Welcome, Misplaced UCF Fans!

Recently we installed this application on the site's sidebar that allows us to see where the majority of our readers are accessing our site. It also allows us to see how they accessed the site, whether it be coming to the page directly, coming from a link on another page, or by searching something in Google. I'll be perfectly honest, I am absolutely fascinated with this thing. I can't look away from it or close the tab that has it.

Since I've been able to see what people are actually trying to find when they stumble across our page, I see now that many web surfers are searching "Big East Expansion" on Google or Bing (I actually don't know anyone who uses Bing, but apparently people do use it. That's right, reader in Greenville, North Carolina, I can see you searching "ECU Big East Expansion" on Bing!). Anyway, it's become more and more clear that the internet is cruel and ironic, as it has decided to bring up our site to the people who are searching "UCF Big East Expansion" on whatever search engine they are using. So for you in Orlando who came across this by Googling that very phrase (and I know you're doing it now, don't deny it), welcome! Unfortunately for you, however, I don't work for ESPN, so I am not going to tell you what you want to hear to increase my readership.

If you really have been keeping up with my take on Big East expansion, then you're quite aware by now that I am not a supporter or adding more than one Conference USA team to make the jump up to the BCS level. UCF is not that C-USA team. I'm really twisting my own arm to say that I want even one team from that conference, but if I had to choose one, I'd choose Southern Mississippi. They just seem like a more viable option right now than UCF or East Carolina or Houston. I want to make it very clear that, contrary to what many of you over in the East believe, this IS NOT an anti-UCF blog. I've got better things to do than talk about UCF. I will, however, take whatever opportunity I can to clarify that the Big East is trying to improve themselves by making additions to their league. Adding mediocre mid-level teams is not a prudent move for a conference that is trying to regain the respect of the rest of the BCS leagues in the country.

I know you think your 11-3 record impressed the rest of the country, and I bet you think that Liberty Bowl win over Georgia was pretty impressive. They were not. Do you know that not a single team you beat finished with a winning record? That's right, not even Southern Methodist, the C-USA West champion. They lost to Army and finished 7-7. What's that, you say? You beat an SEC team in a bowl game? You forgot to mention the fact that the SEC team was Georgia. UGA was arguably the worst team to go to a bowl game last year, and you should be insulted that your 11-3 record got you into a bowl game against the worst bowl-eligible team in the FBS. Additionally, that win over Georgia was UCF's first win over a BCS team since 2000, when the BCS was in its infancy. I know, I know, "But it was an SEC team, they're the best BCS conference of all!" That might be true, but you know who's in the SEC too? Vanderbilt. Mississippi. Kentucky. Beating a bad SEC team is just like beating a bad team from any other conference.

Don't you know that the Big East is a conference that focuses a lot on basketball? What do you think they'll say about a team that had a great start, only to fizzle out with a mid-season 8-game losing streak to bad conference teams, then close the season with a weak showing in the conference tournament and not even a considerable victory in some postseason basketball tournament that no one has heard of? Below-average football is forgivable if you have excellent basketball, which is why you may have heard Kansas' and Memphis' names called in the mix, but if you can't have a considerable season in both, then maybe now isn't the right time to beg for an expansion call. I know USF basketball is horrible, but we also have earned the respect of the country and the state with nationally profiled victories in football.

Hey, at least the Orlando Sentinel is there to defend you. Mike Bianchi has been the biggest proponent of UCF making the jump to the Big East for months now. Let's see what he has to say.

Wait, what? Even Bianchi went back on you? The world doesn't make sense anymore.

Did you forget about the NCAA investigation happening on your campus? This is only a year after you received a report of major recruiting violations in your football program. UCF is currently serving a five-year probation from those charges, and now is in jeopardy of getting a major beatdown from NCAA investigation officials. Now UCF has to worry about this year's version of NCAA theater to come to a close before they even think about sitting by the phone waiting for John Marinatto to call. Do you think a BCS conference is going to want to add a school that is having trouble keeping a legitimate staff even when they're not that good yet?

So, for all you in Orlando and all over the country desperately searching for Big East expansion news and hoping someone has written something about UCF joining the conference, I'll be here watching all of you come over from Google and Yahoo and Bing, only to be enraged by what can't be denied. I've gotten a lot of grief lately about people thinking that, as a USF blogger, I'm too objective in my assessment of UCF's stance on joining the Big East. I hope those of you who do read this realize that I've stated nothing but facts here in this post. You can evaluate the facts any way you like, but you can't change the truth. If I were you, I'd be mad at Ken Caldwell, not at me. (You can google him)