Flowers4Heisman

This is great! I have always felt that winning on the field starts with recruiting. We've been faltering for quite some time now. Time to get back to the good old days of USF recruiting!

Post your favorite thing about USF athletics. --Just one. Here's mine: Football staff, I'm really thrilled with everybody being brand new. Starting fresh, baby!

Tough times? That's absurd. Did Women's basketball make the NCAA's? Did we get a new football coaching staff? Did we renovate the Sun Dome? Did we build all kinds of new facilities? Are we getting 20-million+ from the Big East purse? I could go on all day! Really! Stop going to condom university practices, Steve. If you are truly a Bull, you'd know how far we've come since Bar Benders as the workout facility (just throwing that one in there for effect. don't in fact know if our athletes ever used bar benders!). GO BULLS! I think USF's future is AWESOME! ---We have things to earn and places to go. It's great!

USF can look to Miami as the example: win and they show up. Lose and the players play alone.

The problem with Cincy: they get like 50 people in the stands for football games when they don't win. And their basketball has suffered a decline. UConn: their basketball suspension and coaching situation hurt them. I bet they would have gotten picked up if things were better. Plus, they didn't do much after their football coach defected. Syracuse: Yes, basketball got them picked up. Plus, their football was on the rise (they beat USF). Of course, now, they have a new football coach. But over all, their attendance numbers for basketball and football made them a smart selection. Rutgers: their football is better than USF's. And they have athletics branding that USF lacks. Still, that one leaves me scratching my head. Good administrators, I guess. If we packed the football stadium and the Sun Dome, we'd be out also. We need big attendance numbers for the next three years to improve our image for a conference. I Bullieve it will happen! Could we have gotten out when it all went down? I'm sure we could have. We held too tightly to the Big East flag --and then we became the flag bearer. I'm okay with the 30 million dollars, though. The money will buy us time. I'd be worried if we didn't have a new football coaching staff, new basketball facilities, renovated Sun Dome, and all the other athletics upgrades. Don't forget that the new power conference & bowl structure is based on money and the NCAA hasn't seen the results yet. Just like any business venture, it could look good on paper but don't work out in reality. Who knows how things will will look three years from now? Is USF going to be okay for the next five years? Absolutely! ---That Big East money is HUGE. We just need to start winning on the field and on the basketball court. There are no more excuses.

+1

Looking back at all our guys who to went to the NBA, Chucky Atkins was the role model for how to do it (and to be successful after pro-ball). I hope Mr. Jones continue his run in the NBA.

The best way to gauge if we belong in a conference, just take football and men's basketball and see if we would win against any of the teams in a given conference. The reality is football rules college athletics. And right now, we are where we belong. If Cincy had better football, they'd be out. The same for UConn.

I watched the first game and the second game today --not going to watch the third game against Ohio. The game against California: "Bak Bak, miss, miss." Classic line! The Temple game, the second half was one of the best halves by the Bulls that I've seen in a long time. It sure heals a lot of wounds to watch those games again!

For years, I had always thought that we needed a whole team of superstars to really do well (make the NCAA Tournament, get ranked, etc.). But last year proved that it's about team chemistry more than superstars. And if nothing else, this year certified that fact. By the way, I still feel that Seth had more talent on one floor than any USF coach ever had on a team. Too bad the X's and O's were lacking. So my question is this, as we move forward in almost every way with a new conference and a whole bunch of new players, how confident are you that we'll see another USF NCAA Tournament bid within the next three years? Frankly, I'm more confident about USF football going to a bowl and possibly even getting ranked within the next three years than men's basketball making it back to the Tourney in the same time frame. I wish I could bullieve that bad basketball is all behind us now that we have the facilities, a great class coming in, etc. Do you BULLIEVE? ---I need some converting!

That NCAA Tourney run was the happiest duration I had ever experienced as a Bull. I could have walked on water that whole time. Football making to #2 for five minutes was also right up there, but that didn't last as long. I have it all on VHS and I might watch in again soon. Dang, that was some tasty Bulls fun!

We didn't have the right coach (until Coach Heath). And then we didn't have the facilities. And then the Big East was never forgiving. When we had DoJo, in another conference, we would have made the NCAA Tourney. The Big East was just too tough. I'm for one glad to be out of big East basketball. Yup, I said it. Now, with the facilities, the right coach, and the new Dome, let's see what happens. If we continue to stink it up, well, then, they haven't removed those bones from under the Dome!

Looking back, it leaves me scratching my head. Without our amazing and miracle run last year, USF men's basketball would have been completely abysmal in the Big East. For me, I thought for sure the competition would make us better. And in a lot of ways we were --just not good enough for Big East competition. But you would have thunk that we'd made more than just ONE NCAA Tournament bid as a Big East team. So, did the Big East hurt USF men's basketball more than it helped?

HA! HA! --Thanks, I needed that.

Okay, it's the new Under Armor outfits. But I'll take it! Fingers crossed for selection Sunday ----GO Uniform BULLS! http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-basketball/news/20130312/college-basketball-power-rankings/index.html

I think me made a great decision. Now, he can do all the non-basketball stuff and still have all that money, that is if he doesn't continue with pro ball. It's not like he's 90 years old!

Big East: "You'll call me, right? Notre Dame: "Absolutely! I'll take you out and we'll have a great time." Big East: "When?" Notre Dame: "You'll hear from me tomorrow!" ...the front door slams shut.

They don't have to pay??? The Big East needed smazza. He wouldn't have gotten some of that Irish gold. http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/9042949/notre-dame-big-east-agree-irish-exit-2-years-early-join-acc

And this is why I think everything looks good for USF. FSU is not happy in the ACC: it lost money on the ACC Championship to the tune of $478,000. http://floridastate.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1472519

Okay, so I got bored and started looking into the Big 12 situation a bit. Here's how I see it: 1) The Big 12 is missing 2 teams. Waiting too long to fill those spots does them no good, plus losing the championship game is losing them money. But they also don't want weak teams and they don't want an imbalanced situation, meaning adding a bunch of teams is not in their best interest. Heck, WVU looked good on paper but it has been a bad addition for the first year. 2) The Big 12 would love to add FSU and one other team from the ACC and be back to 12 and let it sit for a while. But apparently FSU wants to bring a party of more than two, which would implode the ACC. Though, that can't be all true. 3) Something is holding up the Big 12 from adding FSU and somebody else. And I think it's on the FSU side. And I guess leaving would make FSU look really bad from an ACC perspective. 4) Can USF and somebody else do a side step into the Big 12? I don't think so. We haven't even won the Big East. WVU was a big dog in the Big East and has laid an egg in the Big 12, which makes our value to them worth about $1.50. 5) The best option for USF? I think the if FSU shakes itself from the ACC, USF --and ucf--can be a part of the rebuilding/replacing in the ACC. Look, Football and men's basketball bring in money. USF hasn't been able to do that on its own yet, not like the likes of a WVU and Louisville: we just don't have the fan base. What do we have? We've got university size, media market, and an administration that's willing to grow its athletic programs. So, yes, our new facilities and strengthened infrastructure -plus the firing of Skip- makes USF look like active contenders. We certainly look better than ucf. This Big East purse money is really going to help USF. We can keep on growing and wait for the next open spot. And I think that spot is in the ACC. Miami is NOT going to rise again to the glory days any time soon. And if FSU leaves, which it probably will, because it wants more money, the ACC is going to be weak as a kitten. Duke basketball is not enough to save the ACC; they will want to expand their football resume. This is when USF can look really good. Time? I think we will see this all go down in the next two seasons. This is why USF football needs to get back to kicking a$$ again. In Coach Taggart and company I trust! Would I feel the same way if anybody else was in there, anybody who was hire elsewhere this past season? Nope. USF has come along way. There's no way in hell we are going backwards!

NewEngland, I think I saw that on a T-shirt.

Here's what I'm feeling is going to happen. We get our bag of Big East money. And then we get into a money conference within the next two years. The bottom line: we make out like bandits, better than anyone else in the Big East, even before things started falling apart. And then both football and men's basketball become national contenders in the next three years. I think the bad karma scale is about to tip the other way for USF. I really do! [Remember this post. I'll be pulling this up in three years!]

Say, does USF pay taxes on that? 1) Pay off Skip: get him off the documents and from our memories. 2) Save it for the dwindling income that's going to be the next few years (replace it) and keep USF growing till the next conference opens up. But knowing USF heads, we'll probably buy some magic beans!

+1 Exactly! We are light years ahead of the days when there was no football!