For USF...it's welcome to the big (east) time.

[Papa_Bull]

For USF athletics, recruitment, it's welcome to the big (east) time By Carl Cronan

Tampa Bay Business Journal

Updated: 8:00 p.m. ET April 24, 2005TAMPA -- The

University of South Florida's entrance to the Big East Conference brings plenty of promise for greater national exposure and more college sports fan-tourists visiting the area.

But the ultimate success will be determined on fields and courts.

"We just got to start playing," Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese said during a recent visit to USF. "That will sort a lot of things out."

USF, which played its first football game in 1997, made the bold decision nearly two years ago to move from Conference USA to the Big East, where it becomes one of 16 major colleges in a league scattered about the Northeast and Midwest.

The move is eventually expected to generate as much revenue as required to compete at an elite level, especially in football and basketball, yet Tranghese and USF officials believe the benefits will ripple beyond athletics to academics and research.

"It puts the university in more of a national arena than it has ever been," said Doug Woolard, USF's director of athletics.

The Big East is among the nation's dominant college conferences in more than just sports, and ties in with USF President Judy Genshaft's goal of becoming one of the top 50 research universities in the country, he said.

"We have a chance to really help the university in that mission," Woolard said, pointing to statistics showing that USF ranks in the top five among Big East member institutions in research expenditures.

A bowl game in bulls' future?

By joining the Big East, USF has the chance to compete in college football's Bowl Championship Series and is in a better position to make it into the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament -- provided those teams win games. A new $15-million athletic center opened last year on the Fowler Avenue campus, giving students in all sports improved facilities for training and conditioning.

In order to compete effectively, however, greater funding commitments will be sought from practically all spectators, from alumni to corporate sponsors.

"It's going to take their participation in order to be successful," Woolard said. Athletic program budgets with the Big East are similar to those under C-USA, he said, though "we anticipate a larger share of revenue in this league."

From a media exposure standpoint, the returns could be even greater.

Big East colleges are in major markets such as New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., compared with those in C-USA, which includes places like Birmingham, Memphis and Hattiesburg, Miss.

Adding Tampa to the mix of Big East's major media markets makes for a huge contribution, said Tranghese, who established the conference in 1979 with the intent of bringing together college teams from larger cities.

"Tampa is the 13th-largest television market in the country. That's a big-time positive," Tranghese said during an April 15 media luncheon at Tampa Palms Country Club, north of USF's main campus. "Our 16 schools collectively will get to almost 30 percent of all the television households in this country. That's a pretty powerful economic tool."

Traveling fans mean room nights

Fans of Big East colleges tend to travel with their football and basketball teams, raising the prospect that they may plan weekends or vacations to the Bay area to watch their teams play USF, he said. "All of a sudden you're going to get a corps of people that can only lead to positive things."

USF is also reaching out to its core audience, Bay area sports fans, through an expanded advertising campaign titled "Are U Ready" that utilizes the Bulls and Big East brands. A multimedia campaign will be launched next month with a goal of topping last year's average football attendance of 27,000, roughly 40 percent of the seating capacity at Raymond James Stadium.

"You only get one first chance at this," said Tom Veit, USF assistant athletic director in charge of sales and marketing. Local sponsors are already excited about joining the Big East, noting that a few firms from the Northeast have contacted him about signage for games being televised back to the region, he said.

GunnAllen Financial Inc., a Tampa-based company with business interests in the Northeast, is already looking forward to the broader exposure, CEO Rick Frueh said. "That would be a benefit to Tampa and certainly a benefit.

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