michibull

Interesting that there is a contingency plan in place just in case we don’t get a seat at the big boys table; sounds like there is not an agreement on expansion if we build first. We better start winning, haha.

Yes, I agree that if all things being equal if someone chose USF because of athletics, not wise; but all things are not equal and athletics can influence decisions. As an example, I could have gone to UF or FSU, I am introverted and that large school did not fit my personality (not to mention Tallahassee is a dump). So I was choosing between USF, UCF and FAU. Due to the athletics being in the BE and getting to experience that with my education is why I chose USF over the others. Point being, a lot of serious students still want athletics and extracurriculars as part of their overall educational experience. It’s a subjective opinion. Also, due to my personality, I would NEVER choose an Ivy League school or anyone (MIT or Cal Poky) like it, it’s not me and doesn’t fit my life goals.

I will respectfully agree to disagree. Universities are a business, if their sole priority was to educate us, we wouldn’t have conference realignment on the basis of more money. They would do what was right by the “student” athletes. Many decisions right or wrong have brought us to this point.

Also, I forget who said it, but serious students can care and choose a school because of athletics. I chose USF because we just joined the BE and Tampa is way nicer than Tallahassee and UCF and FAU had crap sports. I wanted the full MAJOR university experience and not just academics. I still remember visiting family in Ohio and having people say “Go Bulls” you guys are awesome! I don’t hear people causally talking about MIT or Cal Tech. Just sayin’

Haha, true, but let’s ask Miami students who Bernie Kosar is. Bet you’d get the same answer (and he won a national championship) as the USF students with Grothe. They still started the major interest in their schools.

Reread my post, I never said that investing in one will benefit the other. I only said that they benefit the SCHOOL. Benefits are more than monetary. I never even mentioned academic rankings. In terms of money for the school, you mean to tell me that Alabama, Michigan, OSU etc don’t make money when you add up game income, conference income and merchandise? Schools may claim a loss, but it’s a business, they reinvest that money they’ve made. Obviously it’s not a complete loss otherwise schools would stop running athletic programs because they simply wouldn’t be able to afford it (which indicates they understand the benefits of said athletics programs and it outweighs not having them).

Wow, what a conversation. I am of this stand point. Professor and strictly academic people have their priorities (education, research and patents), which brings in money for the school. Athletics departments have their priorities (winning, sponsors, TV) which brings in money for the school. While both bring in money, they both CAN elevate the schools brand and reputation at the same time, which further helps BOTH departments. It’s naive to think one or the other doesn’t help. Like much of this world, it’s a gray area. Athletics can be the welcome mat of the university to get kids interested and excited about the school, provide a fun and enriching experience and lasting alumni and donor ship; academics provides a quality education and value for the future prospects of the student. They are very much both apart of a quality educational experience.

Which, I think they regret bringing on Rutgers (can’t site sources, but I have heard from radio and online article) and won’t make the same mistake again.

I appreciate your post. I don’t like UCF at all, but it’s sports and it’s supposed to be fun. I respect what they’ve accomplished and I hope we are more successful, but at the end of the day, it’s entertainment and it should be treated as such. Rustbucket has had some good posts too.

Wouldn’t this be the ultimate middle finger to UCF, they pay us to go to B12, we use the money to build a new, quality, state of the art stadium that helps us get into the ACC!!! One can hope.

Just curious, Is there a possibility that some of that money came from the BE era and was actually set aside for this purpose?

I have not been this excited about USF Football since we beat FSU in 2009, haha.

I think all of this is happening at a very inopportune time. If we were to look at all of these coaches separately, we wouldn’t be so critical. With FB, MBB and now BSB all struggling at the same time (and conference realignment killing us), it magnifies the effects. If say 2 of the 3 were .500 or better and 1 of the 3 went through their current streaks, it wouldn’t be “fire everyone”. It is true that VPMK extended everyone (which I don’t agree with), but for a coach to go through Back2Back bad seasons, we would most certainly say they have 1 more season to turn it around. Trust me, I am fighting to allow my logical side to win over my emotional side of me right now. I am frustrated too, but sometimes coaches need a year or two to adjust or change direction when the original plan isn’t working.

Similar story with me. UCF seemed like a dumpy place compared to USF/Tampa and UF/Gainesville seemed too isolated and large school, USF just had a great vibe to it. Football helped too back in 2005, haha. My wife and I we sold on USF and the area right away.

I agree that multi-use is very important. The more time the students and community can spend in the stadium, outside of football, the more it is integrated into the USF community/culture rather than JUST a football stadium. Detroit residents were willing to spend more money on renovating old Tiger Stadium and refused to get rid of it for so long because it was the site of so many community events that meant a lot to the residents throughout its 100 year history. Our OCS could be similar over time.

I’ve noticed that a lot of our players that transfer go on to P5 schools. Was CBG that bad? Seems like we had plenty of “P5” talent that couldn’t win in the AAC…..

Not gonna lie, I excited that my Lions signed Cecil. I think he is in a great spot with the best chance to succeed. I hope he makes the team.

I will be very interested how Deion does without the overwhelming talent advantage. Not only that, but now he has to deal with P5 schools from N. Carolina, S. Carlina, Georgia, Florida, Cali, Texas, all more appealing geographically, and the traditional Power Houses like OSU, Alabama, LSU and ND. He is not going to be able to roll un and walk out with a W, he and his staff are going to be tested in the game planning department and the is the biggest question mark with him.

Like it has been said, ranking pander to the biggest fan bases. Even the star rankings are all skewed to favor the fan bases that pay for the recruiting services. The bottom line is that we need to have Golesh hardworking, dedicated kids that want to learn. The rest is on him and his staff to develop them. We don’t need the “4 or 5 star” kids. Just blue collar football players.

You are 100% on target with this! Students who choose to go to UF, FSU, Tennessee, Alabama, Mich State, etc, go there not only for an education, but the fan/athletics side of the experience as well. Most kids are fans of the schools sports teams first and want to go to school there to be apart of it. There are many schools that are academic focused and the students you get, are academic focused and sports are a waste of time in their view (that sums up a large percentage of our current students; the other part are made up of fans of UF, FSU or Miami that didn’t get into those schools). As you stated, it’s a culture change that has to happen in my opinion. When you combine academics and athletics, you create loyal alumni that become donors; otherwise they are just graduates that don’t think about the school afterwards.

I also think they learned from UCF and know they need to build it right the first time. If planned well, built with the right foundation and structure now, any expansion in the future will be more affordable, rather than having to double back and redo aspects of the original design. This has to be looked at as an investment and not a “check the box” type of project.

Agreed. The more the media covers us and the more he gets out there, it will generate interest and connection with the community. In my opinion, USF has never been the #1 covered college team in Tampa and that needs to change and this show is a small part of that.

You beat me to this. I could say so many things, but I will hold it in, haha.

It’s all respectfully buddy!! Yeah, my thinking is basing it off of MLS’ Sporting Kansas City. They have had possibly the greatest rebrand in American sports (keep in mind, I am anything but a soccer fan). They had zero fan support, no stadium of their own about to lose their team. They built a high quality, smaller capacity stadium, made the tix cheap to eliminate reasons not to go, rebranded, opened a team themed sports bar and focused on winning. In a 18k stadium, they have 8k waitlist season ticket holders and won’t expand till they get to 10k, keeps the atmosphere crazy and demand high. They reconnect with the city and now have possibly the best fan base (loyal) in the league.

Regardless of the cost for the OCS, USF needs to be prepared to offer single game tix at a discounted rate until we start winning again. We need butts in the seats to build the fan base back and regardless of the shiny new toy, nobody wants to pay $100/ticket to watch a 2 win team. This is an investment so we need to keep it as cheap as financially possible. Students should be able to get in for $10, need the students to show up big and get them hooked again. We can make some of the money back in concessions (but keep family value in mind).