The ongoing recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton have forced the University of South Florida (USF) (US) to postpone its homecoming festivities and groundbreaking ceremony for its on-campus football stadium both of which had been slated for this week.
‘Tampa Bay Times’ stated that the groundbreaking now will be held on November 8th at 3:30 pm, the day before the updated homecoming game against the No. 25 Navy (representing the United States Naval Academy). The homecoming events will be held from November 4th-9th. The kickoff time for the Navy game hasn’t been determined.
The University of South Florida is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, United States, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida.
The South Florida Bulls football team represents the University of South Florida (US). The Bulls began playing in 1997 and compete in the American Athletic Conference of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) within the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
The 75,000-capacity Raymond James Stadium is a multipurpose stadium in Tampa, Florida, United States. It opened in 1998 and is home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL) and the University of South Florida Bulls college football program.
Indianapolis (US)-based the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States and one in Canada. It also organizes the athletic programs of the colleges and helps over 500,000 college student-athletes who compete annually in college sports.
Irving (US)-based the American Athletic Conference, also known as The American, is a collegiate athletic Conference in the United States featuring 13 full member universities and six affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA’s) Division I.
The NCAA Division I is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States which accepts players globally.
The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As of the 2024 season, there are 10 Conferences and 134 schools in the FBS.
The University of South Florida (USF) Bulls’ new football stadium will be located on the East side of the Tampa campus and is scheduled to open in 2027. The stadium will have 35,000 seats and cost $340 million to build.
‘Tampa Bay Times’ further stated that the Bulls were set to break ground on their $340 million stadium on October 18th with the October 19th game against the University of Alabama (UAB) serving as their homecoming contest.
A USF news alert read, “By rescheduling to November it will allow the USF to celebrate these important events at a more appropriate time and give our students, the faculty, the staff, the alumni, and the friends an opportunity to focus on their more immediate needs following the hurricanes.”
The USF’s main Tampa campus reopened on October 14th though many facilities – including the Lee Roy Selmon Athletics Center and the Bulls’ indoor practice facility – remained without power for nearly the entire weekend.
Both had power restored as of October 14th and the football team – which evacuated to Orlando on October 8th and played its “home” game against the Memphis Tigers football team (University of Memphis, Tennessee) on October 12th at the 60,219-capacity Camping World Stadium in Orlando.
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