The school’s mascot is the bull and its colors are green and gold. The Bulls, the school’s sports teams, compete in the NCAA’s Division I-A. The school joined the Big East Conference in 2005; before that, they were members of Conference USA, the Metro Conference and the Sun Belt Conference. The school started playing football in 1997 as a I-AA independent and moved up to I-A in 2001; they went to Conference USA in 2003 and are currently in the Big East Conference with Bowl Championship Series tie-ins. Their quick advancement to the Big East Conference and the related gains in recruiting have been greatly helped by the facilities. The Bulls’ current football team plays their home games in Raymond James Stadium, which is also the home stadium for the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The team’s starting quarterback in 2007 was sophomore Matt Grothe; he was given the Big East Rookie of the Year award in 2006 after getting 258.5 yards per game in total offense. Also, sophomore defensive end George Selvie was named USF’s first Consensus All-American in 2007.

Because this football program is so young and has aggressively grown, a permanent rival has been tough to find. Quickly changing conference affiliations and a rapid ascent through the NCAA football ranks have made an annual rivalry challenging. The team has nationally upset a few teams, like Louisville, West Virginia and Pittsburgh, where the seeds of rivalry were planted. Because of their closeness, the University of Central Florida wants to extend their 4-game series with USF by creating an annual home-and-home series. USF isn’t planning on renewing that rivalry, though; instead, they’re focusing on a rivalry with the University of Miami, with whom, USF announced a 6-year series that will be played on Thanksgiving weekend. ESPN will televise the last 4 games of this series on one of their networks.