With a little more than a day before the University of South Florida’s season opener against Tennessee Martin, the Bulls have already distributed 43,000 tickets.

That guarantees USF will exceed the announced crowd of 43,122 for the 2005 home opener against Florida A&M, the second largest home opening crowd in program history. USF could challenge the all-time home opening mark of 49,212, set in the program’s inaugural game in 1997.

Also, school officials said the Bulls already have sold 46,500 tickets for the Sept. 12 Kansas game, which will be televised on ESPN2. The game is expected to be a sell out.

Favored sons: Pat Forde, one of my favorite writers at ESPN.com, had a tremendous note concerning teams that have the longest active streaks being favored by the Las Vegas oddsmakers against Division I-A teams.

A lot of it has to do with how good a team is, but a lot of it also has to do with how good a team is perceived to be by the betting public.

USF was favored in its final nine games of last season, which ranks as the fifth-longest active streak in the nation. Although the Bulls were favored in those nine games, their record was only 5-4.

By comparison, here are the nation’s teams with the four longest active streaks as favorites entering this season: LSU 21 games, 19-2 record; Oklahoma 20 games, 16-4 record; Clemson 11 games, 7-4 record; and BYU 10 games, 9-1 record.

Genshaft will held name next commish: USF President Judy Genshaft is among a six-person Big East committee that will chose the league’s next commissioner after Mike Tranghese announced this would be his final year.

Besides Genshaft, the committee, co-chaired by Georgetown President John J. DeGioia and Pittsburgh President Mark Nordenberg, also includes presidents or chancellors from Marquette, Notre Dame and Rutgers.

Don’t tell Grothe this: On Monday, Chick-fil-A will give three free chicken strips to anyone wearing their favorite football team’s attire. Chick-fil-A officials throughout Tampa and Lakeland have been notified to be on the lookout for a repeat customer wearing a green No. 8 jersey.

Other USF notes: For those readers in the Fort Myers area, USF’s football games will be broadcast on WPTK-AM 1200 and WNPL-AM 1460. … The Bulls’ volleyball season begins Friday with the four-team USF Invitational at the Corral. … The men’s soccer team opens the season Saturday against Bowling Green at the University of Tampa’s Pepin-Rood Stadium. … The women’s soccer team (0-0-1) visits UAB Friday. ... Time’s running out: if you want to enter the Tribune/TBO.com picks contest for this week, here’s the link. I’ll post my predictions for the UT Martin game later Friday or Saturday.