 Under his leadership UCF became a "very high research activity" university as ranked by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and the university's football program ascended to Division I-A (FBS) in 1996 and joined the American Athletic Conference (The American).In October 2011, Hitt accepted a five-year contract extension.In 2012, the main campus library was renamed in honor of Hitt, who at the time was celebrating his twentieth anniversary as university president.