For USF to get ranked in AP

[lobo]

Alright, so I am fairly new around here (this being only my second post) and yes I want to see us ranked as well, however if you look at this sport objectively then you have to come to one fundamental truth ...

Just play the games ... the rest will take care of itself.

That is the bottom line. If we try to second guess if we will be ranked, how high we will be ranked, or whine about not being ranked then we are losing sight of the bigger picture, which is to win games. Trust me, if we are winning our games, the ranking will follow. Consider this, if we go 4-0 to start ... it is inconceivable to me that we wouldn't be ranked at that point. That being said, isn't it more important for us to concentrate on getting to 3-0, then 4-0, etc and not the "gee I wonder when we will get ranked" issue?

I have been watching the Bulls ever since 2000 (when I started at USF as a graduate student) and so I have seen us go from the I-AA to I-A (transition year) to I-A Independent to I-A Conf-USA to current I-A Big East ... it has been a long road travelled and I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly. I know that many of us here have been there too, and many more from the beginning and/or even before we had a football program.

What we need to do is make certain that our team is keeping their head on straight. While this is predominately the job of the coaching staff (and dare I say their own self-discipline) it would behoove us, as fans, to ensure our boys stay focused. I have no doubt that they know of this site and probably read these threads. I do not want them to get overly excited about anything other than what they have to do on the field that week. Let's keep our head in the game, focus on our current opponent, and not overlook anybody. When you do that you end up losing, or coming very close to it (i.e. Texas nearly losing to UCF today likely because they overlooked them as a cupcake team).

Stay focused, stay grounded, and let's take it one game at a time ... to paraphrase a line from a great sports movie ...

"If you win games, the rankings will come ..."

I bleed Green & Gold ...

[windbane]

Alright, so I am fairly new around here (this being only my second post) and yes I want to see us ranked as well, however if you look at this sport objectively then you have to come to one fundamental truth ...

Just play the games ... the rest will take care of itself.

That is the bottom line. If we try to second guess if we will be ranked, how high we will be ranked, or whine about not being ranked then we are losing sight of the bigger picture, which is to win games. Trust me, if we are winning our games, the ranking will follow. Consider this, if we go 4-0 to start ... it is inconceivable to me that we wouldn't be ranked at that point. That being said, isn't it more important for us to concentrate on getting to 3-0, then 4-0, etc and not the "gee I wonder when we will get ranked" issue?

I have been watching the Bulls ever since 2000 (when I started at USF as a graduate student) and so I have seen us go from the I-AA to I-A (transition year) to I-A Independent to I-A Conf-USA to current I-A Big East ... it has been a long road travelled and I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly. I know that many of us here have been there too, and many more from the beginning and/or even before we had a football program.

What we need to do is make certain that our team is keeping their head on straight. While this is predominately the job of the coaching staff (and dare I say their own self-discipline) it would behoove us, as fans, to ensure our boys stay focused. I have no doubt that they know of this site and probably read these threads. I do not want them to get overly excited about anything other than what they have to do on the field that week. Let's keep our head in the game, focus on our current opponent, and not overlook anybody. When you do that you end up losing, or coming very close to it (i.e. Texas nearly losing to UCF today likely because they overlooked them as a cupcake team).

Stay focused, stay grounded, and let's take it one game at a time ... to paraphrase a line from a great sports movie ...

"If you win games, the rankings will come ..."

I bleed Green & Gold ...

I'd like to point out that fans wanting to be ranked should not have any bearing on how well the team is doing on the field.  Hoping for certain teams to lose or win from week to week does nothing to distract our team.  It is up to the coaches to keep our players from being distracted, not people on message boards.

I'd much rather have the freedom to hope for us to be ranked and talk about the upsets of the day and ramifications of it for USF without every other post being about "just keep winning" and totally defeating the purpose of the threads.  Just my opinion.

[MikeG]

I respect your right to want those things and your right to discuss it. I would appreciate you respecting our right to discuss the feelign that the rankings are a bit overemphasized this early in the season.

I wish rankings would not even be created until the 4th week of the season-- after enough games and performances have been seen to make an accurate assessment of the strength of teams in the country.

Of course-- that will never happen because people obsess over this type of stuff.

I really would like us to ranked where we truly belong-- and if that is in the top 25 -- awesome. And I AGRRE-- that if we can get our team ranked in the top twenty fie before th the WVU game-- it will be that much more important in the eyes of the media and college fans. THe most important rankings though are after the bowl games are done. So an early high ranking will backfire if we fail to win key games as the season goes on.

[lobo]

Alright, so I am fairly new around here (this being only my second post) and yes I want to see us ranked as well, however if you look at this sport objectively then you have to come to one fundamental truth ...

Just play the games ... the rest will take care of itself.

That is the bottom line. If we try to second guess if we will be ranked, how high we will be ranked, or whine about not being ranked then we are losing sight of the bigger picture, which is to win games. Trust me, if we are winning our games, the ranking will follow. Consider this, if we go 4-0 to start ... it is inconceivable to me that we wouldn't be ranked at that point. That being said, isn't it more important for us to concentrate on getting to 3-0, then 4-0, etc and not the "gee I wonder when we will get ranked" issue?

I have been watching the Bulls ever since 2000 (when I started at USF as a graduate student) and so I have seen us go from the I-AA to I-A (transition year) to I-A Independent to I-A Conf-USA to current I-A Big East ... it has been a long road travelled and I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly. I know that many of us here have been there too, and many more from the beginning and/or even before we had a football program.

What we need to do is make certain that our team is keeping their head on straight. While this is predominately the job of the coaching staff (and dare I say their own self-discipline) it would behoove us, as fans, to ensure our boys stay focused. I have no doubt that they know of this site and probably read these threads. I do not want them to get overly excited about anything other than what they have to do on the field that week. Let's keep our head in the game, focus on our current opponent, and not overlook anybody. When you do that you end up losing, or coming very close to it (i.e. Texas nearly losing to UCF today likely because they overlooked them as a cupcake team).

Stay focused, stay grounded, and let's take it one game at a time ... to paraphrase a line from a great sports movie ...

"If you win games, the rankings will come ..."

I bleed Green & Gold ...

I'd like to point out that fans wanting to be ranked should not have any bearing on how well the team is doing on the field.  Hoping for certain teams to lose or win from week to week does nothing to distract our team.  It is up to the coaches to keep our players from being distracted, not people on message boards.

I'd much rather have the freedom to hope for us to be ranked and talk about the upsets of the day and ramifications of it for USF without every other post being about "just keep winning" and totally defeating the purpose of the threads.  Just my opinion.

I'm not discrediting our right to express our opinions on the games and our hopes for an AP (or eventual BCS) ranking. My point was simply to take it one game at a time. I was at Auburn, and loved the energy in the crowd ... both our energy and that of Auburns. It was an amazing experience and an amazing game. I was disappointed by the lack of ranking afterwards, but it was also very early in the season and with Auburn losing again this week that doesn't exactly help our desire for being ranked. All I was trying to get across is that, for me, if we are constantly looking ahead the present may pass us by. That doesn't mean we shouldn't look ahead, or talk about it, but let's not lose sight of what is in front of us today ... as well as what may come tomorrow. :-)

[windbane]

I respect your right to want those things and your right to discuss it. I would appreciate you respecting our right to discuss the feelign that the rankings are a bit overemphasized this early in the season.

I wish rankings would not even be created until the 4th week of the season-- after enough games and performances have been seen to make an accurate assessment of the strength of teams in the country.

Of course-- that will never happen because people obsess over this type of stuff.

I really would like us to ranked where we truly belong-- and if that is in the top 25 -- awesome. And I AGRRE-- that if we can get our team ranked in the top twenty fie before th the WVU game-- it will be that much more important in the eyes of the media and college fans. THe most important rankings though are after the bowl games are done. So an early high ranking will backfire if we fail to win key games as the season goes on.

Our attendance for UNC would likely be higher if we were ranked.  I think the rankings matter all year, not just at the end of the year.  The rankings at the beginning of the year are overemphasized and too rigid, imo, but they matter.  If the thread is about being ranked, why not just discuss that instead of writing off the topic and saying "we have no control over the outcome."  We don't have control over the games either, but we cheer very loudly for them.

[MikeG]

I respect your right to want those things and your right to discuss it. I would appreciate you respecting our right to discuss the feelign that the rankings are a bit overemphasized this early in the season.

I wish rankings would not even be created until the 4th week of the season-- after enough games and performances have been seen to make an accurate assessment of the strength of teams in the country.

Of course-- that will never happen because people obsess over this type of stuff.

I really would like us to ranked where we truly belong-- and if that is in the top 25 -- awesome. And I AGRRE-- that if we can get our team ranked in the top twenty fie before th the WVU game-- it will be that much more important in the eyes of the media and college fans. THe most important rankings though are after the bowl games are done. So an early high ranking will backfire if we fail to win key games as the season goes on.

Our attendance for UNC would likely be higher if we were ranked.  I think the rankings matter all year, not just at the end of the year.  The rankings at the beginning of the year are overemphasized and too rigid, imo, but they matter.  If the thread is about being ranked, why not just discuss that instead of writing off the topic and saying "we have no control over the outcome."  We don't have control over the games either, but we cheer very loudly for them.

Being ranked would help us out -- especially in the pre-season. And we were ranked by several sources in the pre-season for the first time ever this year. But like all things Bulls-- it takes a while to get this type of respect heading into a season-- especially on the major polls.

My point is that we will get there. And the reason I mentioned that it is out of our control comes from that thread about petitioning the voters of the AP poll. You  might have missed it but Bullpenner Blade sent out numerous e-mails to each of the voterds and posted teh responses he received-- which surprisingly were quite abundant.

What I gleemed from those e-mails led me to believe that getting ranked this week is unlikely even witha ton of losses by others ahead of us. Some will fall and some will rise but our perception will either stay the same or possibly slip a little (stinking Auburn loss today) and the voters had some very elaborate explainations of why this is the case. Most of them did express why USF just missed the cut-- so that is encouraging. You should check out that thread.

[windbane]

It only took Rutgers 1 year.  I'd like to be where Rutgers is right now.

[MikeG]

It only took Rutgers 1 year.  I'd like to be where Rutgers is right now.

think about how they did that--- they went undefeated through the first X number of games and kept rising in the polls. Now they are a fixture in the top 25.

[Jamie]

Actually it took them two years - they had a decent team the year before.

[MikeG]

Actually it took them two years - they had a decent team the year before.

decent and went to a bowl but we did beat them.