As they say, close counts in horseshoes.

A fan picked at last week's USF-Cincinnati football game for a chance to win $10,000 in a contest at the "Bulls Frenzy" basketball event Friday night will get his huge payday after all.

Philip Davis, a 22-year-old graduate student at USF, was picked for a horseshoe toss during Friday's event, and with a shot at $10,000, he looked to have hit a ringer from about 70 feet away. (You can see him hit the shot at the 1:35 mark of this video from USF's official site.) He hugged Rocky the Bull, got a high-five from USF coach Stan Heath, but was then told he would not win the grand prize because his foot had been over the line, and the horseshoe hadn't been close enough to the stake.

USF athletics had the promotion underwritten by an insurance company which was on hand to videotape the contest to verify the result. After initially deciding Davis hadn't met the rules of the contest, USF gave him the consolation prize of a luxury suite for 18 at a Tampa Bay Lightning home game.

But after reviewing the rules of the contest, USF on Thursday decided that Davis had done what he needed to do -- he received a gigantic $10,000 check at the end of the Bulls' basketball practice in the Sun Dome on Thursday afternoon.

Ayo Taylor-Dixon, USF assistant athletic director for marketing, presented the check to Davis and even had the presence to reference "Semi-Pro," the Will Ferrell basketball comedy that had a scene strikingly like this one.

Just to have the right to toss the horseshoe, Davis was chosen from a group of fans who texted the word "HORSESHOE" to a number on the video board at Raymond James Stadium during the USF-Cincinnati game. Davis said he texted mainly just to bring some much-needed karma to USF's football team.

"The Bulls were kind of doing bad, so I was like 'Maybe this will help them win better,'" he said.

Davis, who graduated from Durant High School in Plant City and got his undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Florida, said he'll use some of his winnings to pay for student loans, but will also set some aside to pay for a future vacation to Australia.