See, proving your incorrect statements wrong is not inhospitable.You just don't like it. I did so very appropriately and wasn't rude at all. You, however, have continued, in this thread and others, to call people stupid and question their intelligence. I, too, am a Florida resident and am deeply and professionally familiar with the Florida higher education landscape. I don't think you know what context for commentary means. If you're looking for me to provide a useless anecdotal claim as you do, I won't, because one person's experience does not necessarily mirror the landscape, the data, or the facts. I'm sorry that your personal perception and anecdotal experience with Florida higher education does not align with actual data. Your anecdotes are not context, they are merely one lay person's perception of things.
As you know, conference affiliation changes are rarely discussed publicly for fear of being embarrassed, as was the case when Mizzou stupidly and publicly stated their B1G interest. We never find out who is going where until the deal is already done. But if you pay attention to football in Florida, read news about it, or listen to coaches speak, you would know well that UCF and the Big XII have been flirting for some years, to the point that this year, George O'Leary publicly begged fans to show up to ensure high attendance numbers to improve UCF's chances to receive an invite to a major conference. Or, you can go back to a few years ago, prior to UCF's current conference affiliation, just prior to Big East entry, when UCF shared on it's own website (
http://today.ucf.edu/conference-expansion-a-mystery/ ) that, yes, conversations were and would continue to happen, but it's practice not to make those public. Did we watch Nebraska's invitation unfold? No, it just happened. Same with Maryland and Rutgers. That's not to say that I know UCF is headed to the Big XII or anywhere else, but with the information publicly available and what I understand about the process, I think it's the most likely landing spot.
Regarding the question of conference inclusion, it's not only where an athletic department or institution stands right now that's important, but also it's potential moving forward. Large schools in big tv markets, (USF and UCF combine to have the 4th largest tv market in the country) really hold lots of promise and potential for $. This is why a woefully athletically underachieving Rutgers received a B1G invite. This is also why you've seen several sports writers, polls, and discussions this week ask if the open Miami or the open UCF job is a better gig. It's not important for everyone to agree on that, but reasonable people who follow this stuff closely recognize UCF's potential as a sleeping giant.
Right now, in terms of football recruiting, IU's leg up on a school like UCF is its position in a P5 conference, getting to play the best, at least being eligible for a CFP (at least remotely), and a really wonderful, rigorous college experience in a beautiful, charming, traditional college town. Put UCF in a P5 conference and a lot of athletes are going to find a lot to like about it, too. Certainly, UCF already has more recent football success than IU does. I think IU can compete with UCF -they most certainly right now - but were UCF to enter a P5 conference, IU would most definitely have to work to out compete and out recruit UCF on the recruiting trail (in football specifically).