http://www.orlandosentinel.com/spor...big-12-mike-bianchi-0614-20150613-column.html
Mike Bianchi: It's time for UCF fans to make Big 12 take notice
June 13, 2015
This is a big call to arms for UCF fans.
A Big 12 call to arms.
If ever there was a time for the hundreds of thousands of UCF fans, alumni and students in Central Florida to back their football program, then now is it.
"It's a sprint, not a marathon," UCF athletic director Todd Stansbury said during a recent UCF fan and booster gathering in downtown Orlando.
Although Stansbury wasn't talking specifically about the race to gain a potential invitation to the Big 12, he might as well have been.
New West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons let it be known recently he wants the Big 12 to expand and that the league is at least investigating adding two new members.
"There's a presidential committee that's kind of looking at that . . . but as athletic directors, we try to look at the bigger picture of what actual teams and partners we could bring in that would add value to the conference and that's still being explored," Lyons told WVIllustrated.com. "I'm in favor of expansion if it's the right two teams to bring in. Obviously for us, it would be nice to have more of an eastern partner, but at the same time, I want to make sure it's the right partner and from a revenue standpoint it doesn't impact us negatively as well by bringing additional partners in."
Are you hearing what I'm hearing? . . . Eastern partner + revenue + added value = UCF!
If UCF's burgeoning fan base and massive student population gets behind the effort, then it should be a no-brainer. UCF is clearly a better option than the other two oft-mentioned candidates — American Athletic Conference brethren Memphis and Cincinnati — as an eastern partner for Big 12 expansion. Academically, geographically and philosophically, UCF brings much more to the table than both Memphis and Cincinnati.
Philosophically, Cincinnati is an NFL city where the college football team is barely a blip on the radar. Memphis is a basketball school where the college football team is an afterthought. But UCF is a football school and Orlando is a college football town — located right in the middle of one of the most recruiting-rich, football-fanatical states in the country.
Orlando has three college football bowl games and is one of the world's top international tourist destinations. The Big 12 could own this city. And if I've written it once, I've written it a million times: The Big 12 is the only Power 5 league in the southern part of the United States that doesn't have a team in Florida — the third-most populous state in the nation.
As the SEC and Big Ten start making more and more TV money with their own networks, the Big 12 eventually must add television sets to keep pace. Orlando's TV market is ranked 18th in the country, out-distancing Cincinnati (36th) and Memphis (50) by a wide margin. And if the Big 12 were to add both UCF and USF, the combined Orlando and Tampa TV markets are the fourth-largest in the nation.
Academically, UCF's athletic program has the highest graduation rate in the country among public universities and is fifth-highest overall — behind only hoity-toity private institutions such as Notre Dame, Stanford, Duke and Northwestern.
On the football field, the Big 12 has first-hand knowledge of UCF's vast potential. Two years ago, the Knights became the youngest university in history to ever win a BCS game by beating Big 12 champion Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl. UCF has won three of the last five American Athletic Conference championships and have proven they are the class of the league.
Now it's up to the fans to put UCF over the top. Don't get me wrong, it's not like UCF's fan support has been horrible. Among the non-Power 5 schools, UCF's announced attendance (37,812) last year was ranked third behind BYU (57,141) and East Carolina (44,786). Still, UCF should easily be able to put more distance between itself, Memphis (33,851) and Cincinnati (28,840). After all, UCF is the second-largest university in the nation with more than 60,000 students and is located in a metropolitan area of more than 2 million.
As UCF President John Hitt told me earlier this week, it would certainly be timely "if we could see a boost in attendance."
Added Stansbury: "Our student-athletes and coaches are doing their part to put us in the position to flex our muscles. It's obvious to me that our major strengths are our location and our size. If we can get more fans to our games, it will really start to showcase our size as an asset.
"It's a sprint not a marathon," Stansbury continued. "We have put ourselves in position. This is not the time to be sitting around and seeing what happens. This is the time to put the pedal to metal."
It's certainly no secret now that the Big 12 is asking questions about expanding.
UCF fans, are you ready to provide the answers?
Mike Bianchi: It's time for UCF fans to make Big 12 take notice
June 13, 2015
This is a big call to arms for UCF fans.
A Big 12 call to arms.
If ever there was a time for the hundreds of thousands of UCF fans, alumni and students in Central Florida to back their football program, then now is it.
"It's a sprint, not a marathon," UCF athletic director Todd Stansbury said during a recent UCF fan and booster gathering in downtown Orlando.
Although Stansbury wasn't talking specifically about the race to gain a potential invitation to the Big 12, he might as well have been.
New West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons let it be known recently he wants the Big 12 to expand and that the league is at least investigating adding two new members.
"There's a presidential committee that's kind of looking at that . . . but as athletic directors, we try to look at the bigger picture of what actual teams and partners we could bring in that would add value to the conference and that's still being explored," Lyons told WVIllustrated.com. "I'm in favor of expansion if it's the right two teams to bring in. Obviously for us, it would be nice to have more of an eastern partner, but at the same time, I want to make sure it's the right partner and from a revenue standpoint it doesn't impact us negatively as well by bringing additional partners in."
Are you hearing what I'm hearing? . . . Eastern partner + revenue + added value = UCF!
If UCF's burgeoning fan base and massive student population gets behind the effort, then it should be a no-brainer. UCF is clearly a better option than the other two oft-mentioned candidates — American Athletic Conference brethren Memphis and Cincinnati — as an eastern partner for Big 12 expansion. Academically, geographically and philosophically, UCF brings much more to the table than both Memphis and Cincinnati.
Philosophically, Cincinnati is an NFL city where the college football team is barely a blip on the radar. Memphis is a basketball school where the college football team is an afterthought. But UCF is a football school and Orlando is a college football town — located right in the middle of one of the most recruiting-rich, football-fanatical states in the country.
Orlando has three college football bowl games and is one of the world's top international tourist destinations. The Big 12 could own this city. And if I've written it once, I've written it a million times: The Big 12 is the only Power 5 league in the southern part of the United States that doesn't have a team in Florida — the third-most populous state in the nation.
As the SEC and Big Ten start making more and more TV money with their own networks, the Big 12 eventually must add television sets to keep pace. Orlando's TV market is ranked 18th in the country, out-distancing Cincinnati (36th) and Memphis (50) by a wide margin. And if the Big 12 were to add both UCF and USF, the combined Orlando and Tampa TV markets are the fourth-largest in the nation.
Academically, UCF's athletic program has the highest graduation rate in the country among public universities and is fifth-highest overall — behind only hoity-toity private institutions such as Notre Dame, Stanford, Duke and Northwestern.
On the football field, the Big 12 has first-hand knowledge of UCF's vast potential. Two years ago, the Knights became the youngest university in history to ever win a BCS game by beating Big 12 champion Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl. UCF has won three of the last five American Athletic Conference championships and have proven they are the class of the league.
Now it's up to the fans to put UCF over the top. Don't get me wrong, it's not like UCF's fan support has been horrible. Among the non-Power 5 schools, UCF's announced attendance (37,812) last year was ranked third behind BYU (57,141) and East Carolina (44,786). Still, UCF should easily be able to put more distance between itself, Memphis (33,851) and Cincinnati (28,840). After all, UCF is the second-largest university in the nation with more than 60,000 students and is located in a metropolitan area of more than 2 million.
As UCF President John Hitt told me earlier this week, it would certainly be timely "if we could see a boost in attendance."
Added Stansbury: "Our student-athletes and coaches are doing their part to put us in the position to flex our muscles. It's obvious to me that our major strengths are our location and our size. If we can get more fans to our games, it will really start to showcase our size as an asset.
"It's a sprint not a marathon," Stansbury continued. "We have put ourselves in position. This is not the time to be sitting around and seeing what happens. This is the time to put the pedal to metal."
It's certainly no secret now that the Big 12 is asking questions about expanding.
UCF fans, are you ready to provide the answers?
