Facilities

[Triple B]

15 minutes ago, Mama_Bull said:

Perhaps, he isn't even aware that USF is seriously considering building an on campus stadium, since he makes no mention of that.

If he did know, then THAT should have been the focal point for his article and explain how that could become a reality.

In recent years, USF has spent more than $70 million in athletic facility upgrades. He doesn't even acknowledge that fact. Anybody walking around the campus should be able to see all the major improvements. 

IMO, Aside from an OCS and an indoor practice facility, the rest of our on campus football facilities are not sub par compared to the average P5 school.

Those are all reasons why it was a lazy piece of crap article written by the Big Douche of the "print" media ... No problem dogging USF but focus on where the problem is, and it's not the unwillingness of USF to improve athletic facilities. It's the inability of USF Athletics to tap into its' huge alumni base financially and possible reasons behind it.

[thatBULL]

1 hour ago, Mama_Bull said:

I agree.

Perhaps, he isn't even aware that USF is seriously considering building an on campus stadium, since he makes no mention of that.

If he did know, then THAT should have been the focal point for his article and explain how that could become a reality.

In recent years, USF has spent more than $70 million in athletic facility upgrades. He doesn't even acknowledge that fact. Anybody walking around the campus should be able to see all the major improvements. 

IMO, Aside from an OCS and an indoor practice facility, the rest of our on campus football facilities are not sub par compared to the average P5 school.

 

 

 

I think our Olympic facilities are close (from what I can tell) maybe just smaller.  However, overall we have some ways to go, primarily because football drives so much of the overall footprint at many of these schools. Look at locker rooms and weight rooms,  some are getting insane.

For example looking at what Minnesota is building is ridiculous.  The layout, everything is surprising.  

We need to find some revenue streams until we get called up to the majors.

[Mama_Bull]

18 minutes ago, Triple B said:

Those are all reasons why it was a lazy piece of crap article written by the Big Douche of the "print" media ... No problem dogging USF but focus on where the problem is, and it's not the unwillingness of USF to improve athletic facilities. It's the inability of USF Athletics to tap into its' huge alumni base financially and possible reasons behind it.

Exactly.

When USF was in a BCS  conferece, the Big East, USF proved over a number of years that it could draw about 50,000 fans/gm without even having an OCS. And, that was at a time when the BE was considered the weakest of the major conferences.

There is no doubt in my mind that we could draw even more fan support now, if we were in one of the P5 conferences, even without an OCS.

IMO, even if we had an OCS and an indoor practice facility, without being in a P5 conference, we would still only marginally improve our recruiting, regardless of who is our coach.

The real problem is not our facilities, but that the best HS players would still choose to play in the big leagues.

To think otherwise, is just wishful thinking. 

I suspect the main reason why the USF alumni base is apparently not willing to financially support football to the extent necessary, is because USF is outside the P5.  To change this, USF would need to make a compelling argument that spending $200+ million on FB upgrades would lead to P5 status. That is going to be a tough sell.

UCF, for example, has an OCS an indoor practice facility and many other new upgrades on its campus. Yet, I don't see any of the P5 conferences knocking down their door begging them to join. At best, because of those bells and whistles, UCF might be able to land a few recruits over USF. Regardless of what they do, they aren't going to significantly upgrade their recruiting. The ENTIRE AAC lands less than a handful of four star players in any given year, and most of those schools have on campus stadiums.

I suppose that USF will argue that it needs to keep up with the other G4 schools in football facilities to be in the best possible position whenever the next P5 expansion occurs. That argument has some validity, but I doubt it alone would be sufficient to raise the required dollars from alumni.

That is why I previously suggested, that USF needs to reach out to the various P5 conferences to gain a better understanding as to what it would really take for USF to gain membership in one of them.

IF, USF could be assured that it would gain membership to a P5 conference with the building of a stadium comparable to that of Colorado State, I believe USF would be able to raise the funds by tapping the USF alumni and the Tampa community in general.

[Gismo]

To move to a new conference requires higher TV ratings. 

[Triple B]

11 minutes ago, Gismo said:

To move to a new conference requires higher TV ratings. 

To move to higher TV ratings requires a new conference. 

[Mama_Bull]

9 minutes ago, Triple B said:

To move to higher TV ratings requires a new conference. 

Exactly.

Just Imagine if USF was in the SEC this year.

IMO, we would have fantastic TV ratings and average 60,000+ at Ray Jay.

 

 

 

[TheUpperHand]

Quote

“They have real athletes in that program, and they can get them, but the school has to step up and look at UCF’s level of commitment.”

- Scott Frost Anonymous AAC Coach

This says all there is to say. Forget the OCS or IPF, we haven't even committed to build an on-campus lazy river yet. We expect our players to drive 2 miles to Adventure Island like everyone else? Charlie Strong needs to put his foot down. It's positively medieval.

[Gismo]

1 hour ago, Mama_Bull said:

Exactly.

Just Imagine if USF was in the SEC this year.

IMO, we would have fantastic TV ratings and average 60,000+ at Ray Jay.

 

 

 

Only against conference mates.

 

Look at the SEC crowds for their powder puff games.... more than USF would ever pull for a powder puff. We don't bring as many viewers as most P5s and we weren't around long enough to be in good'ol'boys network. 

[Mama_Bull]

14 minutes ago, Gismo said:

Only against conference mates.

 

Look at the SEC crowds for their powder puff games.... more than USF would ever pull for a powder puff. We don't bring as many viewers as most P5s and we weren't around long enough to be in good'ol'boys network. 

When we were in the Big East, under Jim Leavitt, I believe that only WVU drew more in attendance than USF.

That is what you (and the P5) need to look at when properly evaluating USF.

Just being in the SEC brings TV viewership and stadium attendance.

If I was the USF AD I would speak to the UF AD to see whether there could be mutual benefit by adding USF to the SEC.

I understand that it is commonly believed that UF would be against it because, on the surface at least, they wouldn't want another Florida school in their conference.

However, a sound argument could be made that having USF in the SEC would negatively impact FSU and UM far greater than it would UF.

If UF is open to the possibility of USF joining the SEC, that would go a long way to eventually being admitted to the conference.

If there was an understanding that USF would gain SEC membership by a date certain, IF it built an OCS up to SEC specifications, I am confident that USF would then be able to raise the money for that project and any other upgrades.

In the interim, we could use RayJay until the OCS is completed.

 

[Apis Bull]

7 minutes ago, Mama_Bull said:

If there was an understanding that USF would gain SEC any P5 conference membership by a date certain, IF it built an OCS up to SEC any P5 conference specifications, I am confident that USF would then be able to raise the money for that project and any other upgrades.

 

FIFY