Should USF focus on Basketball rather than Football?

[tau.reanb]

We're a large public university in the state of Florida.  

So... no, we should not focus on basketball. We have all the resources necessary to be a top-tier football program. 

Having said that, I don't see why we can't focus on both.  

[SpikeBull]

FSU UF (FU?) Miami

Nice basketball programs on and off. What are they known for?

Florida is not a big fan of basketball unless Lebron James is playing for you. 

[usfgrad84]

What does it mean to have a winning Football team?  The reality is there are no more than 20 schools that the football powers will really let get to that top level.  It is a system rigged that way.  Football will be a money losing proposition until we get the P5 type money.

 

If you are considering a winning football team being in the mix consistently for a National Championship, it won't happen until they make a tournament similar to the NCAA basketball tournament.  Just the reality of the way football is run.

[WoolyBully]

Maybe we should just focus on basketball, given the exceptionally successful foundation that's been laid these many decades (610 & 731 for an overall lifetime 45% winning record). We could, if we put the ole nose to the grindstone, be the next Duke. Twenty years into the football experiment, and it's painfully obvious that this money losing venture  should be abandoned before any more fiscal and perception based damage is done to the university. I don't know about you kids, but I could get used to this Knob Creek. I think it tastes pretty good, and having knocked out a half a bottle thus far... 

[hightechbull]

NO!

[George_Bullnard_Shaw]

Well, yes and no. College athletics by and large is a money losing proposition and even the largest football programs aren't recouping. So yes we could lose football and lose less money. A lot less money. Basketball surplus is still not going to cover the rest of the athletics though.

As others have said though, football is a very big, very expensive and very high profile marketing tool. I don't like it. I think society is pretty messed up when a football program drives people to an academic institution but that is the world we live in. Until we have an MIT reputation we need the marketing. So it makes more sense to me to try to make football better and less of a money loser, which would both increase our visibility along with less money.
 

I also don't go in for false dichotomies. There is no reason we can't also invest into the much less costly basketball program to make it a contender as well but the ROI in dollars will not perhaps be matched by the ROI we get in visibility with a basketball program. Just as other posters have said, FGCU gets to the dance from their weak conference every year but you don't have a national following or people watching their televised national basketballs games.

End of the day, everything at USF exists to serve the academic mission of the school. A football program counter-intuitively probably serves the academic mission of the school fairly well. Probably better than basketball.

[beastiebull]

yes terrific idea college bball is super-duper popular in FL.  

[Bullrush33]

Our capital is Florida football players and that is where our bread is buttered. Very few  great college basketball players come from FLorida. Vince Carter is the exception to the rule. Even Floridas two championships had kids from all over the country.