of students (if not thousands) tailgate and never go in. I was on a shuttle bus at WKU and listened to one of their fans complain about the same thing when I remarked about all the students tailgating. I don't have any answers, just saying that things haven't changed much. The same issues we battled in the first days of the program we are still battling now.

I think it is fair when the end of the year comes and say we got a small bump from the change in members of our conference. But, what I am seeing goes beyond that. Let me talk about the Fall teams: Women's Soccer last year was an anomaly. That program wins consistently, they just had a slight rebuild due to losing a lot of scoring. They are better this year than last year. Volleyball is way ahead of last year, huge gain in wins. This year we have played 2 top 20 teams, last year we played none (according to gousfbulls.com at the time of the match). Yes, the league is softer, but the win difference is going to be dramatic in this sport. Football last year beat the I-AA, this year beat the I-AA plus a returning league member and a new league member. We are already +2 in wins, I think we have 2-3 more wins in us. We were 0-11 vs I-A teams last year, and we lost some many good players to transfer. As long as we don't fold the rest of the season, this year is clearly better than any year in the Jeff Scott era. Men's Soccer - league is very tough, change in membership didn't make that much of a difference. UCF is mid, Houston and Cincy don't have teams. The other new schools were already admitted before last year. This one I can't figure out. No one has blown us out, but the wins aren't happening. Last year I though the coach was on the hot seat and won his way off it. Hope we can pull it together.

Just so we are on the same page. 3 of the 4 ticketed Fall sports will be up big in wins compared to last year. Last year Volleyball won 10, already won 13, with a bunch more to go. Women's soccer won 8 last year, already won 8 this year with a bunch more to go. Football won 1 last year, already won 3 this year with at least 5 games to go. Men's soccer is the only sport down. Those 4 sports should be up at least 10 wins combined over last year even factoring in the negative from men's soccer. I get this past Saturday sucked, and the last 2 weeks we learned the progress wasn't as quick as we though after Navy, but we are still making progress.

Focus people, we are so close to 3500 pages, it could be a homecoming miracle. I have it on good sources a former ACC Associate Commissioner will be at our game tomorrow.

I also think the cost of attending is rising faster than inflation, and people are opting to attend fewer live sporting events (in general).

Yes a poor choice, but perspective. We have 50,000 students. 200 of them got a free purple shirt.

Yeah, Which I think is crazy given the number of big name opponents that could come through. (unrelated side note: I caught the second half of a game at Northwestern, after the USF vs. Illinois game ended a few years ago) But, different animal of a team already in a big league vs. one hoping to gain admission.

I love the optimism, but we just need 1 good option. There are 4 leagues that = good option, just get us into one of those 4.

SMU reduced their share. They will make less in the ACC than the AAC, I am not saying we are going to do that deal, but I wouldn't assume. And, a we may be told our invite depends on having a larger stadium. The Big East mandated we renovate the YC, it wouldn't be unheard of for someone to say, you must have XXX number of seats if you want to be in our league. Not saying this to argue, just saying we don't know.

There are a lot of if's. We need to be ready for reduced earnings in a new league, If SMU is getting $0, and Oregon, Cal, Stanford, Washington all took deals with reduced payouts, we will probably have to take one too.

I'm not saying it will be low quality. But I also don't think there is any scenario where they have more money to spend, so if we needed a bigger stadium, I don't think we can just throw another 100 million onto the total.

First: I am excited for this team and this season. Looking forward to basketball for sure. Now my rant: Over the last 10-15 years as our conference schedule has gotten softer our non-conference schedule has also gotten softer. It is time to bulk up the non-conference schedule (like the women do). (first year new coach, this complaint isn't about this year, just a bad trend we need to reverse)

Part of me wonders if the lack of stadium details has to do with conference affiliation. We have $350m to spend. $350m can buy a really nice 35,000 seat stadium, but it can also buy a decent 45,000 seat stadium. Where we trade in some bells and whistles for more capacity. Could it be that they don't want to show all the bells and whistles of the 35,000 seat stadium, because it may never get built, and they don't want people disappointed with the 45,000 seat version. (this is all from inside my head, and not me leaking sourced info, so just me wondering out loud)

Selfishly, I just want the Arkansas State game and the USF game to be noon and 7, so I can go to both. don't care which one is first and which one is later.

They would give back the three AAC schools in a heartbeat if they could.

Not just UCF but also 3 of our future opponents this season.

Look again, they are there.

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You can do Avelo both ways. I have a Frontier pass, and couldn't make the Northbound times work on Frontier, so I booked Avelo.

They are based in New Haven, so if they come to your airport, they fly to New Haven. Got to travel light to avoid the baggage fees. Great fares. I would never book them 7 months in advance out of fear they would go out of business, but 2 weeks is a risk worth taking in my opinion. If you end up using them, Louis Lunch invented the hamburger and some of the best pizza in the US in in New Haven (and Yale).

Don't sleep on Avelo airlines, if they service your market to New Haven, not a bad drive from there. (I'm doing Avelo up from MCO, then Frontier back to MCO)

As a side note, I hate the 3:30 kick times, because they mean I can only see one game in person those days. Noon or 7pm opens the door for a double header. This map is great to look for second games (but a couple years out of date, I think) NCAAsavant.com: Your Source For Advanced NCAA Football Analytics NCAASAVANT.COM NCAA Advanced Football Statistics & Analytics