Tampa universities name sports leaders amid national disruption

University of South Florida and University of Tampa have confidence Rob Higgins and E.J. Brophy, respectively, will stack up the wins — even amid the uncertainty of big-money college athletics.

By Mark Gordon
| 5:00 a.m. September 17, 2025
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The University of Tampa baseball team has won 10 NCAA Division 2 championships.

Tampa Bay-Lakeland

Mascots representing the two largest universities in Tampa — the Bulls and Spartans — have taken the horns and donned the helmets when it comes to competing in the rapidly changing world of college athletics.

Each school, USF for the Bulls, UTampa for the Spartans, named a new head of athletics last week — a significant C-suite position for each institution. USF, the larger sports program of the pair in terms of budget, went as far to jump ahead of a burgeoning national trend in changing the title of its leader from athletics director to CEO.