One intriguing storyline to follow throughout the 2023 college football season was the dramatic improvement of the South Florida Bulls under Alex Golesh. In Golesh’s first season as the program’s head coach, the Bulls improved to 7-6 after a 1-11 season in 2022.

A big reason for that was the emergence of sophomore quarterback Byrum Brown. The 6’3″ 209-pound North Carolina native already owns 12 program records at USF. While he may be a Heisman long shot, it’s impossible to deny his impact on the program.

EA Sports College Football 25: Memphis Tigers Rank #19 In Game’s Top Offenses

In 2023, Brown and Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels were the only players to post at least 3,000 yards passing and 800 yards rushing. Now, Bet365 gives Brown 250/1 odds to win a Heisman of his own.

Brown is not the only G5 player listed by the sportsbook and is not the G5 player with the highest odds to win the trophy. Those odds belong to Liberty’s Kaidon Salter.

RECRUITING: P4 Target Lineman Chooses South Florida

Last season, Brown averaged 253.2 passing yards per game, going over 300-yards in a game four times. Only 19 years old, Brown’s best days are likely ahead of him as well.

South Florida are set to open the 2024 campaign on August 31 at 7 PM against Bethune Cookman.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The Coral Gables Art Cinema will be short more than $100,000 this year. About $150,000 has suddenly disappeared from the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra’s budget. The Miami New Drama also has an unexpected $150,000 budget hole.

Across Florida, arts groups are scrambling after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis unexpectedly vetoed $32 million in arts funding on June 12, eliminating all state grants for those organizations in a move that advocates say will devastate arts and culture in the Sunshine State.

“What baffles me is that Florida has been trying to attract business from New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, and what message are we sending if we cut funding to our cultural organizations?” said Michel Hausmann, artistic director and co-founder of the Miami New Drama in Miami Beach. “Are you going to attract people to a state where arts and culture aren’t valued? They are the lifeline of a city.”

Arts leaders across the state say it’s the first time they recall a Florida governor eliminating all grant funding for arts and culture, and it comes as arts organizations that survived COVID-19 pandemic closures are still recovering with smaller attendance and revenues.

For the more than 600 arts groups and facilities that were up for state grants, DeSantis’ veto was a surprise because the Legislature had approved arts funding, though what lawmakers approved was less than half of what was initially recommended by the state Division of Arts and Culture. Florida arts organizations had planned their budgets accordingly.

When asked at a news conference on Thursday why he vetoed arts funding in the state’s $116.5 billion budget, DeSantis said some of the money was slotted for programming that many taxpayers would find objectionable because of its sexual nature or for other reasons.

“When I see money being spent that way, I have to be the one to stand up for taxpayers and say, ‘You know what, that is an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars,’” DeSantis said. “I think the Legislature needs to reevaluate how that’s being done.”

Most arts groups are still assessing the impact, but some may have to cut programming or staff.

“We are appealing to the community to help cover part of the budget deficit and we are exploring other funding opportunities in the private sector,” said Brenda Moe, executive director of Coral Gables Art Cinema. “We must get creative to plug this hole.”

The Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra will trim expenses, look for a way to increase revenue and hope county and city officials fill some of the gap, said Karina Bharne, the symphony’s executive director.

State grants made up 10% of the Coral Gables Art Cinema’s budget, more than 3% of the Miami New Drama’s budget and around 2% of the Orlando Philharmonic’s budget.

PEN America, the free-speech nonprofit, likened the arts funding cuts to legislative priorities pushed by the DeSantis administration, such as laws limiting what can be said in classrooms about sexual orientation and gender identity and prohibiting the teaching of an academic framework outlining the ways systemic racism is part of American society.

”DeSantis is taking his war on culture to a new level,” said Katie Blankenship, director of PEN America’s Florida office. “This decision will not only devastate the arts but add to his legacy of censorship and disregard for art, literature, and knowledge.”

State grants are important to Florida arts groups not only because of their monetary size but because they can be used for salaries, rent, insurance and utilities. Often, private donors make gifts with strings attached for certain programs or performances. Ticket sales cover as little as a third of some arts groups’ budgets.

“It hurts us dramatically in our ability to pay rent and pay salaries,” said Robert Kesten, executive director of the Stonewall National Museum Archives & Library in Fort Lauderdale, which had been expecting $42,300 from the state this year.

To overcome shortfalls, arts groups may have to explore alternative fundraising strategies, such as tapping new Florida residents who haven’t donated before, or collaborate with each other by sharing staff, spaces, costumes or sets, said Jennifer Evins, president and CEO of United Arts of Central Florida in Orlando.

Florida’s arts and cultural industry generates $5.7 billion in economic activity a year, including $2.9 billion by nonprofit arts and culture organizations, and supports more than 91,000 full-time jobs, according to a study from Americans for the Arts in collaboration with the state Division of Arts and Culture and Citizens for Florida Arts Inc.

“We make a huge impact on the quality of life. We make the state more appealing, and we don’t cost money,” Hausmann said. “There’s no justification for this cut unless it’s trying to make a political statement. It’s not an economic one.”

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Associated Press reporters Cody Jackson in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Florida, contributed to this report.

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Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform X: @MikeSchneiderAP.

Florida International University ranked highest among the 12 Florida public universities in qualifying for performance-based funding awards. 

Criteria to determine the awards include graduate employment or further education, median wage of graduates, tuition and fees, graduates with degrees in areas of strategic emphasis, and other indicia of academic progress. 

Eleven of the state’s 12 public universities scored above 70 out of 100, the threshold to receive all of their share of state-allocated funding. The pot contains more than $300 million, with shares ranging from $71 million for the University of Florida to $5.1 million at New College of Florida. 

One university will miss out on at least half of its performance-based funding. Florida Gulf Coast University would have been entitled to $15.3 million but posted the lowest score at 63. Because that’s under a 70 score, that entitles it to at least $3.8 million since it met the first requirement of submitting a student success plan and, if the plan is implemented plan by March, it would qualify to double that amount to $7.6 million.

However, the balance of the original entitlement will be shared among FIU, the University of Florida, Florida State University, and University of South Florida, which scored the highest (FSU and USF tied for third place).

“I’m very proud to say we’ve already implemented the student success improvement plan and I assure you that we are not going to have the same conversation next year, so we are already seeing the improvements in many of our metrics,” FGCU President Aysegul Timur said during the Thursday meeting of the State University System Board of Governors in Orlando.

FIU has scored the highest in three of the past four years, notching a 96 this year. 

State government instituted the performance-based funding program in 2014. 

Board members are talking about fiddling with the formula, partly because high-scoring universities can get penalized if their scores decline even modestly. For example, The University of Central Florida scored 85 points this year, two points less than last year; if it drops by even one point next year, it would be required to submit a student success plan, but still be eligible for 100% of funding as long its score remains above 70.

Other schools that scored lower than the year before are Florida A&M University, Florida Polytechnic University, the University of North Florida, and USF.

Additionally, FSU Board of Trustees chair Peter Collins said that increased investments to attract students who receive Pell grants — a factor in the scoring — could prove a poor use of money, because it could spark in-state competition for that pool of students. 

Alan Levine, vice chair of the Board of Governors, acknowledged Collins’s point, adding that, given Florida universities’ national rankings, it makes sense for the board to start measuring Florida universities against their peers in other states, such as the University of Michigan and Duke.

“Evolving these metrics to be more specific to the institution and that institution’s goals makes a whole lot of sense, given where we are,” Levine said.

Overall, Levine praised the performance-based funding program, saying it produced improvements at FAMU. 

FAMU ranking up for discussion

During the board’s Friday meeting, a representative of the FAMU Alumni Association, William Youmans, said the university’s score of 72 is respectable but argued the university deserves credit “in context of the challenges that our students overcome and the university’s accomplishments.”

“FAMU is persevering through it all,” Youmans said, given that many of its incoming students aren’t as prepared for college because of social and other barriers that the university needs to help them overcome.

FAMU is the only historically Black university in the State University System. More than 80% of its students are Black and more than 90% are students of color.

“Some metrics are interdependent and should be calculated in context to each other, such as graduation rate and university-access rate to the actual outcomes, to include the social mobility index,” Youmans said.

The social-mobility index calculates a school’s role in improving the economic mobility of its students.

Despite historical factors affecting the communities broadly served by FAMU, its students must compete with the other 11 universities in categories such as starting salary of graduates, graduation rate, and incoming high school GPA, or else the university risks forfeiting performance funds to the other universities.

In the first year of performance-based funding, 2012-13, FAMU tied for seventh out of the 11 universities. This year, it ranked tenth of 12.

FAMU was ranked the 2024 best among Historically Black Colleges and Universities by Niche and the 91st best public school in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report.