nobody said anything about national championships. we won one conference championship this year in women's tennis.
there is no reason why the largest public university in the big east shouldn't be able to compete with mostly small private schools.
tennis, golf, baseball, soccer, track and field. these are outdoor sports where our athletes can train year round while others are buried in snow.
we won women's tennis compared to another public university in a predominantly private conference, UofL, that won regular season titles in softball, baseball and volleyball while winning big east championships in women's swimming,men's basketball, men's tennins, women's track and field, and softball.
Here we go with perception. Guess what. Size and location mean squat in athletics. Having a successful program over a period of time is going to attract a better athlete than climate in most situations. UofL's baseball team has had success for years, their basketball program is legendary. Their volleyball program has a .647 w/l record since 1975 with 16 conference championships. Their softball team has been in the NCAA tournament 7 times in 12 years. Oh and check this out.
Fan Support
Team National Attendance Rank Men's Basketball 3rd [13][14] Women's Field Hockey 7th [15] Men's Soccer 17th [16] Women's basketball 25th [17] Volleyball 30th [18]
So size really isn't much of a help when you are competing with an established top program that has a highly supportive local fan base. Woolard is laying a foundation though, but looking at a school like Louisville and comparing attendance and location, thinking USF should be dominating overlooks the fact that they have been investing and nurturing their programs for much longer and live in a an area where the locals actually come out and support their teams.
And while USF has been around since the 50s, how many decades went by before there was a president in place that truly supported athletics and tried to invest in the various programs to the extent was needed for success on a national level?
you missed the point. USF is in a conference with a bunch of tiny private schools. I'm not saying we should have UofL's success but there is no reason why we shouldn't be right behind them. we have been in their conference since the early 90's.
USF got into the Big East in 2005. Before that CUSA, before that the Sun Belt. It isn't the tiny private schools USF is losing most of the Big East championships to, its the larger schools. Also remember that Notre Dame, the largest Catholic university in the US, is a member of the Big East in all sports but football along with Georgetown and Villanova which have traditions of excellence in college athletics going back for a century. Size doesn't matter. I found that out years ago watching men's BB. Its not quantity, its quality.
http://www.bigeast.org/Championships/20112012.aspx