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The Big East in SEC Country: How USF Can Join the Sunshine State Elite

Posted: Mar 05, 2009

After looking at the SEC-ACC competition within the Sunshine State, we next wanted to examine the challenge that Big East member South Florida has in competing with the ‘Big 3’ for players and fans. Jim Leavitt has done a remarkable job in building up the Bulls’ program from scratch, but even with that success, it remains difficult to keep the newer fan base excited about playing in a conference comprised of schools far to the north.

As far as the gridiron goes, Leavitt’s strategy has definitely been to recruit the Florida kids that don’t go to the more traditional powers.  This recent Tribal Fever piece showed how USF is second only to the University of Texas in recruiting in state kids amongst BCS schools - USF gets 92% of its players from Florida while the Gators get 62%, Miami gets 58%, and FSU gets 55%.  This recruiting method also has the benefit of kids bonding around the idea of Florida vs the football world at large.

The problem becomes getting your fan base-and sometimes even the kids-fired up about the Big East whose conference play provides few natural rivals for USF. 

Even though the Bulls have had some important Big East wins in the last few seasons, the win over Auburn in 2007 probably meant as much to the fans as any of the league victories. Beating a traditional Southern power like Auburn showed the program had arrived much more than the games with Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, etc. That one win validated Jim Leavitt’s goal of building a program stocked with hungry Florida kids-much like Miami did in the ‘80s.

The Big East’s dual identity of being the BCS’ smallest league and college basketball’s largest conference, combined with the lack of rivalries (WVU-Pitt and maybe Louisville-Cincinnati) in football, makes for a strange existence. Expansion has been discussed, but most proposals do not solve the lack of a rival for USF.  Swampland Sports has addressed this issue in the past, and whatever the solution is will make a huge difference in the long-term health of the Bulls’ program. Obviously, the potential BCS berth is the prime argument for being in the Big East, but you have to wonder if that is enough to keep Tampa area fans interested every season.

Now that they’ve had some success, South Florida cannot get complacent and lose the hunger to compete with the bigger powers in our Swampland footprint. The Bulls must continue to recruit at a high level in-state and use their geographic advantage to keep the current momentum going. There have been rumors about how long Leavitt will stay at South Florida, and many assistants have jumped ship which begs the question: Can South Florida rise above the limitations of the Big East?

The answer is yes because of one particularly shrewd move - the new Thanksgiving rivalry game with Miami starting in 2009.  Under Jim Leavitt, USF has a history of making the most of opportunities.  Although they haven't had their breakthrough season yet, they've been consistent enough to go to 4 straight bowl games.

Although many Hurricane supporters don't like this game (because they believe USF gets more out of it than does Miami), it is a good deal for both teams.  Despite its winning history that puts it on par with the Gators and Noles, Miami doesn't have the resources of Florida or Florida State.  Playing USF each year helps to give them one more big in-state game for recruiting and overall prestige.  It also creates a new kind of urban rivalry since Miami and USF represent the two largest metro areas in Florida, Miami and Tampa, respectively.

There are still issues ahead for USF.  The Big East's size leaves its teams with too many non-conference games to schedule.  Additionally, the conference itself provides few name opponents to help with the overall BCS ranking.  However, if USF and Miami can continue to bring in top Florida talent and have it produce on the field, their Thanksgiving matchup could become must-see viewing for football fans around the Sunshine State.

 

related tags

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