During his media session on Monday, Rob Higgins, South Florida's CEO of Athletics, was asked about a distinctive change in the school's social media accounts and athletic website.
References to USF on new postings had been changed to South Florida. Stories about the men's golf team, men's and women's soccer teams, softball, and so on now carry a headline that notably says South Florida.
I'll admit up front that the change flew past me like sharp breaking slider did back in the day when I played baseball. If I noticed it before, I never paid attention, even when the Bulls occasionally wore football uniforms with South Florida emblazoned on the front. I never read that as a harbinger of a marketing rebrand, but apparently it has been sneaking up on us for several years.
It was always USF for me.
However, it looks like those days are mostly gone. The iconic Bulls horns logo remains untouched, but you'll hear mostly references to South Florida instead of USF -- at least on televised games, where announcers will be specifically reminded of the proper way to refer to the university.
"I think when you look at really strong brands, it starts with consistency. And I think at times we've moved around in terms of what we've leaned into as an athletic program," Higgins said.
"And depending on the sport and across our 21 sports, we haven't had the consistency necessary to have a really strong brand identity. So, we wanted to make sure we got calibrated from that side of things. You'll see that across uniforms, you'll see that across signage."
He has a point.
ESPN announcers have occasionally provided raw meat for Twitter trolls by saying "UCF" when they really meant "USF." Yes, it is easy for those outside of our lovely metropolis to confuse the two programs, but that doesn't make it any less insulting.
USF can also mean the University of San Francisco or the University of Sioux Falls in South Dakota. I have gotten references to both of those schools when googling just USF about something.
Saying "Florida" gives the Bulls a direct identity although, let's be honest, adding "South" to the label will trigger some smirking pushback. Tampa is not in south Florida.
You know the story behind why USF -- oops, South Florida -- was given that name when it was founded in 1956. State leaders decided on a geographical label because, at the time, it was the southernmost state university in Florida.
We're kind of locked into that name forever. Florida Gulf Coast now owns the west coast "water" reference and what's-their-names in Orlando have the "central" claim.
I suppose leaders could rename it "Tampa Bay University" but I wouldn't hold my breath for that happening.
South Florida it is.
"You'll see that through social as well, and making sure we're building as much equity as we possibly can, especially when you think about all the momentum we have, as well as this overall athletic district really coming together in a profound way," Higgins said.
"We just want to be really diligent so that we don't have a cluttered or confused brand locally, regionally and nationally."
This could take a while. Fans had "USF" hammered into their heads for years and old habits die hard.
The chorus of the school's fight song fits the brand with fans spelling out S-O-U-T-H F-L-O-R-I-D-A nice and loud. So there is that.
However, rebrandings don't catch on overnight.
Case in point: more than a year after the American Conference rebranded, announcers and major websites still frequently refer to it as the AAC.
But we'll play along here at Green, Gold, and Bold -- except maybe when it's a tight race to get a story posted and "South Florida" won't fit in a headline. Cut me some slack, ok?
Add us as a preferred source on Google