After Monday's news that the Big East Conference is reconsidering adding the Villanova football program as its 10th football-playing member,league fans are now asking: If not Villanova University, then which program will we add?

One program, the University of Central Florida, is extremely interested in being that 10th member.

It is still very possible that the Big East and Villanova football could work out its issues, but if you're a UCF football fan your program is in a perfect position to finally get that BCS break that its has been looking for.

New York Article Here

Article quoted Bianchi.

Bianchi's quote said expanded to 60,000 seats instead of 56,000.

Article said UCF is ready for the jump...which I disagree with.

(04-13-2011 10:30 AM)TampaKnight Wrote:  Bianchi's quote said expanded to 60,000 seats instead of 56,000.

Actually, Bianchi said, "UCF has a new on-campus football stadium that seats 45,000 and can easily be expanded to 60,000".

Bianchi was wrong, but on the low side. The stadium was designed to be "easily expanded" to 65,000, not 56,000. So Bianchi was 5,000 seats low in his statement instead of 4,000 seats high like you claimed.

The currently announced 10 year plan for UCFAA does contain the partial expansion of the stadium to 56,000. That's the number you are thinking of.

(04-13-2011 10:43 AM)Inigo Wrote:  

(04-13-2011 10:30 AM)TampaKnight Wrote:  Bianchi's quote said expanded to 60,000 seats instead of 56,000.

Actually, Bianchi said, "UCF has a new on-campus football stadium that seats 45,000 and can easily be expanded to 60,000".

Bianchi was wrong, but on the low side. The stadium was designed to be "easily expanded" to 65,000, not 56,000. So Bianchi was 5,000 seats low in his statement instead of 4,000 seats high like you claimed.

The currently announced 10 year plan for UCFAA does contain the partial expansion of the stadium to 56,000. That's the number you are thinking of.

Ah, that I did not know! That's pretty amazing!

A UCF game packed with 65,000 fans...

Article cited Bianchi, this article will be cited by someone else, another article will cite that one, and then the Orlando Sentinel will cite one or all of these articles that were created.

The Circle of Life.

CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT FORUM

(04-13-2011 10:30 AM)TampaKnight Wrote:  Article said UCF is ready for the jump...which I disagree with.

in what ways are ucf not ready to make the jump? i think that ucf and ecu are definitely prepared to make that next-step jump. houston is close, but i think that they require that facilities update. also, their basketball investment is questionable (yes, they beat us, but i think that there were more cheerleaders at that game than fans).

what football competition are we not ready for? seriously? the 2010 big east champion uconn?

in basketball, it would be more difficult to adjust, but ucf has made their basketball investment quite clear with the hiring of a high-profile recruiter, some recent success (beating virtually every d-1 team in Florida last year), and that beautiful 10,000 seat arena, which was packed several times last season.

no disrespect to our conference mates, but beating tulane or UAB by 40-50 points again is not going to make us better in football. it's time to man up or get off the stage.

(04-13-2011 10:49 AM)TampaKnight Wrote:  Ah, that I did not know! That's pretty amazing!

A UCF game packed with 65,000 fans...

No need for the jawdropping. Let's see if UCF can get to 43,000 this year first.

(04-13-2011 10:56 AM)UCF_Grad11 Wrote:  

(04-13-2011 10:30 AM)TampaKnight Wrote:  Article said UCF is ready for the jump...which I disagree with.

in what ways are ucf not ready to make the jump? i think that ucf and ecu are definitely prepared to make that next-step jump. houston is close, but i think that they require that facilities update. also, their basketball investment is questionable (yes, they beat us, but i think that there were more cheerleaders at that game than fans).

what football competition are we not ready for? seriously? the 2010 big east champion uconn?

in basketball, it would be more difficult to adjust, but ucf has made their basketball investment quite clear with the hiring of a high-profile recruiter, some recent success (beating virtually every d-1 team in Florida last year), and that beautiful 10,000 seat arena, which was packed several times last season.

no disrespect to our conference mates, but beating tulane or UAB by 40-50 points again is not going to make us better in football. it's time to man up or get off the stage.

(1) First bowl win ever, and against an SEC opponent. But we need consistency. We need more wins over BCS-conference opponents. Beating lowlier teams like Boston College, Duke, Miami, Baylor, etc. should be a given by now, but we haven't tried scheduling them until now. We need to stop scheduling schools from Division I-AA once every year.

(2) Basketball is definitely better, but that's only our sixth 20+ win season since the move from D-II. We did pick up a Top 100 recruit, which is fantastic.

(3) I completely agree about our facilities and the fact we seem to have no trouble with most of our conference mates in football, but even still...we need to schedule stronger out-of-conference opponents. Last season was a great schedule except for Buffalo and North Dakota. Stop scheduling schools like that, and we'll be set.

I don't think that we ARE NOT ready to make the jump, but until we have consistent success, I just don't feel like we'll have a good transition into BCS-level competition.

(04-13-2011 10:50 AM)Steelbeard Wrote:  Article cited Bianchi, this article will be cited by someone else, another article will cite that one, and then the Orlando Sentinel will cite one or all of these articles that were created.

The Circle of Life.

Please see ESPN Article Today on UCF

(04-13-2011 11:02 AM)TampaKnight Wrote:  

(04-13-2011 10:56 AM)UCF_Grad11 Wrote:  

(04-13-2011 10:30 AM)TampaKnight Wrote:  Article said UCF is ready for the jump...which I disagree with.

in what ways are ucf not ready to make the jump? i think that ucf and ecu are definitely prepared to make that next-step jump. houston is close, but i think that they require that facilities update. also, their basketball investment is questionable (yes, they beat us, but i think that there were more cheerleaders at that game than fans).

what football competition are we not ready for? seriously? the 2010 big east champion uconn?

in basketball, it would be more difficult to adjust, but ucf has made their basketball investment quite clear with the hiring of a high-profile recruiter, some recent success (beating virtually every d-1 team in Florida last year), and that beautiful 10,000 seat arena, which was packed several times last season.

no disrespect to our conference mates, but beating tulane or UAB by 40-50 points again is not going to make us better in football. it's time to man up or get off the stage.

(1) First bowl win ever, and against an SEC opponent. But we need consistency. We need more wins over BCS-conference opponents. Beating lowlier teams like Boston College, Duke, Miami, Baylor, etc. should be a given by now, but we haven't tried scheduling them until now. We need to stop scheduling schools from Division I-AA once every year.

(2) Basketball is definitely better, but that's only our sixth 20+ win season since the move from D-II. We did pick up a Top 100 recruit, which is fantastic.

(3) I completely agree about our facilities and the fact we seem to have no trouble with most of our conference mates in football, but even still...we need to schedule stronger out-of-conference opponents. Last season was a great schedule except for Buffalo and North Dakota. Stop scheduling schools like that, and we'll be set.

I don't think that we ARE NOT ready to make the jump, but until we have consistent success, I just don't feel like we'll have a good transition into BCS-level competition.

i believe that buffalo is a d-1a fbs school, and i agree that we should face tougher ooc opponents, but it's got to be difficult from a scheduling standpoint. do you believe that, at this point, miami or usf would look forward to scheduling ucf in an ooc game? that's a good chance for either team to tack another L on their schedule. lots of teams schedule d-1aa schools for their first game: the current big east champ is playing fordham for their first game

i agree with you that ucf lacks consistency - but most new programs do. success breeds success, and consistent success brings consistently improving recruitment. that's what we're starting to witness here at ucf: in 2010 we ignited a flame with the miami trio. we also ignited a fire in basketball with marcus jordan. recruits are going to follow their peers and success will be the inevitable result of great recruiting, good coaching, and a continuing investment in athletics. ucf is doing a great job on 'building' on their limited success, amplifying whatever small victories (i.e., recruiting 4-star players) we get and those investments are just starting to pay off.

(04-13-2011 10:56 AM)UCF_Grad11 Wrote:  

(04-13-2011 10:30 AM)TampaKnight Wrote:  Article said UCF is ready for the jump...which I disagree with.

in what ways are ucf not ready to make the jump? i think that ucf and ecu are definitely prepared to make that next-step jump. houston is close, but i think that they require that facilities update. also, their basketball investment is questionable (yes, they beat us, but i think that there were more cheerleaders at that game than fans).

what football competition are we not ready for? seriously? the 2010 big east champion uconn?

in basketball, it would be more difficult to adjust, but ucf has made their basketball investment quite clear with the hiring of a high-profile recruiter, some recent success (beating virtually every d-1 team in Florida last year), and that beautiful 10,000 seat arena, which was packed several times last season.

no disrespect to our conference mates, but beating tulane or UAB by 40-50 points again is not going to make us better in football. it's time to man up or get off the stage.

The problem is consistency. This is the first year we have had back to back winning seasons since 2002. Football has to do what it did this year, for 5, hell 10 years to show it is legit. Fans in general have a short memory, but remember wanting to throw up watching the Rutgers game last season? I sure do, and the fact I was there and seeing it live was even more awful. Seriously, attendance smack at Houston? **sigh**

While Tulane and UAB are not strong in football, we've also never gone undefeated in conference, let alone for a season. Considering this is the first season of us being ranked, people shouldn't let it go to their head. Up and coming? Sure seems that way, but ONE good year doesn't make us a powerhouse. You also act as if other conferences don't have schools that have poor teams in one sport and strong teams in other sports.


Basketball, got ranked, then got smoked in conference. Yes, we beat UF, but am I supposed to be impressed with beating W. Florida? Are we a Florida only conference? You are trying to sell me on the BE conference, but you are trying to sell UCF based on our OOC? We had the SAME finish as we did the year prior, and I was not happy with that. Finishing 9th isn't going to impress anyone. Just like I wouldn't care if we beat Auburn this year in football then didn't get to a bowl game. Cool, we won a game and then did nothing to build on it, and squandered an opportunity. No one cares about the CBI.

Also, look where we played OOC. We didn't have a REAL road game aside from UMASS. We were 2-6 on the road in C-USA. 2-7 if you count the tourney game. Yes, the Creighton game was a nightmare for travel, but we win the 2 CBI home games, then lose the first one on the road. Good teams win on the road.

You go back to football and act as if Tulane and UAB are holding us back. Tulane went and beat Rutgers this year, so while our bottom feeders are bad, why do you think the Big East will be some great step up? If we wanted a tougher schedule it is available. This year is going to be a LOT tougher in conference in football.

I can't help but laugh at the man up comment. Right, let's jump to the conference who had ZERO ranked teams and act like they are better than us in football. In basketball, let's play just all Florida teams. In baseball, does the BE even care? (Oh, and right now they are projecting 4 C-USA teams.) Does the BE even play soccer?

(04-13-2011 11:12 AM)UCFL Wrote:  

(04-13-2011 10:50 AM)Steelbeard Wrote:  Article cited Bianchi, this article will be cited by someone else, another article will cite that one, and then the Orlando Sentinel will cite one or all of these articles that were created.

The Circle of Life.

Please see ESPN Article Today on UCF

Yep, like I said, everybody is going to cite that article.

Quote:The problem is consistency.

i agree with you here, to a degree: consistently being on top is what got TCU the first invite. but the reasons for conference expansion are multifaceted, and consistently winning is not always a deciding factor (see usf, 'nova).

Quote:Fans in general have a short memory, but remember wanting to throw up watching the Rutgers game last season? I sure do, and the fact I was there and seeing it live was even more awful.

yes! i think maybe you've lost touch with the 'average' fan. most fans have a short memory, and that's certainly to ucf's advantage. when i first got to ucf (Fall 08), i had no idea what conference usa was, who our rivals were, or what our accomplishments / failures were. the 2009 season was my first season as a ucf fan, and neither the 2007 championship nor the losing streak really mattered to me. when i return to new england for breaks, sometimes locals in my town ask me where i'm off at college. when i reply "ucf, central florida", i've even been met with "oh yeah? didn't they win that national championship last year?" we are in the age of instant-gratification. what percentage of the fans in bright house stadium during the first game this year will be able to recall the score of the rutgers-ucf bowl game in 2009? what ... 30%? speaking as a ucf student, and a fan, a majority of the fans i know (i.e., people who might go to a handful of games, buy gear, and watch them on tv, but are not message board goers or fans who think about the team during the offseason) are unlikely to care about what happened even a few years back, unless it's something important like a national championship, final four, etc.

Quote:You also act as if other conferences don't have schools that have poor teams in one sport and strong teams in other sports.

isn't that pretty much the big east in a nutshell?

Quote:Basketball, got ranked, then got smoked in conference. Yes, we beat UF, but am I supposed to be impressed with beating W. Florida? Are we a Florida only conference? You are trying to sell me on the BE conference, but you are trying to sell UCF based on our OOC?

We had the SAME finish as we did the year prior, and I was not happy with that. Finishing 9th isn't going to impress anyone.

we had nowhere near the same finish in hoops as we did last year. we're a completely different team. we have a new coach. we were ranked. we beat practically every team in florida and that's what most students / lay fans will remember, not what happened against ecu in the first round of the conference tournament. hell, i know you're going to cringe at this, but i think from a pr standpoint that beating florida for ucf > winning the conference usa championship. If you don't think so, go ahead and ask a group of average fans what the best victory in school history was. i bet you that they won't mention the '07 win vs tulsa. the win vs. georgia and the win vs. florida will be the top two. they are recent, and they are big names. i respect c-usa as much as anybody here, but again - outside of fans like you and i, wins against ranked, big-name in-state schools have precedence over important c-usa games.

i think this also applies to most other c-usa schools with big-name in-state rivals. go ahead and ask your average ecu student whether they'd rather win a c-usa title or defeat duke in men's basketball.

Quote:Tulane went and beat Rutgers this year, so while our bottom feeders are bad, why do you think the Big East will be some great step up?

how many fans would show up to watch ucf clobber who's that team? would it get tv coverage?

how many fans would show up to watch ucf in a dog-fight against wvu? would it get tv coverage?

how many four-star recruits would rather visit a full bright house stadium to watch the knights and bearcats get televised on tv?

i know it's a bit superfluous, but there's your answer.