#6 South Florida

[SmooBoy]

Since the ole ball-team is in shutdown mode this week, I was perusing the college scene.

It is conceivable that Soth Florida could win out and be in the National Championship picture. Sounds crazy, but here is the rest of their schedule (the bolded games being their toughest tests):

Sat, Oct 6 at Florida Atlantic 3:30 pm --
Sat, Oct 13 UCF 12:00 pm --
Thu, Oct 18 at (21) Rutgers 7:30 pm --
Sat, Oct 27 at Connecticut TBA --
Sat, Nov 3 (20) Cincinnati TBA --
Sat, Nov 10 at Syracuse TBA --
Sat, Nov 17 Louisville TBA --
Sat, Nov 24 at Pittsburgh TBA

If they can get through the Rutgers Thursday night national TV game, the rest of their schedule has them at home for the ranked teams and on the road for the soft part of the schedule. There are tough games ahead and a bad game can happen anywhere along the line with the Big East teams (see Syracuse vs. Loiusville).

How incredible that this is even a possibility.

[mustangbill67]

what is more incredible is that S. Fla has only been Div. 1 since 2001. During that period have been in the Sun Belt conf as well as conf USA before joining the Big East.

[SmooBoy]

Yeah, the ball-buster for the BCS-apologists would be a South Florida-Boston College National Championship matchup.

[perunapower]

Yeah, the ball-buster for the BCS-apologists would be a South Florida-Boston College National Championship matchup.

Or Kentucky. But Kentucky staying undefeated is easier said than done.

[jtstang]

Actually it would give the people who want to keep the BCS just the kind of "see we told you that small schools can still compete for the national championship" ammunition to keep their club intact for the foreseeable future. Not that anybody is going to try to bust them up regardless. It would still be fun to see a non-bcs conference member win it all some day.

[abezontar]

Actually it would give the people who want to keep the BCS just the kind of "see we told you that small schools can still compete for the national championship" ammunition to keep their club intact for the foreseeable future. Not that anybody is going to try to bust them up regardless. It would still be fun to see a non-bcs conference member win it all some day.

Won't ever happen because even an undefeated non-BCS team would never be ranked high enough to get selected for the "national title" game.

[SmooBoy]

Actually it would give the people who want to keep the BCS just the kind of "see we told you that small schools can still compete for the national championship" ammunition to keep their club intact for the foreseeable future. Not that anybody is going to try to bust them up regardless. It would still be fun to see a non-bcs conference member win it all some day.

Except that South Florida has the 3rd largest enrollment in Florida, and the 9th largest in the U.S.

BC is relatively small, however.

[QuikSStang]

i see south florida as a model program for SMU. they went from a D-II school with offices in trailers in the baseball parking lot to a national power. granted, they have the numbers and enrollment, but we're in texas and we have a lot of history on our side. i also think we have decent facilities that are on par with many of the best

[mrydel]

Am I missing something here. South Florida is in the BCS (Big East) is it not? How do they become a ball-buster? That is the reason they climbed so high so fast. Along with the Florida connection they have the BCS pull.

[QuikSStang]

Am I missing something here. South Florida is in the BCS (Big East) is it not? How do they become a ball-buster? That is the reason they climbed so high so fast. Along with the Florida connection they have the BCS pull.

they are in the bcs now, but they started off in the sunbelt, then jumped to c-usa and now this is their 3rd year in the big east

[MrMustang1965]

i see south florida as a model program for SMU. they went from a D-II school with offices in trailers in the baseball parking lot to a national power. granted, they have the numbers and enrollment, but we're in texas and we have a lot of history on our side. i also think we have decent facilities that are on par with many of the best

Correction: South Florida was never a Div. II school. They were a Div. 1-AA school. There's a BIG difference.

[mrydel]

Am I missing something here. South Florida is in the BCS (Big East) is it not? How do they become a ball-buster? That is the reason they climbed so high so fast. Along with the Florida connection they have the BCS pull.

they are in the bcs now, but they started off in the sunbelt, then jumped to c-usa and now this is their 3rd year in the big east

And that 3 years makes a huge difference in what they can accomplish.

[QuikSStang]

Correction: South Florida was never a Div. II school. They were a Div. 1-AA school. There's a BIG difference.

touche, sir

[SmooBoy]

Am I missing something here. South Florida is in the BCS (Big East) is it not? How do they become a ball-buster? That is the reason they climbed so high so fast. Along with the Florida connection they have the BCS pull.

Ball-busting in a sense that "<fill-in-the-blank> Traditional Power Football School U" won't be flying their hoity toity alumni and regents to NOLA for the BCS party. It would be a real deflator to have "South Who U" against BC or another lower echelon school.

Of course, the NC2A and media could put the Cinderella spin on things, and probably work in ball-busting in their favor, seeing that one of the mascots is the Bulls.

[Corso]

Can you imagine all the advertisers and and network execs arguing about who can back out of contracts faster if South Florida and Kentucky met for the national title? They're both in BCS conferences, so theoretically it's possible, but they're not exactly the marquee names you expect to hear Keith Jackson talking about in January.