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USF puts 150 on Big East All-Academic team
The Big East released its All-Academic Team for the 2010-11 school year on Thursday, and USF had 150 student-athletes make the list, which covers all sports except for football.
To make the list, an athlete must earn a letter and maintain a grade-point average of 3.0 or higher over the previous academic year while completing at least 18 credit-hours. USF's teams with the most athletes honored were women's track/cross-country, which had 36 honored, and women's soccer, which had 20 of its 35 players on the list, with men's soccer (15) and baseball (14) not far behind. It's worth mentioning that women's basketball had only three players honored (one a walk-on), and men's basketball did not have a single player meet the criteria for the honor. ... Read more
USF moves up again in Directors' Cup standings
For the second year in a row, USF has moved up the ranks in the Directors' Cup all-sport standings, with the Bulls rising 19 spots to rank 86th in the annual measure of schools' success in the NCAA postseason.
USF had six teams score points in the Cup standings -- women's soccer led the way with 50 points for reaching the second round of the NCAA Tournament, just ahead of football, which earned 45 points as a bowl winner. Also scoring for the Bulls were women's track and field (32 points), men's track and field (31), women's tennis (25) and men's soccer (25). ... Read more
Woolard dismisses speculation about Illinois job
USF athletic director Doug Woolard, mentioned as a possible candidate for the athletic director job at Illinois, said he has no plans to leave the job he's had with the Bulls for the past seven years.
"It's probably more of a compliment to USF than it is to Doug Woolard," said the native of Carbondale, in southern Illinois. "We've got really good support here from the university and the Tampa Bay region, and we've been able to make some significant advancements. We have a lot of tremendous potential ahead of us, and I look forward to the opportunities we have in front of us."
Woolard was one of several names mentioned by the Springfield (Ill.) State Journal-Register on Monday in a story discussing potential successors to Ron Guenther, who announced last week that he is retiring this summer. Woolard has guided USF into its current position in the Big East and has directed a massive $35 million package of facility upgrades, including new stadiums for baseball, softball and soccer, a practice facility for basketball and new practice fields for football, with a $35 million renovation of the Sun Dome expected to start this summer.
USF defends gender-equity practices after NYT story
After being featured prominently in a New York Times story on college athletic programs "relying on deception" to meet Title IX standards, USF officials said Tuesday that they have changed how they count female track athletes for gender-equity purposes, but that they remain among the most balanced schools in the state and Big East conference even after those changes.
"You can take all those (questionable) numbers away, and we're still in conformity (with Title IX)," executive athletic director Bill McGillis said. "If your premise is that we are including kids on the cross-country roster who are not participating in cross-country in order to comply with the proportionality piece of Title IX, that would be false." ... Read more
USF football graduation rate among I-A's lowest
The NCAA's newest statistics on graduation rates, for college athletes who enrolled in 2003, show USF's football scores to be among the lowest out of the 120 current Division I-A programs.
The NCAA's Graduation Success Rate scores show USF football with a graduation rate of 46 percent -- of the 66 schools now in the six major conferences with automatic BCS bids in football, only Oklahoma posted a lower score. USF's score is the lowest of the Big East's eight football programs by a full 17 percentage points, and the Bulls are tied for the third-lowest score in I-A, ahead of only Oklahoma (44) and San Jose State (42).
The NCAA's new statistics are essentially three years old -- they measure the success of athletes who enrolled in 2003, while most of USF's current seniors started school in 2006 or 2007. USF has ramped up its academic support efforts in recent years, including an ambitious program this year to give every student-athlete use of a MacBook Pro laptop from Apple to help with their coursework. ... Read more
USF internal review finds no NCAA violations
USF's athletic department on Tuesday released a response to nine pages of allegations from academic adviser Myrtice Landers, saying that after a thorough review of 16 separate allegations, no violations of NCAA rules had occured.
"The NCAA was made aware of the allegations and kept apprised of the review process and the outcome," the summary response reads. "The review found that there was no evidence to support reporting any violations to the NCAA. Lastly, contrary to the allegations, the review found a culture of compliance and a strong commitment to institutional control."
Historic anniversary for USF on Saturday
Bill Keegan laced up his running shoes again this month, just to shake off some of the rust.
Keegan, 63, will be back at USF on Saturday morning to celebrate an impressive anniversary -- at 10 a.m., he will take a lap around USF's track to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the first athletic event in Bulls history, a cross-country meet on Sept. 25, 1965.
"I wish all my teammates could be there," said Keegan, who became the first athlete to earn a varsity letter from USF and was a freshman that fall and one of five runners on the first cross-country team.
Keegan, who went on to graduate from USF in 1969 with a business degree, he returned to Orlando 25 years ago and lives there today as a real-estate investor. Keegan, who attended Bishop Moore High, has kept in touch with one of his original teammates, who can't make it Saturday, and knows another of the five passed away; he said USF was unable to track down the other two from that first team. ... Read more
Genshaft: NCAA chair makes for 'exciting year'
USF President Judy Genshaft was honored at the chance to simply serve on the NCAA Board of Directors a year ago, so the news of being unanimously elected to chair that board for the next year is off-the-charts amazing, for herself and for USF.
"This is going to be a very exciting year," said Genshaft, home in Tampa after arriving from Brazil earlier Tuesday. "It's a privilege for me personally, and I'm really quite honored by the opportunity to work with a very elite group of presidents."
Genshaft was in Brazil with athletic director Doug Woolard to see USF's men's basketball team represent the United States in the Pan American University Championships, then spent time with her family on vacation in Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. Her election to lead the 18-member board has been praised by Big East commissioner John Marinatto, and she said she looks forward to working with new NCAA president Mark Emmert, who she has known from his days as a university president at Washington and elsewhere. ... Read more
USF's Genshaft elected as chair of NCAA board
USF President Judy Genshaft, who has represented the Big East on the NCAA Board of Directors since last year, has been elected as chair of that influential 18-member group for the upcoming school year.
Genshaft, USF's president for the past 10 years, was elected as chair on Thursday and will serve in that capacity until April. Her term on the Board of Directors runs through 2013. This position is another prominent national role for Genshaft, who has also served as chair of the American Council on Education.
The selection was unanimous, according to Big East commissioner John Marinatto, who sent an e-mail to all Big East members Friday announcing Genshaft's important new position. ... Read more
Adviser Landers gets new USF job, withdraws discrimination claim
TAMPA -- After six hours of mediation Thursday, USF has reached a settlement with academic adviser Myrtice Landers, who has withdrawn a claim of racial discrimination and has been given a new job outside athletics that will allow her to become fully vested toward retirement next summer.
"I'm elated that things are over, and to have a position back at the university," Landers said.
Landers, who two weeks ago alleged that her termination after committing a secondary NCAA violation constituted racial discrimination, had been placed on administrative leave by USF. Before the mediation, she and attorney Wil Florin provided USF with a document showing what she believes are other NCAA violations, detailed with names and dates of violations.
The Times made a public records request for that document Thursday, but spokesman Michael Hoad said it is "not a public document" because it "has to be reviewed" as the university investigates the claims. Once any resulting investigation is completed, the document will be made public, Hoad said. ... Read more
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