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National Media Not Impressed

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By BRETT McMURPHY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 8, 2008

TAMPA - What have U(SF) done for me lately? According to the national media, not much.

The Bulls' 26-21 loss to Pittsburgh on Thursday knocked USF from No. 10 to No. 19 in this week's Associated Press rankings.

The fact USF dropped wasn't surprising. The fact USF received virtually no respect from the national writers/broadcasters who vote in the AP poll was.

Of the 65 voters, including myself, five represent national outlets: ESPN's Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN/ABC's Craig James, SI.com's Stewart Mandel and College Sports TV's Tom Hart.

Of those five, only Hart had the Bulls, who ranked No. 19, in his Top 25 - and that was at No. 24. Fowler (who ranked USF No. 14 last week), James (No. 11 last week), Mandel (No. 8 last week) and Herbstreit (No. 9 last week) all left USF out of this week's Top 25.

Fowler and James, who were part of ESPN's announcing crew for the Pitt loss, must not have been impressed with what they saw from the Bulls. Mandel explained his reasoning for dropping USF from his Top 25 ballot.

"The Bulls lost at home to Pittsburgh last week," Mandel wrote on his blog. "The Panthers are not remotely a top-25 team, having lost to Bowling Green and struggled to beat Buffalo, Iowa and Syracuse.

"Meanwhile, Kansas, whom the Bulls previously beat, barely survived a dogfight against mediocre Iowa State. Sadly, it marked the Jayhawks' best win to date."

GETTING THEIR KICKS: The men's soccer team (6-2-2, 4-1-1 Big East) host Louisville on Friday. The Bulls are ranked No. 10 nationally by Soccer America and No. 11 in the NSCAA poll. The women's soccer team (6-3-3, 2-2-1) visits Syracuse on Friday.

ODDS AND ENDS: The men's and women's basketball teams will not hold Midnight Madness activities on Oct. 17 to signify the start of practice. ... Former USF associate AD Rick Costello, who left USF in June 2007 to become AD at Delaware State, accepted a position Oct. 1 at Rutgers as a deputy AD in charge of finances.

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