Perception is Reality: "The Big 4"

[___ Eats It]

Seems like more than one reporter has now bought into the fact that USF is, at least from a national recognition standpoint, one of the "Big 4".  I know Leavitt's take on the "beat them, then join them" approach... but being one of only two state teams ranked has certainly changed some opinions and opened some eyes. 

Lakeland Ledger:

In terms of UCF"s football program, the games that matter are the games that don't count.

At least they don't count in Conference USA, where the Knights are currently defending champions. That's different from the state's four majors (Florida, Florida State, Miami and South Florida) whose non-conference games are, in a sense, throwaways. Because as long as those teams win the league title, a BCS bid is guaranteed.

Larry Blustein, Miami Herald:

While the state of Florida is currently considered the Big 4 -- with Florida, USF, Miami and Florida all at the same level nationally -- schools such as UCF, FAU and FIU believe that it will be a matter of time until the Sunshine State is viewed as the Big 7.

[USFMikeB]

Great to see the media beginning to portray USF as being on par with UF, FSU, and UM, as it is really the media that makes those kinds of statements stick in people's minds. However, we still need to beat one of them in order to be one of them.

The games coming up on our schedule versus both UF and UM are very important to our program's development, but winning a fair share of them will determine if this portrayal is deserved.

It is amazing how far this program has come in a short period of time, and we are reaping the benefits of last year's successes. At the same time, the failures of last year show that we still have plenty of room for improvement. Hopefully, we'll see some this season...

[CyberBull]

I would feel more comfortable with this kind of talk after at least one BCS bowl game.

[Bull Dozer]

I would feel more comfortable with this kind of talk after at least one BCS bowl game.

if you strictly look at it from a BCS/conference type of scenario, USF belongs with the other three.

I have always taken the Big Three to represent the football POWERS however. We have a long way to go to catch up to the other teams in that regard, even if we have a BCS or conference championship on our resume.

We'll get there and I appreciate the effort to include the team in some fashion. We are either part of that crew or in some sort of middle ground between the big three and the little three

I think we are currently in the gray area between the big 3 and the little 3, but we are much much closer to the big 3 than the little 3. This is prolly the most important season in the programs history IMO. 

[bulls96go]

BE title and BCS game here we come

NC game a possiblity!