We're Moving, But We're Really Going to Miss This Place

This will be the last post on Voodoo Five for awhile. I've accepted a position with 247Sports.com to run Bulls247.com, and Ryan Smith will be coming with me. The rest of our staff will also be invited at the new place to contribute at their leisure. This blog will be on pause, with our archives still available to read and link to.

We have been promised the same editorial control as we've had here, which has always basically been "do whatever the hell you want." That was non-negotiable for me, as the weird stuff we do is one of the biggest reasons I do this. We're still doing our volleyball fundraiser every year, and Protect Your Unit is coming with us too. Our goal is for the tone to change as little as possible, while enhancing the overall coverage you'll be getting.

There's a few reasons for us making a move, but the biggest one is "money." 247 offered us significantly more of it, and if we're going to have an independent voice covering USF Athletics full-time (which is my goal, whether that ends up being me or someone else), this gets us closer to that end. Also the increased recruiting coverage so many of you requested during our reader survey is a better fit on that platform.

So this is the logical decision. SB Nation's college league manager, the wonderful and tremendously supportive Matt Brown even told me so. But I didn't expect this to be so difficult for me emotionally. I had no idea how much of my life and love was invested in a URL. And it's not the name (though having the best damn naming story of the 308 blogs on the SBNation network has been fantastic), but the community that's been created here.

You have been an amazing and wonderful audience, and your feedback has sustained us through the rough times. As you can imagine, it's been a helluva struggle at times during the five-plus years we've been here -- the Big East crashing and us not having a safety net, Skip vs. Miami, Skip vs. Louisville, Skip vs. Miami again, McNeese State, and some brutal Stan years in basketball. USF Athletics hit an all-time nadir during our time here, but we still continued to grow significantly every single year. Maybe it was to commiserate, and maybe it was due to the content, but whatever the reason: it's been a joy to be a part of it.

I will miss this place tremendously, and I can't thank all of you enough for sharing your time with us. So many of you sent us an email, came to an event, said hi when you saw me at a game, or said hi when I was inebriated out in a bar somewhere. Please keep doing this, as it makes what is often the lonely endeavor of writing much easier.

So many people that are a part of SB Nation have influenced my writing and my perspective in tremendous ways, and that's not going to change either. Some specific thanks to Matt Brown, Luke Zimmermann, future Pulitzer Prize winner Spencer Hall, Bud Elliott, and everyone else on the full-time SB Nation team that have always been wonderful to us in every way. We look forward to working with them in various ways in the future too.

So it's not goodbye, it's "we're moving." But we have loved this neighborhood and community so much.

Thank you for letting us be a part of it.