There is no doubt that the Bounce House was the biggest factor that changed the UCF football landscape. But it took 6-8 years before it really began to pay dividends in terms of returning alumni and support for the program. UCF already had that underdog culture from the old school students, but it took some real pushing and coaxing to get the new student body fully engaged for conference games. While UCF was underappreciated and still a sleeping giant we always embraced wherever we were. While GOL sold recruits on moving up in conferences, the goal was always to win the conference championship, no matter what the conference was. It seemed that he never looked past it. Even if usf is able to build an OCS what will it take to get their fans to buy in? Old UCF fans were already used to disappointment and small conference play, so they were always all in. But old usf fans seem stuck in Big East land and are waiting for the upgrade before they buy in. Now downgrading again do you think they can rally the troops?
We can all talk about facilities but IMHO it has been the fan culture and engagement that separated the two programs over the last 10 years. Building an OCS will help usf, but not if they don't fill it. Maybe I am projecting message board mentality to everyone, but I don't really see that happening right away, and never if they can't get excited about AAC play. I guess we will see.
I do not mean this as a usf bashing thread, we already have several of those. Part of this is about how to see what helped propel UCF forward so that we can maintain it. The facilities helped, but to me culture is the key
We can all talk about facilities but IMHO it has been the fan culture and engagement that separated the two programs over the last 10 years. Building an OCS will help usf, but not if they don't fill it. Maybe I am projecting message board mentality to everyone, but I don't really see that happening right away, and never if they can't get excited about AAC play. I guess we will see.
I do not mean this as a usf bashing thread, we already have several of those. Part of this is about how to see what helped propel UCF forward so that we can maintain it. The facilities helped, but to me culture is the key
