By Michael Fergusson
If USF wants to ever be taken seriously in football, they need to be in a better conference.
But first they need to crush the conference they’re already in.
What the Bulls have accomplished over the past two seasons is no easy task. They had double-digit wins and came in second place in the American Athletic East.
Coming in second is the problem though — its good, but not good enough. They also didn’t even make it to the American Athletic Conference championship game in either of those seasons.
A large problem with being in the AAC for football is the lack of competition.
UCF, Houston and Memphis have shown that they’re threats, but teams like UConn, SMU, and Cincinnati are barely blips on the radar for the Bulls, let alone the rest of the country.
Beating the weaker teams isn’t something to brag about. The Bulls are expected to win, so those wins are just avoiding embarrassment.
The second biggest problem is on the homefront. Despite playing easier teams, USF hasn’t been able to overcome the hump of losing crucial games that would send them to the AAC championship game.
Last season, even with a home loss to Houston, USF was only one game away from the championship game. This is obviously easier said than done as conference rival UCF went on to finish the season undefeated with a win over Auburn, but the rivalry game was still decisive.
In the season before that, if USF beat Temple, the Bulls could’ve gone on to host the championship game.
Despite not playing in the championship game, USF did beat Power Five teams at the Birmingham Bowl two years in a row. The problem was that the teams that they beat, South Carolina and Texas Tech, were 6-6 and still gave the Bulls, who were 10-2 one year and 9-2 the other, a run for their money.
Nevertheless, USF has shown dominance in the AAC throughout the years, so the next item on the “USF shopping list” should be looking for a better conference.
The Big 12 should be at the top of the list because it is a perfect fit as both feature high-scoring offenses.
The only problem with this is that the Big 12 is seen as the weakest of the Power 5 conferences because they haven’t won anything major during the playoff era.
The Big 12 passed on expansion in 2016, but USF has shown improvement in the following years, with two double-digit win seasons and an improvement in television ratings, as well as attendance.
It is only a matter of time before the Power 5 adds a couple of teams, and USF should be one of them.
Moreover, the PAC-12 Conference and the Big 10 Conference are out of the question. Putting geographical location aside, Big 10 ball is too dominant on both sides of the ball.
USF just isn’t good enough yet to compete.
The PAC-12 should also be crossed off of the list because their style of game, which is full of offensive weapons and respectable defense, run plays and formations that would confuse the life out of the Bulls’ defense.
Header photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
That’s a joke. They can’t even put 5000 in the stands for Homecoming. She Charlie Strong walks out of the tunnel, looks at the crowd, and everyone on tv can read his mouth, mouthing (about the crowd size) “This is it?”, that’s when you’ve got a serious fan base problem.
They need to concern themselves first with making it to and winning a conference championship game before they can talk about conference change. Keep winning games and schedule harder ones and the fan base will rise. It can be done. Just hire people that know what they’re doing and how to get a team to perform soundly every Saturday.
“Local” TV and radio gives the Gators and, to a lesser extent, the Noles all the juice in this area. Until the local media gets on the hype bus and really start to promote USF, they will always be the step-child.
The author gave all the reasons USF will NOT be invited to a B5 conference.
Go back to the MAC and see how well you do there.
I am very late to this forum and just saw this thread. First of all a power conference had to be willing to want them. They just can’t go and join because they want to or need to. You have to be invited. Secondly, as someone pointed out, the author here pointed out why they shouldn’t be considered for a power league. Thirdly, you the author inaccurately reported that USF has killed it and dominated the AAC, and they have not. UCF has been more dominant than you guys. Also Cincinnati was down these last 2 seasons but predominantly have fielded more winning teams and more double digit winning seasons than you guys at USF ever had. SMU is actually on the rise and more alike with you than beneath you. Now the UCONN and Tulane situations I could agree that they are bringing you down, but both of those programs have shown signs of life. Also, Navy has had just as much success if not more, and they are not even full members but football only. Other sports matter too! That is the fourth thing: you have to be solid in other sports besides football to garner consideration from a power league. Yes, your softball and baseball teams have improved and soccer teams also but got to really amp it up and be more like Houston and cross state rival UCF and Memphis and Tulsa if going to hedge bets on potentially getting a big boy invite. USF has not dominated in any one particularl sport. USF has not been solid in all or most sports. But five or six other schools in AAC have. What USF and rest of AAC needs to do is focus on their intentions and initiative to become a power league, instead of a few schools leaving for a power league.
If not for the ineptitude of Skippy Holtz, USF would have been a strong consideration for expansion when the Big East collapsed. Holtz set the program back probably a decade. Willie Taggart started the comeback and hopefully, Charlie Strong will add to the program’s success. However, as long as the AAC is seen as a stepping stone for head coaches ( see: Fuentes, Taggart, Frost) the AAC will never get the top recruits in their areas. Without top recruits, the AAC will remain, at best, the top of the second tier.