It was a Bullish week for USF.
Most notably, it won recognition as one of Florida’s “preeminent” universities. Move over, Florida and Florida State.
It means prestige and more annual funding, which can lead to even more prestige. It came as a result of USF meeting targeted goals–from incoming-student GPAs and six-year graduation rates to achieving national renown for ratcheting numbers of patents and research dollars. The challenge will be to keep going across three campuses without compromising diversity. That’s how memberships in Phi Beta Kappa and the Association of American Universities happen. That’s next up.
It also made headlines with its hiring of a new athletic director. By all accounts, Michael Kelly, 47, the chief operating officer of the College Football Playoff and former USF associate AD under Lee Roy Selmon, checks all the boxes, including the one that says “no baggage.”
Kelly comes with a reputation as a well-organized, disciplined visionary for whom networking and thinking big are givens. A formidable agenda–from Power Five conference membership and upgraded facilities to a revitalized men’s basketball team–awaits.
Kelly’s high-profile hiring is a reminder that athletics at the university level is more than mere sports. It is, as Skip Holtz once observed, a school’s “front porch.” It can attract outside interest that can lead to involvement in other areas of university endeavor. It can aid and abet fund-raising. It can be a bottom-line contributor in today’s TV network-driven marketplace. It can also rally a student body, boosters and alumni like nothing else can. It matters on multiple levels.
The welcome tandem of good news was also a reminder of what a regional asset USF is–and has been. Even through its formative years when it was often referenced as (merely) a “commuter school” just because it was a non-land-grant, major city university addressing the higher education needs of non-traditional students. It hasn’t been “Sandspur U” for two generations.
USF is an avatar of higher education’s future: Not in college towns–but in synergistic, urban hubs where research can also be applied.
Go, Bulls.