(07-23-2019 09:34 AM)panite Wrote: When is USF going to build an OCS. Where do plans and funding stand for the OCS. Or is the university staying in a pro stadium like Miami and Temple.
We looked hard at when to build it and what it comes down to is our President at the time is very cautious. Shes a VERY smart woman who most dont realize but is incredibly wealthy. In fact after being our Presidnet for 19 years on her last day donated $25 million back to USF to form a new honors college... but I digress.
Her research came back that there is too much instability in college sports to invest the type of money we would spend on a stadium. We wont build mediocre junk, and teh stadium we are looking at is $200-250 million.
I think the line of thinking right now is that an OCS is a luxery since one of the nicest NFL stadiums is less than 8 miles away and our lease isnt costly. We make good money and until the next round of realignment happens, it wasnt fiscally responsible to tap into our endowment or increase student fees to make this happen.
Other schools fans rip on us for it, but we have many recruits who actualy really like the experience. Yes, it sucks being in that large of a stadium when we arent doing well, but the atmosphere cant be matched when we are doing well. When you have nearly 70K fans packed in screaming, its amazing.
So a blessing and a curse. For a young program, this works for now. This increase in contract TV money will help, but our new president may also decide to wait till 2025. See where the chips land. If we get invited to a bigger conference, then it makes sense to invest and build that stadium. If are still here, then we may scale back.
I am all for waiting. I love ray jay even with the damn pirate ship. Were young, were constantly underdogs and weve done well for where we are at. I like that Ive been here from inception. Not many fans can say they saw their program start as a trailer on an empty field... and when we do get an OCS, I get to see that too. I am the first generation of Bulls fans for football. Its kinda cool.