4 things that would make 2023 a successful year for USF athletics

[Ghostbuster]

1 hour ago, CousinRicky said:

So serious question here. What good has all that extra money done for Rutgers in the Big 10 or West Virginia in the Big 12 (or dozens of other also rans)? 

I mean they can overpay for coaches but what other benefits come from all that cash? 

I just really don't think I need to explain why more money > less money.

Sure some programs may have a harder time succeeding after a move up and some may not spend their money wisely....but I mean come on.

We're out here getting excited for a 22 million dollar indoor practice field while UF just spent 88 million on a football center.  

Sorry but you will not be able to compete with that long term.  Two Florida schools, both completed those projects in 2022.  Now UCF will be closer to their ballpark of spending on facilities.  As if there wasn't already more of an incentive for recruits to go to Orlando (given their recent on field success), they will now lap us in the revenue.

There are only so many good players to recruit.  And of those that we snag, there's yet a smaller subset that will stay (at a poor G5) after a breakout season if offered a chance with a bigger, richer school with more facilities to offer.

[Bull Matrix]

3 hours ago, CousinRicky said:

So serious question here. What good has all that extra money done for Rutgers in the Big 10 or West Virginia in the Big 12 (or dozens of other also rans)? 

I mean they can overpay for coaches but what other benefits come from all that cash? 

Exactly. I’m happy with USF being in the AAC now that the 12 team playoffs will become a reality. Does anyone think we would of ever saw a Cincy, Tulane, UCF, or Houston in one of the big bowls if they were not in the AAC? We have not heard much from WVU, UL, Pitt, Cuse, Rutgers since they left our conference. We probably won’t be hearing much from Cincy, Houston, or UCiF now that they are in the big 12.  USF will eventually get invited to ACC or big 12 but by then hopefully USF is one of the regulars in the 12 team playoffs.

[bowman1]

4 minutes ago, Bull Awakening said:

. . . We have not heard much from WVU, UL, Pitt, Cuse, Rutgers since they left our conference. We probably won’t be hearing much from Cincy, Houston, or UCiF now that they are in the big 12. . .

I am curious about your opinion of TCU, considering they came from the MWC and will be playing for a NC in less than a week

Also, Pitt was ACC champs in ‘21 and Cuse/UL have been ranked in the past few years (Cuse did have an epic losing streak this year though)

I agree that WVU has been a head scratcher and other than a few years in the B/E, Rutgers has been hopelessly pathetic in football 

[CousinRicky]

7 hours ago, puc86 said:

Yes anyone can be irresponsible with any budget, New Jersey isn’t for it’s fiscal responsibility and is more known for extenuating circumstances that lead to increased spend. I will concede that it is probably far more likely that we would get into an arms race in keeping up with the Joneses that will actually lead to more spending than to a balanced budget. I still think it’s easier to swallow when that shortcoming has you living in a much nicer neighborhood and you could in theory ratchet things back and still make ends meet as $50 million spreads a lot further than 10 percent of that.

So, again, what difference in sports has it made for Rutgers?  USF is doing fine on its own academically and doesn't need the Big 10 for research dollars, etc.

And someone brought up TCU?  So there is one outlier. I didn't list 108 of the 130 D 1 programs for football that have no prayer at a title nor the 300 of 330 (just guessing on the total number) of basketball programs.

If we make another 50 million, the AD will get a raise, the Bulls Club people will get a raise (deservedly), we'll over pay for coaches, we'll get prettier uniforms for the band and pretty soon your money is gone and your MBB and football teams still are irrelevant. 

BTW, I'm fine with getting into a P5 conference but I don't believe it will change much on the field/court of play.

[puc86]

1 hour ago, CousinRicky said:

So, again, what difference in sports has it made for Rutgers?  USF is doing fine on its own academically and doesn't need the Big 10 for research dollars, etc.

And someone brought up TCU?  So there is one outlier. I didn't list 108 of the 130 D 1 programs for football that have no prayer at a title nor the 300 of 330 (just guessing on the total number) of basketball programs.

If we make another 50 million, the AD will get a raise, the Bulls Club people will get a raise (deservedly), we'll over pay for coaches, we'll get prettier uniforms for the band and pretty soon your money is gone and your MBB and football teams still are irrelevant. 

BTW, I'm fine with getting into a P5 conference but I don't believe it will change much on the field/court of play.

Mostly agree, except for perspective. It’s one thing to come in last in the Olympics and it’s another thing to come in last at the Jefferson County Montana HS track meet. Who you play and how much you get paid to play matters as much as how you play. One day maybe we will win the AAC and unless that comes with a playoff appearance approximately 12,345 people will care whereas if we were to win the big10 roughly everyone would care or at the very least I’m going to invest significant time in explaining to them why I think they should.

 

There isn’t a team or fanbase on earth that would trade being at the bottom of the P5 for being at the top of the G5 because being the king of purgatory still means you are in purgatory. If VPMK finds a life raft out of here I’ll be more than happy to contribute to bloating his salary and whoever he wants to pay to fail this time by reducing my vices and frivolity budget, that quite frankly has gotten out of control anyway. That we suck while playing in the suck is what has made this intolerable, despite people wanting to pretend that it matters the latitude and longitude of where we house this menagerie of misfortune.

[Outlaw]

7 hours ago, puc86 said:

Mostly agree, except for perspective. It’s one thing to come in last in the Olympics and it’s another thing to come in last at the Jefferson County Montana HS track meet. Who you play and how much you get paid to play matters as much as how you play. One day maybe we will win the AAC and unless that comes with a playoff appearance approximately 12,345 people will care whereas if we were to win the big10 roughly everyone would care or at the very least I’m going to invest significant time in explaining to them why I think they should.

 

There isn’t a team or fanbase on earth that would trade being at the bottom of the P5 for being at the top of the G5 because being the king of purgatory still means you are in purgatory. If VPMK finds a life raft out of here I’ll be more than happy to contribute to bloating his salary and whoever he wants to pay to fail this time by reducing my vices and frivolity budget, that quite frankly has gotten out of control anyway. That we suck while playing in the suck is what has made this intolerable, despite people wanting to pretend that it matters the latitude and longitude of where we house this menagerie of misfortune.

This! The excuses for sucking this much in the suck also make it even more miserable.

[Triple B]

7 hours ago, puc86 said:

There isn’t a team or fanbase on earth that would trade being at the bottom of the P5 for being at the top of the G5 because being the king of purgatory still means you are in purgatory.

As you mentioned earlier in your soliloquy, it's all about perspective. Sports is ultimately about winning, isn't it? I can't imagine a team or a fanbase that would prefer losing if they had that choice ...... plus, the top of the G5 means you're going to the playoffs every year. You can have your loser attitude .... or backtrack on that ridiculous statement.

[Paisa el Toro]

Just win AAC 2.0 as often as possible in all sports.

[UCF_rustbucket]

22 hours ago, puc86 said:

If you went back through since the start of the playoffs and expanded the logic how many times would there be more than one G5 teams in the playoffs?

 

I've taken a look at this. From 2014 onward (the entirety of the CFP era), this only happens once. The 2020 COVID season where the PAC 12 was left out. But very much and anomaly since the PAC only played half a season and then had to have 2nd place PAC north finisher Oregon replace Washington in the title game due to a COVID outbreak, and then Oregon actually won. So Cincy and coastal were both ranked about Oregon.

 

But during the regular seasons, it's not even close. All the P5 champs are safely in. The 7th highest ranked conference champs (aka 2nd highest ranked G5) is usually in the 20s or unranked, while the lowest P5 champs are at worst just outside the top 10.

 

[michibull]

7 hours ago, Triple B said:

As you mentioned earlier in your soliloquy, it's all about perspective. Sports is ultimately about winning, isn't it? I can't imagine a team or a fanbase that would prefer losing if they had that choice ...... plus, the top of the G5 means you're going to the playoffs every year. You can have your loser attitude .... or backtrack on that ridiculous statement.

That’s like saying we’re the 1st place loser, but at least we’re 1st place. We will not win the AAC every year, on average, we SHOULD be in the top 3rd every year. Realistically, we wouldn’t be the last place team every year in a P5 conference either. I would rather be a middling P5 team than a power G5 team any day of the week. In addition, Tampa would support a middling P5 team over a power G5 team 100 out of 100 times, look at the attendance and energy of the program during the BE era vs pre BE or QF’s era.