Rivalry Week

[GarySJ]

Not everybody has a rival, you know. Who is LSU's big rival? How about Maryland? Penn State? Boston College?

[Jim Johnson]

Not everybody has a rival, you know. Who is LSU's big rival? How about Maryland? Penn State? Boston College?

And not every rivalry goes both ways...

Michigan State's biggest rival is Michigan... whose biggest rival is Ohio State... Oklahoma State's biggest rival is Oklahoma... whose biggest rival is Texas... Notre Dame's biggest rival is Southern Cal... whose biggest rival is UCLA

Still look at the games this weekend:

Oregon-Oregon State

Washington-Washington State

Auburn-Alabama

Florida-Florida State

Stanford-California

South Carolina-Clemson

Colorado State-Air Force

FAU-FIU

Oh, and I don't consider USM a rivalry - sure, we've played them and there is a lot of animosity because of what the coach said about USF's joining C-USA... but none of our games really mattered (none were for a bowl game or for a conference championship)...

We've played them 4 times total (1-3)... others we have played 4 times: Charleston Southern (4-0), Liberty (4-0), Western Kentucky (2-2 - including a homecoming game)...

We're 3-0 against ECU...

UAB (1-1), UCF (0-0), and U Conn (2-0) all moved to I-A recently - so they are part of our "generation"...

We will never have a "rivalry" with Florida, Florida State, or Miami - simply because we won't play them every year...

To be sure, I would like to see USM lose - and it would be fun to beat them (we owe them a couple now)... but we won't be playing them for a while... hard to have a rival that you never play.

UCF will be the closest we have to a real rivalry OOC... and Louisville will be our biggest Big East rival... (whose biggest Big East rival will be Cincinnati)...

[bulls96go]

pitt

[Bull Matrix]

I am going to have to say Cincy for right now because they knocked USF out of that bowl bid by beating ECU in 2002. The Hawaii bowl would have been USF's first ever bowl game if Cincy would have lost to ECU. Also, last season was a battle between both teams as USF won in OT. This season, there is a bowl game on the line. This has to be USF's biggest game since last year's game against UAB. If USF steals a win, then we are sitting in great shape for that bowl. In other words, I want to win the game in the worse way.

[smazza]

ftu/ou would be it if we played them every year in every sport

in football it should be the last game

i can't consider a team from another state our biggest rival

even fau/fiu is smarter than us

what a mistake not playing ftu/ou all these years

[smazza]

we will play 1aa instead of ftu/ou

we will have press conferences telling the world  "we cAN'T GET A  1a game"   when ftu/ou is right down the road

we have little cred

and look stupid

[WoolyBully]

Nah....it's collegiate chess.

It's one thing to go on the road and get your head handed to  you via TV...quite another to take an arse beating within commute time. I think we all know that playing UCF - from day one - would have been a mistake. All it would do is reinforce the notion that USF was second fiddle. Surely you wouldn't want to be branded as playing "catch up" the past several years, right.

Now, however, that we're pretty much on even footing - playing the game makes sense.  And you don't know how the mandatory CUSA games are going to shake out. It could be that So'Miss is our mandatory game.

Scheduling...we all know that these things are not etched in stone. All of these contracts have sufficient wiggle-room for both teams to exercise their best option.

As for BE rival...that has to shake out over the coming years.  Besides, it could be that the BE may expand a few schools opening the door to other rival combinations.

Ya just never know...

[Jim Johnson]

... And you don't know how the mandatory CUSA games are going to shake out. It could be that So'Miss is our mandatory game.

Except that (I believe) USM has a full schedule in 2005 and 2006... it would be hard for C-USA to force USM to play us when they have no open slots...

I am convinced that the UCF games will satisfy the C-USA requirement.  I have no inside information, mind you.  But since these games are already scheduled, it simply makes sense.

Beyond 2006, we may have to schedule someone else -- or extend the UCF series... but for the next two years, UCF will be our C-USA game.

[BullPhotos]

We're not old enough to have a rival.