Opinion: USF's grown-up Bulls

We were among the skeptics when University of South Florida officials began exploring the idea of developing a Division I football team. It had been decades since any school in the nation had built a major-college football program from scratch, and finding elbow room in Florida among all the Gators, Seminoles and Hurricanes seemed especially daunting.

USF's program is still in its adolescence, but it already is showing that it can survive among the grown-ups. In their first year as a Division I-A program, the Bulls compiled an 8-3 record and beat a couple of teams that will be playing in holiday bowl games. Coach Jim Leavitt's team is meeting expectations in other respects, too. Home attendance leveled off this year, but USF officials remain happy with the size and enthusiasm of the crowds. They also are happy with the team's effect on school spirit, fundraising and national identity.

These are good times for USF's athletic program. Coach Seth Greenberg's undefeated men's basketball team is ranked in the top 10 in the nation in computer rankings that mirror the one used to seed teams for March Madness. Coach Jose Fernandez's women's team is an even bigger surprise, streaking to an 8-0 record. Fernandez inherited a team that went 4-24 last year and is still recovering from squad defections and competing discrimination lawsuits related to the firing of former coach Jerry Ann Winters.

Successful intercollegiate sports squads are no substitute for achievement in the classroom, in research and in the community, but athletics do play an important role at most major universities. USF's sports teams have begun to provide a focus for school spirit at a young, urban university that lacks the tradition of its older siblings in Florida's university system. Those teams' successes also are bringing welcome outside attention to a large, fast-growing university whose national profile hasn't kept pace with its growth.

USF's Sun Dome will be the center of the basketball world Saturday, luring hyperactive ESPN color man Dick Vitale and a national audience to USF's contest with Florida's sixth-ranked Gators. Meanwhile, Leavitt's football Bulls -- unlike Steve Spurrier's Gators or Bobby Bowden's Seminoles -- are enjoying the accolades that come after a season that exceeds expectations.

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