Ranking the ACC’s best expansion candidates to counter the Big 12
By John Scimeca
3. South Florida
The Bulls haven’t done much on the football field recently, finishing at the bottom of the American standings for the past three consecutive years. In two of those years — 2022 and 2020 — South Florida was winless in conference play.
South Florida did put together back-to-back 11-2 and 10-2 campaigns under Willie Taggart and Charlie Strong in 2016 and 2017, respectively. There’s potential in this program that’s only been at the FBS level since 2000 when it joined as an independent before bouncing from the Conference USA to the Big East before ending up in its current home, the AAC.
South Florida would be a bit of a chess move for the Atlantic Coast Conference. Adding the Bulls guarantees that another conference couldn’t establish or expand its footprint in the Sunshine State. Look no further than the Big 12, which just added Central Florida and could consider the Tampa-based Bulls as a geographic partner along I-4 for the Knights.
Florida is one of the most productive and heavily recruited states in the country, and adding South Florida would give the ACC another squad in the state to join the Seminoles and the Hurricanes.