USF will inaugurate a new football stadium, and, now, enjoy two bye weeks in 2027.
Rob Higgins, the school’s CEO of Athletics, delivered an array of updates Monday ahead of the upcoming football season and school year.
Construction of the on-campus stadium, which is slated to be ready in time for the Bulls’ 2027 home opener against Louisville, remains on schedule. “We’re making tremendous progress,” Higgins said, later adding that plenty of work remains before that game kicks off.
“When you wait on a home like this for as long as we have, we want to make sure it’s rolled out in the right way,” he said. “There’s a lot of thought process going into not only how that happens in the terms of the unveiling side of things, but then also when you think about things operationally. We want to make sure it’s a world-class experience from the very jump.”
But the Louisville game no longer is USF’s first of the 2027 season. The Bulls, Higgins said, will travel to play Northern Illinois University the week before. The game previously was scheduled for Sept. 25, but both programs saw a recent NCAA change as an opportunity to be proactive.
“When the NCAA standardized the calendar for next season and went to the consistent start for a 14-week period to play the 12 games, it gave us this chance to be able to have two byes and be able to control the recovery period a little better for our student athletes,” Higgins said.
“When we had that conversation with Coach (Brian) Hartline around the possibility of it, it was something we wanted to work through in fairly short order.”
Higgins also shared two more building-related updates: Construction of USF’s beach volleyball facility will likely be completed by the end of September, and the Yuengling Center will be getting a revamped exterior colorway look to better match the rest of the athletic buildings on campus.
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