It really gets my blood boiling that UCF and USF are higher than us in the pecking order. They've got literally no long term advantages on us. Heck, our football team could probably beat those teams right now. We have the location and they don't. No one wants to live or attend school in Orlando or Tampa over what we have here. Those schools are forever going to be in the shadow of FSU and UF because the location sucks. Our location is perhaps the best in the country. Our next priority is surpassing UCF and USF, which shouldn't even take that long. Yes a move to the power 5 now might be premature. But we have what it takes to be power 5. I'm not even so sure we couldn't beat Miami right now. I'd definitely like our chances against FSU, UF.

jgf2017 said

It really gets my blood boiling that UCF and USF are higher than us in the pecking order. They've got literally no long term advantages on us. Heck, our football team could probably beat those teams right now. We have the location and they don't. No one wants to live or attend school in Orlando or Tampa over what we have here. Those schools are forever going to be in the shadow of FSU and UF because the location sucks. Our location is perhaps the best in the country. Our next priority is surpassing UCF and USF, which shouldn't even take that long. Yes a move to the power 5 now might be premature. But we have what it takes to be power 5. I'm not even so sure we couldn't beat Miami right now. I'd definitely like our chances against FSU, UF.

Posted On: Dec 5th 2017, 3:08 PM #375002

I'd say that is debatable a lot of people prefer Tampa, and Orlando to here.

I live in Orlando, and I can tell you that UCF is world's ahead of FAU in athletics.  This is a magical season we are having right now, but you can't erase the last 10+ years with one really good season and Boca Bowl win.  The budgets, fundraising, etc. at places like UCF are way ahead, and Orlando is going to support them unlike the Miami/Fort Lauderdale areas are going to support FAU.  Let's not forget that we only have a 30k seat stadium that we routinely can do no better than fill 1/2 way.  And Kiffin in one season is now the second winningest coach in school history - let that stat sink in for a minute.  And ask yourself this - if FAU was 12-1 right now with only a loss to Wisconsin, I can assure you we would still be behind UCF in the rankings and we would be going to only a slightly better bowl than we are right now.  That is just the reality of where we sit in college football today.

I am not trying to take the wind out of everybody's sails, but we have a long way to go.  This season illustrates that we can gain a lot of ground quickly - and I think President Kelly is poised (and determined) to do so.  But FAU is a long way behind those schools, and a nice location and 1 great season with a ton of players coming back does not make P5 material overnight. We have to sustain the success, fill the stadium, raise lots more money, etc.

jgf2017 said

It really gets my blood boiling that UCF and USF are higher than us in the pecking order. They've got literally no long term advantages on us. Heck, our football team could probably beat those teams right now. We have the location and they don't. No one wants to live or attend school in Orlando or Tampa over what we have here. Those schools are forever going to be in the shadow of FSU and UF because the location sucks. Our location is perhaps the best in the country. Our next priority is surpassing UCF and USF, which shouldn't even take that long. Yes a move to the power 5 now might be premature. But we have what it takes to be power 5. I'm not even so sure we couldn't beat Miami right now. I'd definitely like our chances against FSU, UF.

Posted On: Dec 5th 2017, 3:08 PM #375002

UCF and USF are a step ahead, in the end, they have been around longer and are in a better conference and UCF right now has a lot more to offers students. More bars stuff to do in the direct area Greek housing.

UCF has done a good job slowly building a fan base and will contiune as they pump out 10-12k alum every year.
Just imagine if just 5 percent of that become hardcore fans every year. They just filled there stadium for a very similar game to ours in a rematch in a title game and we had like 15k.

Nationally most might not perceive UCF as being better if you ask lets say a Texas fan that person would probably just see us them as a Florida directional and no difference from us.

In the end, us and UCF play for the same thing every year and that is a shot at the 1 G5 spot in a major bowl.

UCF has two wins vs the top 25 three if you count beating Memphis twice and they could not break the top 10.


Two weeks ago they were behind Miss State with three losses which just shows how strong the P5 bias is.
The worst is Miss State is nothing without the SEC  and it's money and could never ever be a top 25 team without it.

UCF would be way more of a threat in the SEC west with those resources than Miss State in Starkville who without the SEC would be USM.

In college football it just matters who has been around longer.

Scott Frost took his whole staff with him to Nebraska. So Heupel has to build his own staff, and he doesn't exactly have the best looking resume, fired 3 years ago. Hopefully he strikes out here. And yes, I'm psyched up for our visit next year.

jgf2017 said

Scott Frost took his whole staff with him to Nebraska. So Heupel has to build his own staff, and he doesn't exactly have the best looking resume, fired 3 years ago. Hopefully he strikes out here. And yes, I'm psyched up for our visit next year.

Posted On: Dec 9th 2017, 10:26 PM #375183

That CANNOT be good for the recruiting at UCF - GRAB SOME TOPS ONES COACHES!!!!

Right now we are the sales rep that finally had a good month and wants to be promoted to a VP role.

We need to show sustained success for a 3-5 year period at a minimum before we can start screaming that we have outgrown our current situation.

I personally don't like Tampa but I can certainly see why people would want to go to UCF so I disagree that "no one wants to go there."

The fact is we've been peeking at their notes for some time now and, with the exception of the football stadium and forthcoming Athletics Center, have not kept up with them.

We half-ass a lot of things. That's why we've only accomplished so much.

Owl2Doc said

I personally don't like Tampa

Posted On: Dec 10th 2017, 10:53 AM #375190

As a native "South Floridian" and South Florida is the tri county area (Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach), not Tampa, nothing beats living down here. It's worlds better than Tampa and Orlando. All we need is to keep building what we have here and I believe there will be a point of no return. That's the point where we surpass USF (South Florida yea right) and UCF. We're right by the Atlantic Ocean, not the Gulf of Mexico. Those are second class cities. We have everything down here.