USF football has plenty to offer in era of realignment

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — When the American Athletic Conference was created in 2013, there were 10 teams in the league. Now called the American Conference, that number has increased to 15 in football.

A number of schools have left and joined the conference throughout the past 13 years. The University of Central Florida is a clear example up I-4 in Orlando, a founding member of the conference that departed in 2023 to join the Big 12. UCF’s jump to a “Power Four” conference is one that a number of universities have done in recent years, as conference realignment continues to evolve in college football.

The University of South Florida has lately become a hot name to throw around as another school that could take that jump, and perhaps, take it soon. USF has enjoyed recent success in football and basketball, resides in a fairly-large Tampa television market, and is building a new on-campus stadium that will open next season.

When asked about how USF handles the draw of potentially moving up to join a bigger conference, CEO of Athletics Rob Higgins said there’s a balance between looking at the present and the future.

“Well, USF deserves to be on the biggest national stage, period,” Higgins said. “We’ve been really clear about what our aspirations are and been really transparent about that, but the way to make sure the future takes care of itself is to be the absolute best member of the American Conference possible

“We gotta make sure we’re in the moment and also winning the current moment, and then we will do anything and everything we can to get to the national stage that we deserve to be on,” Higgins said.

American Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti took the podium Friday morning at the league’s football Media Days in St. Petersburg and addressed the threat of teams potentially leaving in the future.

“We’re really proud of the ambition of a lot of different institutions in this conference, and I said this a year ago and I’ll say it again: At the end of the day your job as a leader in collegiate athletics is to do what is best for your institution,” Pernetti said.

“I know that I completely acknowledge that, at the same time today, you are where you are, and you need to invest in where you are while you’re there, and I would promise you this — I don’t spend five seconds of my day thinking about that. I spent 100 percent of my time on making sure that our institutions know that this is a place that they want to stay.”

As the Southeastern Conference and the Big 10 continue to expand, this outcome becomes more and more possible. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey spoke earlier this week at their Media Days in Tampa and admitted that discussions about the SEC breaking away from the rest of the NCAA did happen, but that he does not want to pursue that at this time. But that could change at any point, as he said “frustrations are real” when addressing a number of issues threatening the sport and the conference.

Regardless of if the SEC splits off or not, expansion is inevitable for them and the Big 10. If they swipe some marquee teams from the ACC or Big 12, that could open the door for USF and others to move up into those two leagues that need to fill spots.

This looming threat is out of the hands of the head coaches, of course. They’re focused on winning football games. USF head coach Brian Hartline enters his first season leading the Bulls and offered his perspective as a new member of the conference.

“I think from afar I always took notice of South Florida personally,” Hartline said. “When you’re outside the conference, you know, it’s a good conference, and at the time when bookings and scheduling happen, you might think, ‘Oh, we’re OK, we won’t get knocked off,’ and all of a sudden things change in a couple years and you get a little nervous based on the conference and the competition here.”

Memphis and Tulane are a couple other schools with USF that have the potential to jump to a Power Four conference. But for now, the American is putting a high-quality product out on the football field.

Last season’s American Conference Championship Game between Tulane and North Texas was basically a College Football Playoff play-in game, with the winner guaranteed to be the highest-ranking Group of Five team and earning that bid.

USF was in that mix earlier in the season before some late losses bumped them out of the race. We will see if the Bulls can get there in 2026.