BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

I will never have to go to Legion Field again, and I will not miss it in the slightest.

 

Are you sure Legion Field wasn't a non-tropical Citrus Bowl?

 

Karma, college sports version:

Former UCF football coach George O’Leary was predictably blunt when asked his reaction Tuesday to reports that UCF will join the Big 12 perhaps as soon as this week while in-state rival USF is left behind to pick up the pieces in the crumbling American Athletic Conference.

“USF is finding out that most of the time in life, you get what you deserve,” O’Leary said.

Nationally renowned college football reporter Brett McMurphy put it even more bluntly.

“Karma,” McMurphy said, “is a bitch.”

O’Leary and McMurphy are referring to the mocking twist of fate regarding USF being left in the dust while UCF prepares to move into a Power 5 league that will afford the Knights more money, more prestige and more recruiting advantages than ever before. You see, it was USF that tried desperately for years to keep UCF’s football program from reaching big-time status by dropping the Knights from the schedule and blocking their entrance into the Big East.

At the time, the Big East was considered one of the six power conferences in college football with a lucrative TV deal and automatic access into what were then called the six major “BCS” bowl games. Back in 2005, when the Big East was expanding, the league chose USF over UCF mainly because of Tampa’s bigger TV market, USF’s superior basketball program and UCF’s football team was coming off back-to-back 3-9, 0-11 seasons.

In essence, USF was simply in the right place at the right time, but the Bulls were like the proverbial spoiled rich kid who was born on third base and then acted like he hit a triple. In the years afterward, then-USF football coach Jim Leavitt dropped UCF from the schedule because he thought the Bulls were too big-time to play the Knights. Meanwhile, then-USF president Judy Genshaft did her part to successfully block UCF from becoming a later addition to the Big East.

Central Florida politicians over the years called out Genshaft for her backroom blackballing of UCF. I tried to interview Genshaft a few times about the issue, but she always refused the requests and publicly refuted any notion that she attempted to block UCF’s entrance into the Big East.

McMurphy is now a national college football reporter for the Action Network, but spent much of his career as the USF beat writer for the Tampa Tribune. McMurphy covered the Bulls and the Big East and his reporting on conference realignment gained him national recognition. He reported then and reiterates now that Genshaft was instrumental in keeping the Knights out of the Big East.

“At one time, you could make an argument that Big East was actually as good as the ACC,” McMurphy explains. “Well, it would come up at the conference meetings that they should add UCF (and others) to try to grow the league. UCF was starting to gain its footing and was an up-and-coming program in a big TV market. Every time the subject of UCF would come up in those meetings, Judy Genshaft would basically shoot it down. How do I know that? Because every AD in the league told me that while it was happening and former commissioner John Marinatto told me after the fact.

“The way it worked was that if one league member had an issue with adding another program, everybody else in the league respected that decision and they moved on. It sounds asinine, but that’s how it worked. Finally, the Big East started losing so many teams — Pitt, Syracuse, West Virginia — that they became desperate. That’s when they were pretty much forced to invite UCF despite what USF’s wishes were.”

As fate would have it, in UCF’s first year in the Big East (which by then had evolved into the American Athletic Conference), the Knights won the conference, got the league’s automatic bid to the 2014 Fiesta Bowl and dismantled Big 12 champion Baylor.

McMurphy chuckles and points to that day — Jan. 1, 2014 — as the day UCF football became big-time and USF football became small-time.

Recalls McMurphy: “Jan. 1, 2014 is the day that UCF beat Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl and you know what USF did on that same day? I kid you not, USF called a press conference to announce that the school mascot — Rocky the Bull — had won an on-line contest and had been named mascot of the year. Judy Genshaft actually required the football coach (Willie Taggart) and all of the other coaches in the athletic department to be at the mascot press conference. Approximately, eight hours later UCF beats Baylor to win its first major bowl game.

“That sums up when UCF officially bypassed USF — and there’s been no looking back.”
​

George O’Leary on USF getting left behind by Big 12-bound UCF: ‘You get what you deserve’ | Commentary

 

If/when the Big 12 invites BYU, UCF, Houston and Cincinnati this week, would it be a better football conference than the Pac-12, even without Texas and Oklahoma?

 

With UCF allegedly moving up to the Big 12, how’s that going over with their rivals at the southern end of Interstate 4?

Well, some USF alumni are mad … at USF. And not just for athletics reasons.

First, here’s Karla Mastracchio (bio at link, and it’s impressive):

USF may be the fastest growing institution in the country, and it may have hit all of its benchmarks to stay “Preeminent.” But that doesn’t matter if its culture is broken.

That should make you sad and also maybe even angry. Why? Because for the last 20 years, USF has told us they’re on the right track. They tout themselves as a preeminent university, one that’s young and hungry and isn’t like the others. They’re different and really proud of it. They spare no expense telling everyone how proud of themselves they are too. The arrogance is honestly astounding, and unfortunately it doesn’t reflect reality. It’s actually really gross.

And when you’ve been around as many people in leadership positions as I have—for my job and as a volunteer—, eventually it stops making you sick and you just start tuning it out for the sake of your own sanity. You stop showing up to stuff, volunteering your time, and giving money. This is a pattern a lot of us have fallen into. Yet few in leadership seem to care, because the self licking ice cream machine is always there to lie to them and say they’re fabulous, and doing a great job. They are not fabulous. They are not doing a great job.

There’s a striking disconnect over on Fowler Avenue between words and reality. I’m running out of patience, and so are a lot of people. I have to ask: if they’ve made such great choices, why are there so many empty seats at games? I hosted a suite two years ago for work colleagues and was embarrassed at the empty student section and red seats.

If they think they’re so inclusive and welcoming, why have over 20% of girls dropped out of Panhellenic recruitment this year, and over 200 last year? One in five won’t make it through the process… that’s the lowest percentage in the state. Peer institutions of our size experienced an uptick in recruitment registrations. USF has almost half the amount in 2021 as they did in 2018.

If they have such a commitment to diversity, why aren’t there more people of color in tenured positions or in top administrative positions? Why are so many faculty feeling disheartened and angry? Why were known “problem children” and toxic leaders given contract extensions or renewals? And what is up with your Diversity Office?

If they care about students so much, why did it take four days for the President to address mass sexual assault allegations on social? If they truly value their graduates, why do they have angry and vocal alumni all over the country who feel alienated and disrespected? If they are truly a global organization, why is the entire alumni board from mostly three counties in Florida? …

Right now we can’t make a solid case for jumping to a better conference. We can’t even make a solid case for the top students in the state to pick us over other schools. We don’t have a stadium for goodness sake, or students to fill the one we rent! We can’t even deconflict student events with football games. Our national alumni engagement is weak and grievances are all over Twitter. These are basic things that a university of this size and age should not be dealing with. ...

The truth is, we’ve been had. That narrative of being different and special is a sham, and the community is starting to see it. Right now we deserve what we have. If we want more, we need to have a serious conversation about what it takes to get there, and not let gaslighting voices drive the conversation. We cannot let them lie to us anymore about how great they are and how bright the future looks. Quite frankly, it’s insulting. ​

When delusion drives strategy, things don’t end well. Leadership has one option, and that’s to drop the con. Recognize that what they’ve been doing isn’t working. Stop lying to themselves and to us. It’s getting second-hand embarrassing.​

We Need To Talk About USF, Part 1

Second, this entry from Notre Dame computer science professor and USF alumni (undergrad and post) Matthew Morrison:

I’ve spent a good amount of time over the last week debating how I wanted to say what I’m about to say. I’m not interested in dunking on people, or calling USF employees clowns on the internet. I’m not interested in ruffling feathers or cutting off people in the USF community. I’m not interested in being the Resident Alumni Asshole. Don’t get me wrong, it is nice when I complain about something. and then USF students and alumni who’ve been affected by the problems I describe feel as if they can share their stories with me in my Twitter DMs, but it’s not fun making people upset.

I’d love nothing more than several visits to USF games a year and celebrating along with the alumni, the students, the staff, the administration, and the Board of Trustees as we clinch a Playoff Berth after a thrashing of C. Florida. I love the USF community with all my heart, and I crave that culture with all my soul. But unconditional love is dangerous, and you cannot truly love something without making the decision to reject excuses and embrace discomfort.

So I am embracing discomfort and saying what needs to be said, in order to save USF from itself. As I debated and contemplated what how wanted to speak truth to power, I kept coming back to the same thought: “the time for niceties is over, and the University of South Florida needs an intervention.” ...

Remember when were there when USF beat Florida State? Or when USF beat Notre Dame. I met some of my best friends at games, and joined the Beef Studs and Babes. When I was a graduate teacher, I became an advisor to the Beef Studs. On a whim, we traveled to Notre Dame to go the Big East softball tournament the year the team made the Women’s College World Series. Remember that 19-hour drive, Rocky? We were in love.

But that is also when I started seeing the cracks in the foundation. And I wasn’t alone. It turns out that you’ve allowed a toxic culture to permeate through everything. Athletics. Academics. The Alumni Association. The satellite campuses. The Board of Trustees. You can barely throw a rock in Tampa and not hit someone who hasn’t been hurt by the culture that you’ve ignored. Every time I spoke up, there was a veritable army of people who couldn’t wait to agree with me and share their stories. The USF community has a lot of people who want you to be successful, Rocky. But they are withholding their checkbooks because they don’t trust you to do right by them.

The rank-and-file USF community does not trust you. Let’s go back to this who mascot thing... Remember when they tried to give you a facelift, Rocky? Remember how much you hated it? Well, many USF alumni, students, staff, and faculty hated what they did to you. But what hurt the most was not the awkward makeover, but the tone-deaf roll out. Remember “Ambition over Tradition?” …

Let’s circle back to my current employer, Notre Dame. I’ve been told point blank that I am a “good mix” for the University. My dad is an alumnus, so I’ve seen their culture my whole life. But my perspective as a veteran and as a University of South Florida alumni was valuable because I see things differently. I am empowered by the University administration to speak my mind in a professional manner without fear of retribution or retaliation. If I feel that way at Notre Dame – a Catholic institution that’s been around since 1842 that prides itself on tradition like few other schools – why doesn’t anyone feel that way at USF?

The reality is that Notre Dame is working to avoid the lethargy that has taken hold at USF. The weeds of indifference and toxicity are thriving and killing off any flowers that bloom in USF’s meadows. Remember when I told you people talk to me about the University’s culture? Many of them are straight-up afraid to tell you how they feel. They fear retribution and excommunication from games and alumni events. Again, I don’t want to make people angry, Rocky. But it’s high time you need to roll up your sleeves and cut this cancerous blight from our beloved school. ​

We Need to Talk About USF, Part 2

(MORE)

 

Finally, from long-time SB Nation contributor Jamie DeVriend:

I wrote the first post on this site 11½ years ago. I’ve spent my own time and money to watch the Bulls play games in glamorous places like Waco and Birmingham and Stillwater and Lubbock and Gainesville and El Paso and Lawrence and Tulsa (three times!). That pile of gear I made in my closet? It’s enormous. I’m exactly the kind of diehard supporter there aren’t nearly enough of.

It’s even more than sports. Anyone who’s met me in person knows I really struggle to connect with other people. USF is the only place I’ve been in my entire life where I have managed to fit in and make friends. This decision is leaving a giant void that I’m not sure I will be able to fill. It pains me to have to do it.

But I’ve had enough. I’m giving up for my own sanity. And if there are other people out there like me that feel the same way, USF is in even more trouble than they know.

The first time this realignment business happened, it was kind of harsh. They didn’t fight for themselves at all, but still, the schools that did get picked felt arbitrary, almost random. It hurt for awhile… then we all forgave and got over it and regrouped.

This time, I can’t forgive, and I don’t even feel bad for them. Getting left behind is 100% deserved. The so-called leadership at USF has utterly failed everyone.

Did you notice that no one there has said anything on the record about what’s happening? That’s for one of two reasons. Either because Brian Siegrist can’t decide which emojis to use in the statement, or because deep down, they know they’ve absolutely fucked it and there are zero excuses.

This is a system-wide failure. It started with Judy Genshaft running the place like an empress for 20 years, putting her thumb on every scale she could find, making enemies in very high places, and driving good people away in droves. Then you have other people who aren’t there anymore, like Doug Woolard, who was given an absolute gift by Lee Roy Selmon and Jim Leavitt and squandered the whole thing.

Then it’s all the people who are still there. It’s the marketing and communications office that can’t figure out how to promote the school, engage the community, or get the pulse of anyone on campus. The logo change was the most spectacular failure, just edging out the College of Education debacle… but it’s the little things, too. Have you ever seen that USF points of pride story on Instagram? (You must have — they post it like once a week.) The one with six points on it, but after five points they ran out of ideas and decided that having a Publix on campus made the cut? Yeah, exactly.

It’s the USF Foundation that flails around aimlessly for money and celebrates posthumous gifts from people who are still very much alive. And hoo boy, is it the USF Alumni Association, the only organization I’ve ever seen that tries like hell not to have any members. Even if they weren’t being deprived of resources by the Foundation, I’m positive that Bill McCausland would still make a huge mess of everything, and they would still irritate anyone who is dedicated enough to try and help them.

It’s so many other departments on campus, too. Like Housing and Greek Life, to name just a couple, that care more about protecting their turf than working together for the common good. It’s people like Ralph Wilcox, who would rather suck up to the boss and keep getting paychecks than take ownership and try to make things better. It’s an entire culture that lets incompetent people (especially incompetent leaders) stay as long as they want, while all the smart people get tired of it and leave. It’s the Board of Trustees that failed to diagnose all these problems, and then made them worse by hiring a feckless empty suit to replace Judy. It’s a whole bunch of people who kept talking how bright the future was and never understood that a bright future doesn’t just happen to you — it’s something you have to work to create.​

We Need To Talk About USF, Part 3 (Actually, No We Don’t)

 

OK, let’s talk about a “real” Power 5 school.

What the hell was Rutgers thinking? How long do Rutgers administrators think they can hold on?

This was the year Rutgers University athletics expected to be on firm financial ground.

Instead, the athletic division has been losing more money than ever. And almost half of its $265 million in outstanding debt has not gone toward new buildings — it has instead been used to cover the ever-rising operating costs associated with joining the Big Ten Conference.

The university has stepped in, loaning athletics $84 million over the last six years to cover expenses — violating its own policy, which it changed after inquiries from The Record and NorthJersey.com.

Rutgers has been reporting those loans as revenue — contrary to NCAA guidelines — artificially inflating the athletic department’s earnings and concealing the true budget deficit from the students, their parents and taxpayers who pay the bills, a monthslong analysis of Rutgers financial documents by The Record and NorthJersey.com has found.

Much about athletics is cloaked in secrecy — Rutgers couldn’t supply its contract with the Big Ten, eventually admitting it doesn’t have a copy.

But the university loans have not been enough to paper over the athletic department’s spending gaps.

Another $189 million in outright support came from state taxpayers, tuition and student fees through the 2019-20 academic year, siphoned through the university since Rutgers began playing in the Big Ten.

Athletics has also taken $48 million in loans from the Big Ten Conference. Tens of millions more dollars were borrowed to construct two new buildings, including a basketball practice facility, that Rutgers officials said were needed to compete in the Big Ten. The state also kicked in $25 million in tax credits for the buildings.

In all, more than $430 million in loans and other support has been sunk into Rutgers’ athletics — just since it began playing in the Big Ten.

The university’s annual loans to athletics to cover operating expenses grew to more than $20 million this past academic year, a practice the university president and its chief financial officer said is untenable.

“It's unsustainable, but I don't have an answer as to what is the sustainable piece going forward,” Rutgers president Jonathan Holloway said.

One solution under discussion — erase the loans the university made to athletics to cover expenses. Holloway told The Record and NorthJersey.com that he is “absolutely” considering forgiving the tens of millions of dollars in debt — money the university receives for its own operations from students and taxpayers.
“Emphasis on the word 'considering,' ” he said, adding that he is “not eliminating any option” or “committed to a very particular path.”

Rutgers officials said the issue for athletics is not its spending, but a lack of revenue.

The evidence is stark — Rutgers was dead last among 52 public universities in the five richest conferences in donations to athletics for operations in 2019-20, based on data provided by USA TODAY Sports and Syracuse University’s S.I Newhouse School of Public Communications. Rutgers was next to last in ticket sales and 50th in generated revenue.

Meanwhile, athletics relied on more university support, including student fees, than any of the other schools. Each of the roughly 30,000 students at the New Brunswick campus pays nearly $400 in fees just for athletics.

The COVID-19 pandemic only made things worse in fiscal 2021, continuing the downward trajectory of the school’s athletic finances. Athletics may have rung up its worst fiscal year yet, leading the university to cover tens of millions more in financial shortfalls, an amount that Rutgers has declined to reveal.

...
The Record and NorthJersey.com examined thousands of pages of Rutgers financial and other documents obtained through public records requests, and interviewed financial experts and current and former university officials as part of a monthslong investigation that reveals:

• The university is obscuring the true annual athletics deficit by reporting millions of dollars in losses as revenue. The real shortfall in fiscal 2020 was $73 million when only revenue generated by the athletics division is counted. But that's because athletics routinely records loans from the university — which are needed to cover operating shortfalls — as income. For example, in fiscal 2020, a $16.3 million loan from the university was reported to the NCAA as “other operating revenue.” The university also counted an $18 million loan from the Big Ten that year as revenue.

• Rutgers violated its own rules to fuel athletics spending and obscure its growing debt. Tens of millions of dollars of loans from the university’s internal bank have been used to cover deficits since at least fiscal 2016 — even though Rutgers’ own policies didn’t allow it. In June — only after The Record and NorthJersey.com asked about the practice — the policy was revised to allow loans not just for capital projects but also for operating deficits. Athletics has been the only part of the university to take such a loan.

• Rutgers has borrowed heavily against its future, trying to keep up with other schools in the Big Ten. The athletic division still has $40 million left to pay on its loans from the Big Ten through 2026. The annual amount it must pay to cover another $225 million in loans will increase five-fold over the next decade and average $25 million a year — and that’s without taking into consideration any new loans to cover budget shortfalls or construct new buildings.

• Football, the sport that can keep athletics departments afloat, has been a drain for Rutgers, losing millions of dollars in the past few years as ticket sales fell off drastically when the team played poorly under former coach Chris Ash. Ticket sales dropped to just $5.4 million in the 2019 season compared with almost $12 million a year in Rutgers’ first two seasons in the Big Ten. Meanwhile, football coaching and support staff salaries more than doubled to almost $13 million by the 2019-2020 academic year.

• Pledged donations for Rutgers’ two newest athletic buildings — a practice facility and an academic success center for athletes — only cover about a third of the nearly $150 million price tag. The rest is funded by state aid and loans tied to bonded debt. Rutgers says it won’t go ahead with its next priority project — a football fieldhouse with an estimated cost of $150 million — until it raises half the cost. That would be nearly as much as the school has been able to collect in donations for all its capital projects over the past 10 years, documents show.

​

Rutgers athletics, $265M in debt, borrows to keep pace in Big Ten

 

We need to talk about USF (part 3)? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.....no we don't . Who cares? The AAC sucks, but it isn't as if the Big 12 in football without Texas and Oklahoma matters anyway. Seriously, this is all such a joke. Reminds me of Conan getting the Tonight Show gig and then NBC giving Leno the 10 p.m. hour. Conferences don't make teams matter, teams make conferences matter.

 

USF should be regulated to DIII on the strength of its obvious lack of geographic understanding. I mean c'mon, the University of South Florida should actually BE in South Florida, amirite?

Edit: Just saw on the CFB Wk2 thread this ridiculousness is a topic of conversation. D'b shame.

 

You can make that argument, but I think that if the top schools in the PAC return to their normal form the PAC is still better.

 

“At one time, you could make an argument that Big East was actually as good as the ACC,” McMurphy explains. “Well, it would come up at the conference meetings that they should add UCF (and others) to try to grow the league. UCF was starting to gain its footing and was an up-and-coming program in a big TV market. Every time the subject of UCF would come up in those meetings, Judy Genshaft would basically shoot it down. How do I know that? Because every AD in the league told me that while it was happening and former commissioner John Marinatto told me after the fact."

I've told the story before, but UAB joined C-USA with football not yet ready for D1, on the promise of full membership when it went all sports. When the time came to vote on that admission to full membership, Tom Jurich of Louisville blackballed them, regardless of the fact that this agreement had been unanimous until that point. There were a couple of repeat votes after lobbying/pressuring Jurich but he would not yield. Finally the other members voted Louisville out of the conference, voted UAB in, and then voted to readmit Louisville.