In his address Friday at the American Conference media kickoff, commissioner Tim Pernetti dropped a hint about how USF or any other Group of 6 program will join a power conference.
"The reality of expansion is this," he said. "It's got to be almost like pro sports where schools are almost paying expansion fees to get into these conferences."
That doesn't necessarily mean USF or any other school would have to write a seven-figure check to conference, but with the way things are evolving in college sports you can't rule it out. Let's put it this way -- while USF certainly would enhance a power conference, there are multiple other schools out there who believe the same thing about themselves.
"The first thing I would say about expansion in general, there's a lot to evaluate, and I have a really unique perspective," Pernetti said. "As you look at prospective expansion, every conference has got to set its own criteria."
He was the athletic director at Rutgers when the Scarlet Knights joined the Big Ten. Pernetti played a pivotal role in the deal. The Big Ten wanted a team in the vast New York media market and Rutgers checked those boxes.
But then, SMU rewrote the script for expansion when the Mustangs essentially bought their way into the ACC. The school agreed to forgo all television media revenue for its first nine years in the conference -- estimated at $216 million, while planting the ACC's flag in Dallas.
SMU got boosters to pledge about $200 million to cover the lost TV money. A year ago, Memphis offered the Big 12 a package worth in corporate sponsorship commitments of more than $200 million. The school also pledged to take media rights payouts from the league for the first five years.
The Big 12 answered thanks, but no thanks.
What does this have to do with USF's ambitions?
I asked CEO of Athletics Rob Higgins that question.
"I think being here at American kickoff, I just really appreciate what a great partner that Tim has been to us. He's well aware of what our aspirations are. We're going to continue to be really transparent with him. I also, though, want to be really respectful to the fact that the way that we position ourselves for success here in the short and long term is to be the absolute best partners, the American Conference that we can be," he said.
"So that's going be our focus. I'm not going to get into any specifics around our vision or game plan at this time because I don't think that that would accomplish anything publicly when we want to make sure that we're as successful as possible."
Translation: We're well aware of the landscape and we'll let you know something at the appropriate time.
But if Pernetti's example of an expansion fee is the wave of the future, it could add an unpredictable element. You can bet there will be a lot of quid-pro-quo deals going on.
That potentially leads to another bread crumb along the expansion trail.
Former USF trustee board chair Will Weatherford is the co-founder of Weatherford Capital, a private investment firm. It recently reached a deal with the Big 12 Conference to provide a $12.5 million cash infusion and allow each of the league’s schools up to $30 million line of credit.
That relationship certainly can't hurt USF's chances, although, publicly at least, Big 12 commissioner on revenue growth and evaluating future media market opportunities. Expansion won't happen immediately.
In the meantime, though, there's a football season to play and games to win while the realignment and expansion stuff goes on behind closed doors. That's a different kind of game.
USF needs to win at both.
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