Will the new USF football stadium help the Bulls?

TAMPA When USF board chairman Will Weatherford said the Bulls risk being left behind if they don’t build a new football stadium, he wasn’t bluffing.

USF has already lagged behind in one crucial area: conference realignment.

Weatherford did not mention Cincinnati, Houston or rival UCF by name at Tuesday’s board meeting. But he pointed to other institutions that have made investments in their athletic infrastructure and had the opportunity to move to other conferences. The Bearcats, Cougars and Knights leave USF’s conference, the AAC, to join the more prestigious and lucrative Power Five league, the Big. 12, on July 1st.

Which leads to the obvious $340 million question: How much will Tuesday’s approval for a 35,000-seat on-campus stadium help the Bulls in the next round of conference realignment?

Just the pace of being a varsity has to be attractive to anyone, athletic director Michael Kelly said.

As of January, USF has:

Officially opened its $22 million indoor practice facility. In addition to protecting players from storms and heat, it helped the Bulls host 4,000 high school campers last week.

Received an invitation to the Association of American Universities (AAU), an elite group of 71 leading research institutions. Conference membership decisions are made by presidents, not athletic directors, so academic prestige resonates. AAU membership has practically been seen as a prerequisite for Big Ten consideration.

Approved the initial budget to open the stadium north of the football practice facilities for the 2026 season. The building will also house the football and women’s lacrosse activity centers.

Obviously we want to be the dominant leader in the American (Athletic Conference), and we’re doing that in some areas, but we haven’t done that in others, Kelly said. This helps us to do that, to be more competitive, but to be attractive to anyone looking for partners.

So who can search?

The Big 12 is the most obvious option. It has been open about its desire to expand its national reach. Colorado, Arizona and UConn are possible targets, and there have been mixed reports recently about the league’s interest in another AAC school, Memphis.

Two of the Big 12s three newcomers from the AAC have relatively new on-campus stadiums: UCF opened FBC Mortgage Stadium in 2007, and Houston began playing at TDECU Stadium seven years later. The other, Cincinnati, completed an $86 million expansion and renovation of Nippert Stadium in 2015.

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Unaffiliated with a power conference, San Diego State remains in the mid-major Mountain West, but is expected to earn an invitation to the Pac-12 or Big 12 soon, possibly by the end of the month. Its $310 million stadium, which opened last year, is one of its main selling points.

Those who have done (stadium projects) in the last 15 years have kind of shown their ability to be successful the last time San Diego State was a major factor, Kelly said. Obviously, being an AAU institution and an even bigger market makes you even more attractive in my opinion.

Big 12 dignitaries didn’t specifically mention UCF’s stadium when they celebrated the Knights joining in September 2021. But then-commissioner Bob Bowlsby said the conference focused on the schools we thought would move the needle for us in football first. own, they help. And after years of inactivity, USF is earning national attention for infrastructure upgrades.

Kelly said what the mood was right now. It’s a good time to run with the Bulls.

They just need a runner.

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