USF basketball, football are most improved duo in the nation

USF has made the biggest turnaround of any athletic department in the country.

That’s not opinion. That’s fact, based on key metrics in the two most high-profile sports (football and men’s basketball). And it will hold true regardless of whether the Bulls win this week’s AAC tournament and earn their first March Madness appearance in a dozen years.

Here are the 10 numbers that put the Bulls’ rise into context:

6

The increase in football wins from Jeff Scott’s final season to Alex Golesh’s 7-6 debut. The only program that had a higher year-over-year boost was Northwestern (which went from 1-11 to 8-5). And only four teams boosted their win total by five games: Missouri, Liberty, Arizona and Miami (Ohio).

9

How many more basketball games Amir Abdur-Rahim has won this season (23-6 record) compared to his predecessor, Brian Gregory, last season. As of Tuesday afternoon, that was tied for the 17th-largest year-over-year jump in the nation out of 361 teams. Green Bay was first (15).

But that figure includes more than 200 schools that aren’t in the top-tier Football Bowl Subdivision — schools like Loyola and Evansville, which don’t fit the same athletic profile as the Bulls. If we focus only on FBS programs, USF’s basketball rise is tied for sixth nationally behind South Carolina (14), Tulsa and Appalachian State (both 11), plus SMU and Cal (10 apiece).

15

That, obviously, is the combined increase in wins for football and men’s basketball. That’s the most in the FBS, one ahead of Appalachian State.

28%

The increase in announced football attendance from 2022 to ‘23, according to figures tracked by D1ticker, a popular information roundup in the industry. The Bulls’ spike is second in the nation behind only Houston (41.8%), which moved up from the AAC to the Big 12. USF was even ahead of Colorado (24.1%), which benefitted from the Coach Prime buzz of Deion Sanders. The Bulls’ average attendance was 37,944 — their largest since 2018.

9.6%

How much football attendance grew if you exclude the Alabama game, an outlier for obvious reasons. That increase would still rank 32nd nationally, just ahead of Washington (which played for the national title).

8,942

The rise in average football attendance from ‘22 to ‘23. It’s the highest outside the Power Five and ranks sixth nationally. Florida State was first (11,457).

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1,990

That’s the season-over-season increase in men’s basketball attendance (to 5,132). Only six schools in the nation saw bigger jumps: Cal, Colorado State, South Carolina, USC, St. John’s and Utah. The Trojans likely benefitted from signing one of the Trojans’ biggest recruits ever (Bronny James), while St. John’s surely drew more spectators by hiring Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino.

$214,795

Our back-of-the-envelope calculation on how much more basketball revenue the Bulls have gained through improved attendance. We get that number by adding last season’s reported figures for ticket sales and novelty/parking/concessions and dividing it by the total attendance. That equals $7 per fan. Multiply that by the overall increase in attendance (30,685 fans), and you get our good-faith guesstimate.

63%

The rise in men’s basketball attendance since last season. It’s tied with Central Connecticut State for 12th nationally. The only FBS team with a higher increase is Cal (112%).

1

FBS school with at least a 5,000-person bump in average football attendance and 1,500-person bump in average basketball attendance. USF. Colorado is the only school that came close (1,178 more fans in basketball and 10,333 in football).

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