To play devil's advocate,
Lol no way in hell USF is ever going to be recognized in every day conversation outside of Tampa for its "academic status." I'm sorry, I'm even an education graduate but its the reality. No one will look at your resume and say, "holy crap you went to USF?? Thats such an amazing academic school!" But they might say, "oh you went to that school that had those couple of undefeated seasons and claims a national title?"
I'm sorry but its the truth. Even if we pass FSU in academic standards no one will care, FSU is always going to be more "recognizable" than USF in every sense. When we were #2 we were the talk of the nation and no one cares now.
USF winning a conference title in football would give me more pure joy and happiness (tell me I'm wrong) than any "pre-eminent status" stuff. Sounds ignorant but its the truth.