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USF is only allure UCF needs to join Big East
Anything else is just gravy
Mike Bianchi SPORTS COMMENTARY
Three letters make this imminent move to the Big East incredibly exciting for UCF.
These three letters will energize UCF fans more than they've been energized in years.
These three letters will create an intense amount of interest and accelerate the program's desire to reach the highest level of college football
These two consonants and one vowel will put fans in the stands and cash in the coffers.
No, we're not talking about BCS;
We're talking about USF
No matter what happens with the Big East and its future BCS affiliation, just the chance to renew this natural rivalry and become a conference partner with USF makes UCF's ultimate move to the Big East a no-brainer.
In fact, Big East Commissioner John Marinatto pretty much ruined the worst-kept secret since Marilyn Monroe and JFK (psst, don't tell anybody, but we've invited UCF to join the Big East) when he was asked Tuesday about the attractiveness of adding potential new members like Temple and Villanova (in football) to create natural rivalries that already exist out of conference.
"The UCF-USF scenario is a good example," Marinatto said, spilling the beans all over the reporter's tape recorder. "Two schools within the same state that obviously have a rivalry going. What we've learned over the last several months is the idea that those kind of rivalries drive value"
Glad Marinatto has finally come to the conclusion that those of us in Orlando have been preaching for more than a decade.
Having a cross-state rival is good for both UCF and USF says former Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty, who is a member of UCFs Board of Trustees.
Now we get to play a rivalry game that we should have been playing all along,says former state senator Lee Constantine, a former student-body president at UCF. It's too bad the schools weren't working together all along
You'll have to excuse Constantine for still harboring a bit of ill will toward USF President Judy Genshaft and former football coach Jim Leavitt. They are, after all, the ones who killed UCF-USF because of arrogance and ego. They believed USF, because of its BCS affiliation, was above playing UCF.
Didnt matter that UCF and USF fans and players got more juiced for a game with each other than they did any conference foe on the schedule. They seemed to forget college football was built on regional rivalries and that college athletics is supposed to be about the players, the alumni and the student body; not about self-important administrators and ego-driven coaches.
I think its a great game for both fan bases UCF coach George OLeary has reiterated many times over the years. I think its a natural game that provides a great college atmosphere. Im not much for traveling five or six states over to play a game when weve got one 60 miles away
Its ridiculous that UCF and USF two schools in the Deep South have to be in a conference based in the Northeast in order to play each other. But thats the whacked-out world of college football, where school presidents are trampling on 100 years of history and heritage to get a spot at ESPNs money trough.
Unfortunately, as much as they may try, ESPN cannot create rivalry and revelry, jesting and jousting, hatred and hostility. That stuff is inbred and can only be created when youre playing a like institution that you constantly compare yourself to; that you recruit against and strive to beat each and every day.
This kind of rivalry builds interest and, as Marinatto said, drives value. Hopefully, now, USF and UCF will both realize that they are much more attractive together than they are apart. The Big East is finally doing what it should have done years ago: Putting UCF and USF together, combining two huge TV markets and establishing a footprint across Floridas I-4 corridor from Tampa to Daytona.
There are not two better-packaged teams in a better recruiting area and in better TV markets than UCF and USF Constantine says. Its a shame USF was trying to maintain a perceived advantage all those years. If the two schools had been working together, who knows where we would be right now
Perhaps in the Big 12 instead of the Big East.
But, hey, at least theyre together now.
UCF.
USF.
Three letters each.
The only three letters that really matter in Big East realignment.
I didn't realize it was a forgone conclusion that Genshaft/Leavitt were working to keep UCF away.
http://t.co/ZsGLO92w
Edited by Triple B, 02 November 2011 - 02:20 PM.
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