CincyBull

Only posting this because USF plays in Cincinnati in 2014. UC will be playing all home games at Paul Brown Stadium (Bengals home stadium) during 2014 while Nippert stadium is renovated. press release on 2014 @ PBS: http://www.gobearcats.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/081213aaa.html planned renovations: http://www.gobearcats.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/121812aab.html

I realize this thread is a joke, but on a serious note, the hoops in Muma are the same hoops from the old Sun Dome.

As a Bearcat alumnus, I couldn't be happier about the Tuberville hire. Great move by the Univ of Cinci to try to take the program to the next level as conference realignment continues. It was always tough to get people in Cinci to show up to anything there, and the entire lower section of one side of the basketball arena was completely full for the press conference announcing Tuberville as head coach. He might finally be the magic piece that sells out 35k Nippert Stadium, and allows for some money to renovate/build a new stadium, etc, who knows! His full contract has not been finalized, but it is quite interesting that over his 5 year contract, $300,000 will be donated to UC's olympic sports teams for funding. It's entirely possible (and likely) that the money was just additional money on top of his normal salary over the years, but they're just making it appear that it is being donated from him rather than the athletic dept itself, but either way, makes him look like a stand up guy as scholarship funding for track and field & swimming were just cut at UC in recent years. Very very proud to be a Bull as well with the Taggart hire, couldn't be a better move for recruiting and the future of the program. I think both schools hit home runs... is it football season yet!?!?!? haha

One thing to consider, if we really do want to call ourselves a "soccer school", soccer is not a sponsored sport of the Big 12, so we would need to find a new home for soccer alone (WVU is Big 12 in all sports except MAC for soccer). Just something to consider if we went to the Big 12, where would we be able to move soccer to that will keep us at the level we are currently at?

I can offer the other side to this. I did undergrad at U of Cincinnati and now am at USF in graduate school, and though I love USF and go to as many games for all sports as possible to support the school/teams, I don't have the passion and excitement I had at UC. If you did undergrad at USF, it'll always be your first love, and no other school will compare, regardless of how awesome they are. I came here completely anticipating being just as passionate about USF sports as UC, and it just hasn't happened to this point, though I will say soccer here is on a whole other level. I've gone to a lot more soccer games here, but I was definitely more vocal during games at UC even when UC was way worse than USF is at soccer. I guess what I'm saying is, regardless of where you go, USF will always come first, but you'll still have fun and enjoy your new school's teams and be there to root for them, but it's likely that the same passion and love you have will not transfer over to the new school.

AW just tweeted that he will be at the USF/Pitt game tonight... unfortunately, probably along with only about 15,000 fans...

It doesn't help that they have the wristbands now that are the only way you can get into the lower section... I would have gladly stood the entire game today in the lower section, but wasn't able to get to campus until about 10 minutes before the game (I was walking in when the anthem was playing). By this time they already gave out all the wristbands so I was stuck sitting in the 2nd level. The problem is, half the people that get wristbands STILL sit in the upper level, so people in my situation don't get a chance to sit in the lower section yet there are open seats... this issue really needs to be addressed. It's going to look bad in Big East play when the lower section isn't full because of the stupid wristbands and half the people sitting up in the 2nd section with them instead.

Thanks for linking (and now combining). Was interested in people's thoughts, didn't see this thread before! My bad!

I apologize if this has been posted on here, but a friend showed me this article and I find it mind blowing. As a new USF student, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this, btw, it is written by a former employee in USF's athletic department... http://www.voodoofive.com/2012/11/19/3665330/usf-athletics-is-in-crisis-and-not-just-on-the-field It's even worse than you think. USF's football team is 3-7, and the landscape of college athletics is changing yet againwith a strong possibility of the Bulls being left behind. Enthusiasm for the program is at the lowest ebb in decades, and the turnover of staff inside the Selmon building is fast and furious. We've got a head football coach that could politely be described as "embattled," an athletic director that hasn't taken questions from any legitimate journalist in front of a microphone or camera in so long we can't remember, and the possibility that less than 15,000 people will walk through the turnstiles at Ray Jay for our final home game this year. Not to mention our students and fans got blown out of the gym by UCF's enthusiasm during the grand opening of the revitalized Sun Dome. It's the worst it's ever been in the Football Era. There are exceptions such as softball or women's basketball, and congrats to men's soccer on another NCAA appearance. But quite frankly, and this is from someone that loves USF Volleyball more than Football... that doesn't pay the bills. I asked for all the following data from USF as part of a public records request (one that took nearly 6 weeks to get back), but the data they gave me didn't match what they told the federal government here. For example, the data they gave me said the department budget in FY 2011 was $38,047,947, but they told the feds it was $41,948,123, and that expenses were $43,494,246. Let's give USF the benefit of the doubt however and say that our accounting procedures might be far different than those required by the federal government. But since that's still a big difference, and for the sake of consistency, all the following numbers come from the USA Today Athletics Database as of 2011, which uses the Department of Education numbers. Also, since West Virginia was still in the conference and Temple wasn't at the time of this data, and WVU played all sports as opposed to just football, we went with the Mountaineers instead of the Owls. Revenue Expenses Subsidy % of budget Student Fees Louisville $87,736,323 $81,837,054 $10,061,012 11.50% $1,861,502 Syracuse * $73,287,687 $69,187,052 Connecticut $63,089,340 $62,993,983 $15,029,723 23.80% $8,744,642 West Virginia $60,451,426 $61,709,469 $4,365,703 7.20% $4,219,457 Rutgers $60,190,100 $60,190,100 $28,475,523 47.30% $9,032,350 Pitt * $56,338,449 $56,338,449 Cincinnati $42,724,841 $43,688,807 $14,708,672 34.40% $0 South Florida $41,948,123 $43,494,246 $16,561,617 39.50% $15,231,708 * FY 2012 athletics budget as submitted to Department of Education since schools are private/semi-private so data is not available by USA Today Database ^ Cinci just gives money directly to athletics instead of using a tuition fee. Their students are still paying, just under a different mechanism. Subsidy is defined as "the sum of students fees, direct and indirect institutional support and state money. The NCAA and others consider such funds 'allocated' or everything not generated by the department's athletics functions." So basically everything you get from your foundation and student fees, but didn't earn. A few notes: Rutgers has the highest percentage of "subsidy" in the nation for BCS schools, USF is second, Cincinnati third, and Oregon State fourth. Every other school in the BCS is under 30%, most by a lot. The B1G and SEC don't have a school over 10%, and four of them are at zero. So by these measures, USF has the smallest budget in the Big East, but the highest amount of student fees paid directly by tuition dollars to athletics. Current Big East football head coaches total compensation (most of it from here): Charlie Strong, Louisville - $2.3 million Skip Holtz, USF - $2 million Paul Chryst, Pitt - $1.75 million Paul Pasqualoni, Connecticut - $1.6 million Butch Jones, Cincinnati - $1.575 million Doug Marrone, Syracuse - $1.23 million Steve Addazio, Temple - unclear, but likely <$1 million Kyle Flood, Rutgers - $750,000 Holtz, like most other coaches above, also has an opportunity to earn additional bonuses for things such as attending a bowl game ($25,000), winning the Big East ($200,000), or winning the national championship ($500,000). And as you're probably aware, because of his contract extension signed in June of this year, firing Skip Holtz after this season would cost USF $2.5 million in a buyout. Current Big East athletic director total compensation: Tom Jurich - Louisville $1,422,204 (2011) Doug Woolard - USF $709,657 (Presently) * Steve Pedersen - Pitt $599,807 (2011) Daryl Gross - Syracuse $575.227 (2011) Michael Thomas, Cincinnati - $301,716 (2011, before leaving for Illinois) Warde Manuel - Connecticut $450,000 (2012, when hired) Tim Pernetti - Rutgers $481,436.33 (2011) Bill Bradshaw - Temple unknown * Going strictly on the public info request I got from USF. They list Woolard's base salary as $579,657 presently. He also received a $100,000 annual increase from Judy Genshaft on Nov. 8th, 2010 "in an effort to establish a more competitive compensation structure relative to other peer university institutions" which is paid in $50,000 installments every December and June. Woolard also earns a separate $30,000 bonus each year described as a "contractual incentive" and has every year since 2006, though what that's for isn't in his offer letter and not defined in the paperwork I received. He also has received other small bonuses, such as one for $13,564 on July 29th, 2011 that many athletics staffers received in what seems to be proportion to their salary. Those are not counted above. Also as part of his new agreement with the University signed this past June (at the same time Skip Holtz and Stan Heath were also given extensions), Woolard rolled over his previous contract with one addition: he is now "eligible for and paid incentive payments in equal and cumulative amounts to the performance incentives which are earned and paid to the head coaches according to those respective employment agreements."Therefore all the bonuses received by head coaches are now matched for Woolard. As an example, when the men's soccer team reached the NCAA Tournament this past week, both coach George Kiefer and Doug Woolard received a $5,000 bonus for the appearance per the incentive clause in Kiefer's contract. No other assistant athletic directors, associate athletic directors, or sport administrators appear to have such an arrangement, and no senior staff member has received any "contractual incentive" since 2006. As we noted here previously, the amount of money tied up in salaries at the top end of the administration is quite high in terms of percentage of the budget, and the championships per dollar spent is pretty small. Those numbers are even worse than when we looked at them 15 months ago, but is any of that money trickling down to the proletariat staff as well? The answer appears to be no. The Department of Education website also lists the average salary for assistant coaches across all sports as well, which is the best tangible comparison we can make from peer school to peer school. Average Assistant Coaching Salaries across all sports as reported to the Department of Education Avg Asst Mens Coach Avg Asst Womens Coach Connecticut $154,719 $77,428 West Virginia $150,939 $43,687 Louisville $144,856 $55,811 Syracuse $135,156 $61,408 Pitt $131,555 $46,439 Cincinnati $113,907 $42,145 Rutgers $108,684 $43,895 South Florida $105,997 $39,153 So to recap, out of eight Big East football playing teams: Overall budget: 8th Percentage of budget from university subsidy: 7th (second to last among BCS schools nationally) Total dollars received directly from student fees: 8th (largest amount in the BCS) Head football coach compensation: 2nd Athletic director compensation: 2nd Head basketball coach compensation: 6th Assistant coaches across all sports compensation: 8th * * * * * * * * As part of our public records request, we asked for the salary of every current USF staffer and coach that's full-time. Originally we wanted to compare and contrast them with their equivalents at other peer schools, but we simply didn't feel comfortable publishing the rank-and-file salaries of people busting their butts every day. If you're a football coach or athletic director, you put yourself in the spotlight. If you're taping ankles before practice, making sales phone calls, setting up arenas before games, etc, you don't really need your business splashed on a website. But it's all public info, so if you want to know, here's the websites where you can check out peer schools. They're not all updated daily, and some of the info might be at least a year old, but it'll give you an idea. Cincinnati Staff Directory Connecticut Staff Directory Louisville Staff Directory Rutgers Staff Directory West Virginia* Staff Directory USF Staff Directory *WVU requires signup We did do some comparing and contrasting, and guess what? A great majority of the time, the person from another school made more money for an equivalent job title. And not by a little, but by a lot. The low cost of living here in Tampa is only part of the reason for the general low pay: the rest is because USF continues do things on the cheap. There are staffers that have been integral parts of the institution for years and decades that are woefully under-compensated compared to their peers. People that are respected up and down the line, people that bust their butt and face insanely long hours because they love the school, the Bulls, and the student-athletes they serve. Loyalty seems to often be mistaken for job satisfaction, and not being appreciated is the rule of the day. This might be the reason for the amount of turnover amongst the staff, which has been furious in 2012. Between June of 2011 and June of 2013, over 50% of the full-time staff will have turned over, with the overwhelming majority of replacements coming in at a lower salary and with less experience than their predecessors who were already already underpaid and underexperienced. I'll give a personal example. I left USF Athletics in December of 2007 to move to California. Though I spent the majority of my five years at USF as the communications coordinator for the Bulls Club, just before I left I took over as the interim media relations assistant for the volleyball team even though I had already given my notice I was leaving. I took over the salary of my predecessor directly, which was $29,400, slightly less than I was making before. When I left, I was replaced by someone making $24,000. When she left under a year later, my job was given to an intern making $8 an hour. It is still an hourly/intern position. When I worked in media relations, there were five full-time staff members and a few interns. Now, if the info in my public records request is right, there's three full-timers and more interns than ever. And because of that the quality of the work product suffers. Things like this happen because budgets and staff are slashed to the limit. Look at the official website: we still don't have a track schedule or roster. They start in two weeks. That's not a knock on Jeremy Sharpe and his staff... they're doing the best they can. But they're also stretched so thin they can't possibly begin to worry about these things. It's the same reason why we spent $15,000 on Roscoe Dash for Hoop-La, and this was the crowd that showed. You can't ask interns to run events like that at the last second and have them succeed. And it's because hard working and well-intentioned folks don't have the staff positions and budget to do their jobs correctly. We also have direct confirmation that Athletics is already preparing to ask for another tuition fee increase. I was once a USF student that sat on an athletics fee committee (and I believe Jamie was with me there as well). Lee Roy Selmon came to us and said Athletics needed the money to grow the program, and we happily obliged. This was over 10 years ago, and that money was needed to grow us to the BCS. But asking students to spend even more presently would be utter malfeasance. When we see how money is being spent presently, why should they be asked to shoulder the burden of a coaching buyout of a contract that was extended following a 5-7 season, and then followed up by a 3-7 campaign that looks likely to end 3-9? Asking students to pay even more money on the backs of how the current money is being spent would be unconscionable. There are systemic changes that are needed before we continue to throw good money after bad. I have a follow up public records request I placed just over three weeks ago, and when we get that information I'll pass it along as well. But here's the reason I asked for it in the first place: because many of my former colleagues asked me to do so. Because so many staffers are sick and tired of being abused, betrayed, beaten up, and watching all the money flow to the top of the food chain. Many have families that preclude them from leaving Tampa Bay, so they stay and stick it out. But those who can leave are doing so at an incredible rate. And they couldn't be happier when they finally escape. * * * * * * * * * * This is the status of USF Athletic Department. It is a status quo that is no longer acceptable between the lines or outside of them. Wholesale changes are needed from the top down. Team performance and internal morale is at an all-time low for all of the reasons listed above. There is no time to waste, and with the impending conference moves, action needs to be taken immediately. USF Athletics is in crisis. The time for action is now.

There are 2 stadiums in the ACC that are smaller than Nippert stadium. I highly doubt stadiums have much to do with who gets in and who doesn't. Beyond that, like I've pointed out on a few other threads, UC has a preliminary deal with Paul Brown Stadium (Bengals stadium) in the event that they move to a large conference, they've played a few games there already against big opponents (WVU, Oklahoma, Louisville). i realize it sucks, and it puts me in a weird spot since i graduated from UC and now attend USF, but it is what it is, if the ACC isn't going to happen, we need to push for the Big 12, which honestly might be more stable in the long run. Sorry, but those smaller stadiums have indoor plumbing, not port-o-lets. If this is true FSU will do EVERYTHING it can to get the hell out of the ACC, which has always catered to basketball. And I agree with you that the ACC will soon be the the new BIg East. Ok, so does Nippert. are you basing this off of having been there or off of the tweet that was sent out earlier? Cause I went to school there for 5 years and went to every home game and I can tell you there is indoor plumbing. They added porta pottys to the outside wall of the stadium to alleviate the time it took to get through the bathrooms because Nippert never saw the crowds it had until recently with success and many complained it took an entire quarter to go to the bathroom. TUC (student center) is also connected to the stadium and bathrooms are open throughout the game. The normal stadium bathrooms are next to each concession stand.

There are 2 stadiums in the ACC that are smaller than Nippert stadium. I highly doubt stadiums have much to do with who gets in and who doesn't. Beyond that, like I've pointed out on a few other threads, UC has a preliminary deal with Paul Brown Stadium (Bengals stadium) in the event that they move to a large conference, they've played a few games there already against big opponents (WVU, Oklahoma, Louisville). i realize it sucks, and it puts me in a weird spot since i graduated from UC and now attend USF, but it is what it is, if the ACC isn't going to happen, we need to push for the Big 12, which honestly might be more stable in the long run.

the ACC is a basketball conference at heart, look at the 3 schools being considered, all major players in basketball. I agree with MikeG, we're the new kid that no one met but has nice shoes on. The future is bright, but if they wanna take a safe bet they're going to go with their friends that have been around a while

I think at this point every school in the Big East is willing to take an offer from any of the big 5 conferences regardless of who they can/can't bring along with them. It's sort of an every man for himself feel in my opinion. I don't think it's so much of UC, UL, UConn saying "screw USF" as it is the fact that if an offer comes, they're gone regardless whether one or all four schools go. From the beginning it was apparent that the ACC would have to take an odd number to keep an even number of schools in their conference, so someone was going to get left out either way. The Big 12 and SEC will still expand though, both could be possible landing spots for the team that doesn't get an invite to the ACC.

It is completely unacceptable that this was sent to AW... We need this kid.. seriously. next year we'll probably be 0-12 without him. From @fireholtz @Asiantii_2 Don't join the Bulls unless Skip goes. Trust the fans Asiantii! http://**************** #FireSkipHoltz

Can't blame them for running at the end of the game, Fearing rarely ever got a snap through all his years at UC, was nice to see him get a couple there in garbage time in his last home game.

That is not true. There are a ton of regular bathrooms and then since the crowds have been larger they have a section outside the one wall of the stadium with porta-pottys because so many people complained about the length of time it took to go to the bathroom. The student center that is connected to the stadium is also open for bathroom use.

Getting more eyes? Cincinnati is not a flagship state university, nor is FSU. I think you have to be a flagship to get a whole state by yourself in a conventional tv media contract-outside of a conference network like the Big 10 and potentially SEC. In that regard, the Tampa-St. Petersburg media market is bigger than Cincinnati's. I doubt there are more Cincinnati fans than USF fans, although I open to rebuttal. I also suspect USF would develop new rivalries, especially with the other Florida schools and Georgia Tech-helping maintain a little Southern balance to heavy Northern expansion. The ACC does not necessarily need USF, but adding a third Florida school would compensate in football recruiting perception. I can't vouch for the number of "fans", but both schools have just over 250,000 living alumni, though Cincinnati has played football for 125 years and had 14 straight NCAA tournament appearances in recent history vs under 2 decades of football and 2 basketball tourney appearances for USF. That being said I would assume the schools have a similar size fan base, possibly with a VERY VERY slight edge for Cincinnati, but that would only be if people living through the great basketball years are still interested "fans" after what happened to Huggins and the students that just graduated in the past few years having won 3 of the last 4 football conference titles became avid fans. Either way I'd essentially call it a wash and likely even sizes of fan bases.

lol! on a not joking side, weather as of now in Cincinnati is 52 for a day time high and 25 for a night time low. i'm going to assume game time temp will be in the low to mid 40s, and we all know how USF plays in cold weather... Last time they played up there it was cold, and USF won ... sure as hell not expecting to this time, though. I was at that game, it wasn't that cold (it was in mid October) if I recall correctly I think it was somewhere in the 55-60 range throughout the entire game (which I guess might be cold for a Florida team) and Cincinnati's backup (Chazz Anderson) led the final drive and threw the ball out on a 4th down around the 15 yard line about to score. Anderson then transferred after that year and had a pretty horrible year as a starter at Buffalo. Not saying the game would have for sure gone the other way had Collaros not been injured, but you never know, it was a pretty exciting game though, most of the years they've been great games between the two teams. Plus that was UC's horrible 4-8 year. This game could go really either way with some serious injuries for both teams, but I definitely think the weather will likely be at least 10-15 degrees colder this year as it over a full month later this season vs. 2010.

lol! on a not joking side, weather as of now in Cincinnati is 52 for a day time high and 25 for a night time low. i'm going to assume game time temp will be in the low to mid 40s, and we all know how USF plays in cold weather...

Another idea that could be interesting that I saw first hand was a "mic man", when Cinci finally got good at football but no one knew chants, etc, they had a student leader that they gave a microphone to and they built a small stage in the corner of the student section for him to stand on and lead people through the cheers and pump the crowd up, there were try outs similar to how the mascot tries out (but again, this kind of requires a big crowd that's excited about the team). Cinci only had to do this for one year because after that year the students kind of caught onto the chants and the student group that's the equivalent to USF's Student Bulls Club led the entire student section with the chants typically, though impressively, some smaller little groups of fans would start chants at times as well. anyways, just another random idea for the future, and this was used for football, but no reason it couldnt in theory work for basketball, if nothing more than to get people to actually know some chants, fight song, alma mater, etc. At every USF game so far (football, soccer, basketball, volleyball, etc) I could probably count on one hand the number of people that actually KNOW the fight song and alma mater. I think they should flash the words across the video board at Ray Jay or something so people that want to learn/sing/say them can, cause honestly I don't know them, and there's not really an easy way for me to learn them unless I wanted to look them up on USF's athletics page and memorize them. As a freshman at UC we got these little plastic cards that could attach to a keychain that had the alma mater on one side and the fight song on the other, had to be a cheap and easy way and it got me to learn both pretty quickly.

I hear you, it's not easy.. but the students that are really into it have to create that culture of standing and getting into it, getting their friends to come and get into it, etc. Whatever it takes to make that happen (i.e. the video idea i mentioned, coordinating with athletics to play 7 nation army or some catchy song that everyone sings along to, jumps to, whatever) Unfortunately, the team itself has to put an exciting product on the court to really get the crowd into the game, and this year so far has likely put more people to sleep than gotten them to stand up, but let's hope things take a 180 by the Big East schedule and we can play some really meaningful big home games and really get the crowd pumped up, BUT i would definitely try to get something going w/ athletics regarding some way to get people pumped up, whether it's a video, song, chant, etc. It's gotta be something better than the boing and woo thing though, something that the majority people actually would WANT to do

I fully realize the majority of people could probably care less about this message, but I know it's been interesting to me to see what other schools fans, ADs, etc are doing during this time. Anyways, I received this email from Univ of Cincinnati President Santa J Ono this morning regarding the situation. Would be nice to see USF send something like this out to reassure fans during this time. Dear UC Community, Given the recent developments in athletics conference realignment, I want our Bearcat family to know that we are not only closely monitoring the situation but also working proactively to protect and serve the best interests of the University. Our message to the broader community is that UC is firmly committed to competing at the highest level, both on and off the field. From our research profile to our number of national merit scholars, UC stands tall as one of the top public research universities in the nation. Moreover, we are building a remarkable amount of momentum, as evidenced by our 17 spot leap in the U.S. News & World Report ranking over the past two years. Also impressive is the heightened success of our athletic programs. Last year, for instance, UC ended the season with top 25 finishes in both football and basketball--a fact that only five other schools in the country can claim. Plus, the academic success of our student-athletes has never been stronger. In short, UC has a terrific story to tell, and we will not miss an opportunity to share our aspirations and accomplishments with our peers. During this time of fast-paced developments, as well as widespread rumors, I respectfully ask for your patience and understanding. Please know that we are doing all that we can to secure the best outcome for UC. I deeply appreciate the input and support of our loyal fans as well as the tremendous efforts of our teams, coaches, student-athletes and athletic director.. -Santa J. Ono, President

That's what happens when the BAND is leading your CHANTS. If students would actually show up, they could run their own evil schemes. I think the bigger issue is, and correct me if I'm wrong, cause it's my first year here, but it seems there are no real chants that are traditions to begin with (other than the basic school songs, etc, that most people don't know anyways)... cause sitting in the student section at every basketball game so far, i've actually heard some of the students jump in on the "bouncy, woo" chant... and yes... embarrassing. I hate to say we should go take ideas from other schools, but maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea for the student rally groups to see what other big time schools are doing chant wise and form some USF tailored chants around what other schools are doing and then get people on board using them by any means, even if that means working with the athletics dept to make a video of the chant and play it at various times during the game to get students/crowd doing the chant. Cincinnati actually did a pretty cool video with their "Down the Drive" chant that the school has done for a long long time, but used Justin Jackson (one of the basketball players) in the video to get the crowd into it, and when the entire arena caught on and did the chant, it was pretty awesome... and we had the same issues there where only a select few knew the chants, fight song, etc. Just an idea!

I rather him stay in the same conference coaching another team, would be at least 1 guaranteed win every year

I'm not sure how to edit my posts, however reading back I feel obligated to edit my last post, UC is top 30 research, not top 20, accidentally hit the 2. Both schools offer a lot to various conferences on many levels. Let's wait it out and hope for the best.