RUMOR: Southern Miss to the Sun Belt

untjim1995 · October 20, 2021

2 minutes ago, Mean Green Matt said:

Where are their new homes? The Big 12 very well may just stay at 12. The more they add the more they dilute the revenue share. Maybe the ACC, but that will probably require a couple of defectors from the ACC first.

I think SMU will go to the MWC and Memphis will either go there or be the first Big 12 replacement for when KU gets pulled up to another Power League.

Wag Tag · October 20, 2021

2 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

I think SMU will go to the MWC and Memphis will either go there or be the first Big 12 replacement for when KU gets pulled up to another Power League.

SMU the MWC or independent, but why? They would walk away from $ 30m in exit fees and pay $10m to leave. If they chose either of those options I feel it would be advantageous to us. They are going to sit tight and pray for the Big 12!

MDH · October 20, 2021

Can the AAC exits nudge (pay) the remaining C-USA members to join other conferences by giving them $ to play road games in the future? We really need G5>G4 consolidation. Exit fees propping up a conference only to call upon schools that shouldn't be in FBS is senseless for the greater good of FBS football. NMSU, FCS call ups to C-USA thanks to our exit fees are dumb.

Edited October 20, 2021 by MDH

meangreen11 · October 20, 2021

57 minutes ago, MDH said:

Can the AAC exits nudge (pay) the remaining C-USA members to join other conferences by giving them $ to play road games in the future? We really need G5>G4 consolidation. Exit fees propping up a conference only to call upon schools that shouldn't be in FBS is senseless for the greater good of FBS football. NMSU, FCS call ups to C-USA thanks to our exit fees are dumb.

You are right but the problem is these conference officals are making big bucks that they would not make in any other job they would be qualified for. Judy probably makes north of $200K! So they will do whatever is in their best interest to continue getting paid for many many years. Even the crappy WAC still pays their conference employee nice salaries and that conference doesn't even play football anymore lol.

untbowler · October 20, 2021

4 minutes ago, meangreen11 said:

You are right but the problem is these conference officals are making big bucks that they would not make in any other job they would be qualified for. Judy probably makes north of $200K! So they will do whatever is in their best interest to continue getting paid for many many years. Even the crappy WAC still pays their conference employee nice salaries and that conference doesn't even play football anymore lol.

actually they are playing Football again, albeit at FCS level, transitioning schools Tarleton St and Dixie St make them a FB conference again in 2023 I believe

MeanGreenTexan · October 20, 2021

1 hour ago, Wag Tag said:

SMU the MWC or independent, but why? They would walk away from $ 30m in exit fees and pay $10m to leave. If they chose either of those options I feel it would be advantageous to us. They are going to sit tight and pray for the Big 12!

SMU is getting $30million in exit fees?

Wag Tag · October 20, 2021

1 minute ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

SMU is getting $30million in exit fees?

Sorry the AAC will get $10m per team that is leaving. I'm not sure how that is divided among existing teams.

wardly · October 20, 2021

4 hours ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

If true, it's time for LaTech to swallow their ULL/ULM disdain and join them. It's a far better conference than what's left of C-USA.

Too late. They looked down their nose at ULM and ULL too long and now, with these two programs established in the SBC, there is no need nor interest from the SBC for a 3rd Louisiana program. Assume CUSA gets plucked down to 6 programs their. future looks dim. A quick fix would to add NMSU and Liberty and the try to get some 1AA programs to move up. Its still a long haul from ODU to UTEP, so we might see the Monarchs knock on the MAC's door to see in there is room at the inn. The bottom line is that some decent programs like W.K. and MTSU might be left out in the cold.

Salsa_Verde · October 20, 2021

2 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

I think Aresco went to 14 teams because he knows Memphis and SMU are going to find new homes. That would still give the AAC 12 teams with clearly delineated divisions of 6 teams:

Western Division Eastern Division

Tulsa, UNT, UTSA, Rice, Tulane, and UAB Temple, Charlotte, ECU, FAU, USF, and Navy

Yeah I really don’t know where Memphis and SMU would go.

NorthTexasSportsNetwork · October 21, 2021

4 hours ago, Salsa_Verde said:

Yeah I really don’t know where Memphis and SMU would go.

SMU and Memphis people say Big12, and some kid today told me “SMU was in deep contact with the Pac12 recently” which I of course laughed at

meangreen11 · October 21, 2021

McMurphy on the GMG pod tonight did not give any indication there was any Big 12 invites pending. We will have SMU and Memphis in the conference for some time it appears.

Mean Green Matt · October 21, 2021

10 minutes ago, NorthTexasSportsNetwork said:

SMU and Memphis people say Big12, and some kid today told me “SMU was in deep contact with the Pac12 recently” which I of course laughed at

If the PAC12 were interested in a religious school they’d have taken BYU.

Coach Andy Mac · October 21, 2021

Mean Green 93-98 · October 21, 2021

19 minutes ago, Mean Green Matt said:

If the PAC12 were interested in a religious school they’d have taken BYU.

The PAC's issues with BYU go beyond the fact that they're religious. But I imagine their issues with SMU would, too.

NorthTexasWeLove · October 21, 2021

Sunbelt might be onto getting good.

PlummMeanGreen · October 21, 2021

If USM had UNT’s location I firmly believe they would be in a P5 conference today. Back in the 70’s they were averaging 35,000 a game. I’d been following their program when SUMG back then told me about a Fall 1975 Southern Living magazine which had an annual college football preview of Deep South schools. Southern Living in that edition featured Southern Miss when Bobby Collins was HFC.

That edition had a 2 page color centerfold of Roberts Stadium with Bobby Collins standing in front of it. The USM coach talked about how they had been getting leftover recruits which Ole Miss & Mississippi State didn’t want. He stressed how they were slowly changing that M.O. with their facilities—sound familiar?

When RV first came to UNT he told me at his first ever gathering that the USM Golden Eagles were trying to pattern their program after the Fry-era Mean Green football program. Fry was scheduling schools most present G5 schools could only dream of playing in the 70’s.
No school of our pedigree back then (that I can recall) ever scheduled Darrell K. Royal’s UT Longhorns except UNT. Fry merely picked up a phone, spoke to DKR & “wala” he scheduled 4 games with the Horns. (Other UT/UNT games would come later).
I empathize for USM because I always thought they deserved better. They paid their dues to do better as early as the 1970’s. What’s happening in all this NCAA conference re-alignment sucks for some schools & you know which ones.
UNT got lucky with the AAC—hope we show ourselves to be worthy. •••Being at Apogee this Saturday at 3:00 pm would be a helluva good start.

🦅

Edited October 21, 2021 by PlummMeanGreen

Legend500 · October 21, 2021

12 hours ago, keith said:

C-USA blew its opportunity when the news of UT and OU going to the SEC broke. At that point, everything was set in motion. C-USA should have immediately tried to woo several schools from the SBC in anticipation of the dominos that were sure to fall. No clue if C-USA would have been successful. The window of leveraging the perceived hierarchy of conference movement was still slightly open at that time...C-USA draws from SBC and SBC is the entry point for FCS schools moving up. Instead it decided to pay "consultants" to hear what everyone already knew and float an offer that reeked of desperation to the AAC that was DOA before it was ever sent. Complete fail.

A lot of this is outside the conference's remit early on, as there were pretty high level boosters for a large exurban university and a moderately sized suburban university already meeting like absconding lovers at a breadwinning breakfast location a day or tue after the TX/OU news broke. A lot of the preparatory work for this happens years before anything actually happens.

TreeFiddy · October 21, 2021

I feel like the mouse killed CUSA by making it clear they wanted no part of TV rights after CUSA did not let ESPN match /beat CBS offer. From then it was known that ESPN was not competing so the TV deals dwindled down to nothing due to lack of competition. Lack of good exposure is a death spiral.

Hope we take advantage of the opportunity that seems to be in front of us.

wardly · October 21, 2021

12 hours ago, Coach Andy Mac said:

Also just reported the SBC is considering adding 4 schools, and have targeted So. Miss., Marshall, ODU, and James Madison. It's my undertanding that So. Miss. is a go , Marshall is on the fence, and that ODU is still exploring options. If these 3 CUSA programs move to the SBC that leaves CUSA with 5 schools. Liberty would get them to 6 but I don't know how they get up to 8 or 10. New Mexico State might look good at this point.

Salsa_Verde · October 21, 2021

13 hours ago, NorthTexasSportsNetwork said:

SMU and Memphis people say Big12, and some kid today told me “SMU was in deep contact with the Pac12 recently” which I of course laughed at

Yeah I don’t know about the PAC12…..that’s a stretch