Football adds home-and-home with W. Ky.

USF's football team has announced a home-and-home series with Division I-A newcomer Western Kentucky in 2009 and 2010, completing the Bulls' schedule through the 2010 season.

The Bulls will play in Bowling Green, Ky., on Sept. 12, 2009, then will host the Hilltoppers on Sept. 25, 2010. USF will be the first BCS-conference program ever to play a game at WKU, with Indiana following in 2010 and Iowa State in 2015. WKU, which won a I-AA championship in 2002, is in the process of transitioning to I-A and won't be fully bowl-eligible until the 2009 season.

Get ready to hear it from Central Florida fans, as this home-and-home essentially replaces what USF had from 2005-08 with UCF, as an even series with a non-BCS conference opponent. When UCF has lobbied to continue the series in the past, USF officials have said they have enough games with in-state opponents on the schedule already, with Miami, Florida Atlantic and Florida International on a regular basis, and Florida in 2010. Again, a loss to Western Kentucky, while humbling, wouldn't have a direct impact on USF's standing in the state of Florida; a loss to UCF could hurt the Bulls more directly and in recruiting local players as well. If it sounds like ducking, looks like ducking ...

By scheduling Western Kentucky, it's also a nod to USF's early years -- the Bulls lost to WKU in 1997 and 1998, but beat the Hilltoppers in 1999 and 2000, all while a member of Division I-AA.

USF will now have seven home games in 2010, though the nonconference trio of Samford, Western Kentucky and Florida Atlantic means the Bulls won't host a BCS nonconference opponent. As nondescript an opponent as WKU would seem, the two previous games against WKU in Tampa, in 1998 and 2000, both drew announced crowds of more than 30,000, making them two of the four largest crowds in the first three seasons at Raymond James Stadium.

USF's previous contracts with Sun Belt teams had been 2-for-1 contracts, with the Bulls getting two home games each against FIU and FAU in exchange for one road game. So does signing a 1-for-1 with a distant member of the same league make it less likely the Bulls will be able to land future 2-for-1s with those in-state Sun Belt schools? If you go back to 2006, when we wrote about the possibility of USF scheduling Western Kentucky, it seemed to only make sense as a 2-for-1 back then.

What's curious is that no BCS-conference program has ever given WKU a home-and-home. Indiana and Iowa State got 2-for-1s, and Iowa State's deal doesn't start until 2012, after USF's is completed. All of WKU's previous games with BCS-conference opponents have been "guarantee" games, with a paycheck for a road game and no home game in return -- the Hilltoppers played at Florida this past season, go to Virginia Tech, Alabama and Kentucky in 2008, Tennessee in 2009 and 2013 and Nebraska in 2010, all with no games in return.

Comments

[stephen]

While I laugh at your defense for not having USF schedule UCF mainly because your sickening bias writing maybe there is another reason.

Maybe USF already knows that UCF is heading to the Big East now that the commish is leaving and he was the main road block to expansion.

[greg budzban]

The problem is how late it is to be putting a schedule together for 2009. I'm sure WKU realized USF needed them and used it as a bargaining chip.

While UCF brings nothing extra to the table, in the end if BE expansion occurs, it will be precisely because of this problem with scheduling 5 OOC games every year.

[Mike Lakeland]

Who cares what the UCiF masses think? If anything, their little feelings should be hurt. USF traded a series with UCF for a series with WKU. If that doesn't add insult to injury (and yes, hanging "half a hundred" on UCF is most definitely an injury), USF's continued success on the field while George O'Liar finds ways to fun his kids into the ground while sporting a 4-8 season most definitely will. Keep rubbing salt in their wounds while they watch ECU and Memphis head to BCS-land while they stay at Disney-Land!

My only complaint is that we didn't get a 2-for-1 with them.

GO BULLS!

[Matthew Y]

I hate WVU and am not looking forward to these games at all. I guess its a hand up gesture for them playing us in the beginning but c'mon I think its way too generous. 2:1 is a nice gesture, home and home is deserving of sainthood.

I would rather play West Texas again. Hopefully those Hilltoppers have given up their chop blocking ways. I blame them for all the ACL tears back in 1999. Wing T nightmares for me tonight.

UCF - OMG. I guess coaches, universities and fans need dreams. Let them have theirs but feel free to laugh at them in private.

[G.A.]

Stephen, if I was so biased toward USF, why mention UCF at all? If you want to call me out for being too positive, I don't think this is the best post to do it on, is it?

Mike in Lakeland, that is pure ignorance. So how much money is USF losing in your plan. Hmmm, lets think about this.

USF sells out the stadium of 66,000 plus for UCF. USF will be lucky to sell 30,000 tickets for WKU. At $25 a piece, that is $825,000. Now when USF goes to UCF they will get 5,000 seats at $35 each, which would be $175,000. USF will be lucky to bring 500 people to WKU, another loss of over $150,000. So by my math USF is throwing away about $1,000,000 by playing WKU.

[Stephen]

Greg, my apologies you are right.

If it sounds like ducking, looks like ducking, we all know it is ducking.

usf fans are going to hate it when UCF joins the big east.

[Dave W]

5:54, we're gonna fill Ray Jay from now on. The non-conference, non-marquee games won't sell out this year, but they will by 2010. That said, I am pretty sure that it will cost more to get to WKU than we'll make back in revenues.

Matthew, you meant WKU, right? Since we don't recruit anywhere near Kentucky, the game is pointless. On the "other" blog, I suggested that we're just trying to be nice to WKU because we were in the same transitional situation a few years ago. Because other than that, there really is no justification other than grabbing a win for each season (I don't want to say it, but a loss would be CRUSHING).

Greg budzban is probably right on this. Having an open date one year before the season is a bad spot these days, especially considering how scared major SEC and ACC teams are of us (they don't need us competing for recruits with them; Baker and Auburn is a good example). So WKU had the upper hand. They'll play the patsy and get a marquee home game in 2009. Just like FAU this year. We're way too nice with the Sun Belt.

I think that a program of our stature should be getting 2 for 1s or paying opponents. However, this deal indicates that there just aren't BCS opponents interested in 1 for 1s or 2 for 2s with us.

And there is no reason to play UCF. They are below us in every conceivable measure, except delusion. If we were to play a non-BCS road game, I think that Temple, UAB, Southern Miss, Tulane/La Tech/ULL/ULM, or ECU would be the best opponents, so that we can move our recruiting into their area (I think that Louisiana is ripe right now- LSU has gone national, leaving many BCS level recruits without a home BCS program).

[Justin]

If the BE truly is looking to expand what would be the reasoning behind brining in UCF? Do they have anything to offer the BCS besides an annual punching bag for 7 out of the 8 teams already in the conference?

[GB]

Another thing that created a compelling reason for quickly signing a short series: 2010's schedule. Both UF and UM ON THE ROAD.

Combine that with the typically challeging BE schedule and it was imperative for us to get 7 home games in 2010. One more constraint that limited the pool of potential opponents.

[RR]

WKU?????

Uhhhhhhhhhh..........

[Josh]

I really don't see the problem here. If the BE decides to expand I for one hope UCF does get an invite. The war on I-4 benefits both schools. Let's face it USF fans until last year no one in the entire country knew who we were, where we were located, who our mascot is, etc. People still butcher our school's name on national tv on a consistent basis. I think having UCF in the BE benefits us. It is a rivalry that is growing every year ( and save the 64-12 ain't a rivalry B.S. because we barely beat them the year before) I would rather have annual games against UCF than WKU or Temple as previously mentioned on this blog! Some of you need to stop being so nervous and have faith that our coaching staff can not only compete w\ UCF on the field but on the recruiting trail as well. With all that being said...we're going to absolutely kill UCF again this year.

[growler bull]

Hey phil - does your boss know that are wasting company time by surfing the web? Get back to your register!

[Dave W]

Josh, if UCF was in any BCS conference, I would love playing them. However, beating teams from CUSA proves nothing, and losing to them is a bad thing. Losing to UCF is the worst thing that can happen because it would create a perception that we aren't that far ahead of them, and could cost us a lot when it comes to recruits. Miami is in the same situation with us; not sure what they were thinking when they took the risk on us (plus the whole ACC/BEAST conference clash will be huge in those games). UCF wants to be our rival; we want to be rivals with WVU and Rutgers. Additionally, Temple provides the best non-conference entry into the coveted Philly/Jersey recruiting grounds. It would allow greater contact with a very good talent pool (Jerome Murphy is from Jersey, for instance).

If UCF joins the BEAST, it could damage us slightly in recruiting, although we are attached with some highly ranked prospects in the early going this year (Antwan Lowery, please come to USF!) and UCF has been somewhat national in the past few years. Plus, we wouldn't have the conference pride issue anymore.

I think my argument is pretty poor in this rant. What I'm getting at without deleting everything and starting over is that as long as UCF is in CUSA, they are not a good opponent for us. If they join the Big East (or ACC or SEC or any BCS conference), then I have no problem beating the crap out of them. Our non-conference, non-BCS opponents shouldn't have so much to play for against us, and WKU fits that bill.

[mike]

The reason the first WKU game was 30000+ was because that was a big surge time forward for the program.

We were 5-0. We were ranked in the 1AA polls (I think 12th). WKU was ranked. It was the first 'biggest game in the history of the program'. WKU and GSU were for better or worse our rivals.

Actually, now that I think about it, I would really like to play GSU again and get some closure on those guys. Let's get them on the schedule.

[Brian]

I think one of the larger issues with the UCF folk is what transpired years ago when the roles were reversed. I know they were working on some big conference changes that led them to need "quality" in their schedule and kept them from working out a game with us when we were a transitional team from whatever we call that other division these days ...

[Don Corleone]

After dropping a 31-6 beat-down on OJC this season, they won’t be itching for another game. If you read any comments from the O-Sentinel the week after the 64-12 loss last season, many people were in favor of not making a loss to USF an annual occurrence. It is very humorous to listen to their honks say they are joining the Big East. They slammed the conference for years, and now they desperately want in. Besides, you don’t join a conference; you are invited by the existing members. Notre Dame is the most obvious since it is a member in every sport but football. Since many basketball only members do not have a football program, Big East basketball funds their other sports so they won’t be looking to leave the revenue stream. Temple or Navy are the two easiest to insert in football only because The Owls are an A-10 cornerstone, and Navy hasn’t played top tier hoops since David Robinson graduated. Temple has upgraded its program with newer facilities, the play at Lincoln Financial Field (home of the Eagles), and Navy has went bowling the last five or six years. If OJC is added, it won’t for a few years because of a multitude of contractual obligations all over the Big East. Check here for USF future football schedule which includes a 5 game series with Miami, and games with UF and Notre Dame:
http://www.gousfbulls.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=7700&KEY=&ATCLID=611637&SPID=2981&SPSID=60910

[Booey]

Quack!
Sooooo... why is USF turning down a sold out stadium, sold-out away tickets, a sure-thing ESPN game, much lower travel costs, a better recruiting area and much more local, state and even national visibility?
Quack!

[Rob]

Booey your answer is right in front of you. Because USF doesn't need to!