Southern Miss Joins the Sun Belt

[letsgiveacheer]

On 10/23/2021 at 1:49 PM, ChristopherRyanWilkes said:

The remaining CUSA teams can learn from what the Sun Belt did. Stick together and add the best FCS and independent teams you can. It may be a long pay off, but those FCS call ups can become good quick. We’ve seen that time and time again. 

That seems to be their plan. I was listening to ESPNU on Sirius XM this morning and one of their guests was talking about this. He said that CUSA was planning to reinvent themselves as a Texas-SouthWest centric conference. Judy was fielding calls from FBS potentials from all over the region. The guest, whoever he was, seemed to be very knowledgeable about what's going on.

[Arkstfan]

21 hours ago, NM Green said:

I love the sun belt now. Glad we are in AAC but not convinced it’s better than the Belt. Was excited to tune into one of the country’s greatest new rivalries on Wednesday and was treated to a great game. Appy and Coastal are legit. Good programs fun fanbases. Southern Miss gonna prosper in this league. 
 

gmg

As I said in a post a week or so ago, this was a great realignment. The folks drawing maps aren’t going to like it but the AAC and Sun Belt it produced are now much more alliances for like-minded schools, similar schools. Except for ECU, AAC football is large metro based colleges. But for Georgia State, Sun Belt football is college towns and smaller cities. 
 

The reality is realignment has been triggered by radical shifts in the marketplace. The TV business started changing in the 80’s with the rise of cable, then the creation of the conference networks and now streaming. Inefficiencies came into existence and the market adjusted. 
 

It finally became foolish for OU and UT to stay in the Big XII because the financial cost of not acting was too great. 
 

There is a higher probability of stability coming to alignment than any time the past two decades. Absent some pilfering of Pac12 or ACC there’s not a lot of value left for B1G and SEC to plunder and it generate enough revenue to justify the additional splits. 
 

I would be surprised if UNT’s administration looked around and said man this western division doesn’t suit us with UNT UTSA, Rice, SMU, Tulsa, Tulane, Memphis just as I’d be surprised if AState’s administration is looking around in five years saying Troy, USA, USM, UL, ULM, TXST, man these aren’t our people. 
 

Sucks for UTEP and FIU because geography isn’t their friend.  WKU and MTSU maybe can slide over to MAC.

[Arkstfan]

7 hours ago, rcade said:

AAC schools are getting $7 million a year in TV money. Sun Belt schools are getting $500,000.

The AAC deal may change after this round of musical conferences, but not enough to make the Sun Belt a preferable conference to be in.

The reports are AAC is getting cut and that cut amount will support $7 million for current members $2 million for the six newcomers or roughly $54 million. Sun Belt will get $2 million per member or $28 million. Question is how much if any of the AAC figure for the existing members is exit fees spread out over time. CUSA was a reported $1 million per in the last realignment that became around $200,000 after the exit fees ran out and was at $400,000 in the last deal per paper in Norfolk. 

[Cerebus]

On 10/22/2021 at 6:45 PM, El Paso Eagle said:

In his interview with Harry, Brett McMurphy said they could maintain FBS membership as a conference with 6 members, but realistically need 8. 

McMurphy is wrong on this.  NCAA Bylaw 20.02.6 states that for a conference to keep FBS status they need to have eight football playing members that meet all FBS requirements.  

However, don't think our exit fees go away even if CUSA loses FBS status.  They only need seven members to be a multi sport division one  conference.  

They can get to seven members, probably a mix of current FBS independents and FCS schools who want to transition to FBS. 

 If they can't get to eight FBS members right away, the current CUSA members can go independent until the new members move to FBS and then reform the FBS CUSA.  They'll have $27M in exit fees to re-distribute to keep them afloat until that happens.  

 

[Wag Tag]

31 minutes ago, Cerebus said:

McMurphy is wrong on this.  NCAA Bylaw 20.02.6 states that for a conference to keep FBS status they need to have eight football playing members that meet all FBS requirements.  

However, don't think our exit fees go away even if CUSA loses FBS status.  They only need seven members to be a multi sport division one  conference.  

They can get to seven members, probably a mix of current FBS independents and FCS schools who want to transition to FBS. 

 If they can't get to eight FBS members right away, the current CUSA members can go independent until the new members move to FBS and then reform the FBS CUSA.  They'll have $27M in exit fees to re-distribute to keep them afloat until that happens.  

 

I would think they would have zero Distribution interests. 

[Arkstfan]

2 hours ago, Cerebus said:

McMurphy is wrong on this.  NCAA Bylaw 20.02.6 states that for a conference to keep FBS status they need to have eight football playing members that meet all FBS requirements.  

However, don't think our exit fees go away even if CUSA loses FBS status.  They only need seven members to be a multi sport division one  conference.  

They can get to seven members, probably a mix of current FBS independents and FCS schools who want to transition to FBS. 

 If they can't get to eight FBS members right away, the current CUSA members can go independent until the new members move to FBS and then reform the FBS CUSA.  They'll have $27M in exit fees to re-distribute to keep them afloat until that happens.  

 

The TLDR 

Six. Number for auto bids all sports except basketball and football

Seven. Number needed for auto bid in mens basketball

Eight. Number of full FBS members needed to be a FBS conference. 
 

Two years. Grace period to comply with basketball and football requirements. 
 

So if CUSA departees enter their new league for the 2023-24 academic year, CUSA has until the 2025-26 academic year to get back up to the numbers. 
 

Any FCS will likely do first year transition in 2022-23 and be ineligible for playoffs but won’t have to play FBS schedule yet. 2023-24 they do second year and have to play a complying schedule and full FBS In 2024-25