USF fans have already gobbled up a big block of tickets for the Bulls' Sept. 26 game at Florida State, and Bulls fans have another chance to get a seat as the Seminoles put single-game tickets on sale at 6 p.m. today. (It originally was scheduled for 3 p.m. but has been pushed back.)
USF sold out its initial allotment of 5,000 tickets, then got another 2,500 tickets and went through them as well, getting a third allotment of 1,000 tickets last week. Fans can still get tickets through USF's ticket office, as some of the final allotment remains available, but the ticket office is closed today for the holiday weekend. Fans can get tickets directly from FSU for $49 each plus fees -- for more information, visit Seminoles.com.
-- ESPN.com's Pat Forde ran through his top college basketball rivalries on Thursday, with Louisville-Kentucky topping the list of the former Louisville Courier-Journal columnist. Aside from that, the Big East only made it in the top 10 with Villanova-Pittsburgh, and to add insult to injury, Forde included Rutgers-Seton Hall as an honorable mention.
That nod spawned some funny posts on Twitter.com -- "Is the seton hall rutgers game exciting only because your not sure whether or not your car will be on blocks when you come out?" wrote Syracuse fan Moiso13. He suggested to Syracuse blogger Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician that the pairing might as well be USF-DePaul. NunesMagician's reply? "for my money, it doesn't get any better than USF-DePaul in front of 5k in Tampa. That's Big East basketball!"
-- What's a carcajou? It's basically a wolverine. And Michigan blog When Carcajous Attack has a comprehensive rundown of quarterbacks coach Rod Smith's history with young quarterbacks, including his time at "South Florida University." That reminds me I need to do an update on Jim Leavitt's disdain for Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez ...
-- USAToday.com has a Big East preview of sorts, but it doesn't have too much insight as to who will finish atop the logjam at the top of the conference.
-- ESPN.com's Andy Katz thinks USF's three mirror opponents in Big East men's basketball are a "difficult" draw, with Cincinnati, Notre Dame and Providence playing the Bulls twice in 2009-10.
-- Other BCS programs are picking up commitments from talent-rich Broward County. Tennessee has landed Michael Palardy, a top-rated kicker from Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas, and Rutgers got a commitment from running back Marcus Thompson of Lauderdale Lakes Boyd Anderson.
Times sportswriter Greg Auman, who covers USF, will post news and thoughts on the Bulletin and we invite your participation in the comments area.
Rutgers-Seton Hall? What happened to GU-Cuse? Pitt-UCONN? Pitt-WVU? UCONN-Cuse? UCONN- GU?
I usually like Forde, but he was way off on that one.
Posted by: DELdaBULL | July 04, 2009 at 08:25 AM
Greg, what is the word on the student allotment?
Posted by: MPR | July 03, 2009 at 05:05 PM
The online ticket sales for the FSU game starts at 6 pm according to their website. The following is from their website, "The availability of home single-game tickets is based upon the number of tickets requested by the visiting team. Single-game tickets are available only in the areas held for visiting teams in the South endzone of Doak Campbell Stadium.". It won't do you any good to buy the tickets from FSU. The seats you'll get from USF ticket office will be better.
Posted by: Byron | July 03, 2009 at 03:03 PM
This should mean that we'll be able to be pretty particular this year with new scholarships, and that we'll have a more experienced team the following year (though missing some key seniors).
Posted by: Ken | July 03, 2009 at 02:39 PM
I think the lack of commitments is a function of not having as many scholarships available this season.
USF's at the maximum of 85 total scholarships this fall by my count, and has 14 seniors on scholarship this fall.
So for every scholarship over 14 the Bulls want to use next season, a current scholarship player has to leave the team.
I have five scholarships accounted for in 2010 (Brion Carnes, Tiger Powell, Tony Kibler, Claude Davis, Justin Green) ... that leaves nine scholarships, plus whatever comes available ...
Posted by: G.A. | July 03, 2009 at 01:03 PM
Hopefully we will have a good year on the field and get to a BCS or other big bowl game. That should help in recruiting and maybe change the minds of some that aren't considering us now.
Posted by: Steve O'Neal | July 03, 2009 at 12:54 PM
Is it just me, or are we struggling in recruiting compared to last year? It doesn't seem like as many top Florida guys are listing us, and Superbull certainly didn't get the type of commits I was hoping for. It seems like a lot of mid-level SEC, ACC, and Big 10 teams are taking guys that we should be able to get.
As for the guys that we're listed as recruiting up north, they all have offers from powers up there, so it seems like a waste of time to me.
Posted by: David Weber | July 03, 2009 at 12:21 PM
Don't post FSU's ticket link. Let people buy out USF's supply.
Posted by: Mike | July 03, 2009 at 11:01 AM
5,000?? I think he meant 500.
Posted by: Reality | July 03, 2009 at 10:23 AM