USF's Michael Kelly: Move to new Pac-12 'just didn't make sense'

TAMPA — In the end, they weren’t swayed by the brand name. A move to the Pac-12 seemed more lateral than lustrous.

USF officials want their next athletic address to bear a power-league zip code. Not the same-looking subdivision in a new neighborhood. Hence the reason the Bulls have opted for now to remain in the American Athletic Conference.

“We’re in a good place,” USF athletic director Michael Kelly told the Tampa Bay Times on Tuesday, roughly 24 hours after his school — and three other AAC institutions — pledged their allegiance to their current league by declining overtures from the reconfigured Pac-12.

“We’re investing like crazy to make sure we already stand out as one of the best of the Group of Five. And to make another move without going straight to what is currently the (Power) Four or whatever is going to be the future as far as college sports, it just didn’t make sense.”

Fact is, such a move was impractical on many levels, Kelly indicated. In addition to financial concerns, he also cited geography, student-athlete welfare and academic affiliation.

After losing all except two schools — Washington State and Oregon State — to various Power Four leagues, the Pac-12 continues scurrying to redefine itself. It recently added Colorado State, Boise State, Fresno State and San Diego State, with Utah State reportedly also accepting an invitation to join.

It has no long-term media partner, and after the mass exodus of schools to power leagues, it now boasts half as many top-tier research universities (three) as the AAC.

Of its current institutions, the closest one to Tampa is Colorado State — a mere 1,900 miles from USF.

“Not only the expense of traveling across the country, but the wear and tear,” Kelly said. “Just the time and the logistics of getting there for a lot of teams, particularly those that would have to travel commercially, is rough. But heck, even a charter flight to Pullman (Washington) and Corvallis (Oregon) is no easy feat. So yeah, that was a big part of it.”

Bulls football coach Alex Golesh said his priority is continuing to develop his program into one that annually contends for AAC titles and attracts large audiences — a natural springboard to a power-league invitation. He said the investment by USF’s administration into football has “surpassed” what he asked for, making such a jump more plausible than it might have been a half-decade ago.

“I think (USF administrators), since I’ve gotten here, have turned over every stone in terms of how and what is our next step,” he said.

“And these discussions were so much about what the end goal is and how do we get there and what actually makes sense. What makes sense from a financial standpoint? What makes sense from an affiliation standpoint? At the end of the day, how do we take that next step?

“And I think the overall consensus was, this makes sense to continue to play in this conference and continue to build toward being a dominant team in this conference before we really can ever take any step.”

Toward that end, the Bulls’ progress is noticeable.

After managing four wins in the three seasons before Golesh’s arrival, USF has gone 9-8 on his watch, with a bowl victory and two competitive games against SEC behemoth Alabama. Meantime, groundbreaking for a $340 million on-campus football stadium is slated for October.

Not to be outdone, the men’s basketball team won a school-record 25 games and captured the program’s first regular-season conference title last winter.

“And that’s where I think it made more sense to continue to build and be really, really competitive rather than kind of turn a new leaf and say, ‘Man, this (is a) magic fix,’ where it’s not,” Golesh said.

“And this just made the most sense, was to remain here, continue to build our brand, continue to build our program, and at the end of the day, raise the profile of the conference we’re in.”

Contact Joey Knight at jknight@tampabay.com . Follow @TBTimes_Bulls.

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