The USF Bulls play the Florida State Seminoles this weekend in Tallahassee, in a game that is being billed as potentially turning Florida’s Big 3 Schools into the Big 4. If you aren’t familiar with College Football in Florida let me explain, Florida State, Florida, and Miami make up the Big 3 currently. All these teams have heisman winners, national titles, conference titles, and have the ability to recruit nationally as well as dominate the fertile Florida recruiting pool for prospects. South Florida, Central Florida, Florida International, and Florida Atlantic are upstart schools attempting to make it into the upper tier of the state. South Florida by far leads this race, and has never lost to any of the teams in the second tier which they made sure to schedule often to show they are a step above. Now to frame the rest of this I am a Miami Hurricanes fan and have been since I was five years old, I am also a die hard USF fan, if Miami is #1 for me USF is #1a, and I root for Florida State then Florida after that. I actually never wanted to see USF and Miami play, but they did in 2006 and Miami destroyed them, and I was hoping not to have to deal with that game again unless they were both playing for the National Title. Well they play again this year as well, so that game although will be good is going to be annoying for me *sigh*.
Now the issue at hand is USF’s head coach Jim Leavitt commented that USF can’t transform Florida’s Big Three into the Big Four unless they beat Florida State, Florida, or Miami. USF has scheduled games with all those teams in the near future, as well as a game at Notre Dame in the coming years. I disagree with Leavitt on that sentiment beating one of the Big 3 will provide a temporary boost to recruiting and accolades within the state, but he is forgetting how the Big 3 became what they are today. The first thing USF has to do is win the Big East conference title which they have failed to do since joining, if you look at Cincinnati they look like an up and coming program after winning the Big East conference title and going to a BCS game last year. The other thing USF has to do is schedule tough out of conference opponents and go and beat them on their home turf, scheduling Notre Dame and playing Oklahoma and Auburn a few years ago are all steps in that direction. Miami and Florida State have always had the we will play you anywhere, anytime mentality and by beating teams all over the country who were considered national powerhouses they built the foundation of their programs. When Miami was in the Big East they won the conference almost every year, and Florida State dominated the ACC for almost a decade. In recent years Miami and FSU took a step back, but both teams have relaoded and seem to be headed back towards national powerhouse status. Florida plays in the conference everyone loves because there are no easy games, and by having years of success in the SEC under Steve Spurrier and now Urban Meyer they built a solid foundation as well.
USF still has a long way to go, they have never won a conference championship in Conference USA or the Big East. They have some signature wins against Auburn and West Virginia, but USF also has several choke like performances. They had the Big East wrapped up a few times after getting past West Virginia only to lose to lesser opponents. The reason behind this most fans don’t understand, USF had a significant matchup advantage against West Virginia the speed USF had on defense negated the advantages of the spread offense ran by the Mountaineers. So that’s why USF always had great success against that team, but Cincinnati on the other hand has always had USF’s number and spoiled several conference titles for them. Even if USF goes into Doak this weekend and beats Florida State, if they don’t follow it up with a BCS birth and conference title it will be a moot point. You can’t say to a recruit we beat Florida State you need to come to USF, and forget about that loss to Cincinnati it’s meaningless. When USF makes it to a BCS game by winning the Big East, and if they can manage to beat FSU and Miami this year those will be steps in the right direction and help them big time. But people need to remember Florida, Florida State, and Miami have decades upon decades of consistent football success, USF has only been around for 12 years and although they are clearly the 4th best team in the state hands down you can’t say the Big 3 has tramsformed into the Big 4 yet. I think Florida State will win this game because Matt Groethe won’t be playing, and the Seminoles know they can’t lose to the upstart school in the state. This is agame Florida State wants to show everyone that USF still is not on their level, and as much as I hate to say it the Bulls aren’t recruiting like the Big 3 and won’t be until they can start dominating their conference. It will be a good game, and USF will keep it close, but I think Florida State has a chip on their shoulders and will take it out on the Bulls.
