I have stated on several threads on the realignment board that I believe that USM's best option for the immediate future might be a return to independence for football. Since baseball and basketball access can be achieved through winning conference tournaments, it wouldn't matter whether USM was in the Sun Belt, CUSA or some other league for non-football sports. Certainly I would rather they play the best competition possible, like Rice in baseball, but a few of those series could always be scheduled.

Of course, if USM is invited to rejoin some of their old conference mates in whatever happens with the remnants of the Big East, they will likely end up accepting that invitation. But barring that, no invitation will ever come from the SEC nor the Big XII or ACC as they are currently constituted.

Independence in football could position USM for inclusion in the round of expansion that follows any raid of the ACC by the SEC, Big 10 and/or the Big XII. Success with a competitive schedule would draw the kind of attention that USM would need for an invitation. Another added bonus is that any bowl money earned doesn't have to be split with anypne.

While scheduling can be a problem late in the season, I believe it could be worked out. BYU is already on the upcoming schedule and I have heard rumors of discussions with Notre Dame. Navy or Army could fill a late season slot and several SEC schools have an OOC slot for the week before their rivalry game. If you get creative, it can work.

If USM can schedule 3-4 SEC schools, and 2-3 Big XII/ACC schools, I think filling out the rest of the schedule shouldn't be terribly difficult. Just using teams that are on upcoming schedules and recently played teams, I could see a schedule like this:

Kansas/Virginia
Nebraska
Alabama
Tulane
LSU
Memphis
Tennessee
ECU
Mississippi State
BYU
Navy/Army
UAB

Throw in a game with Rice and Marshall when you can or La. Tech/ULL and I think you've got a schedule that coaches can recruit to and would make a winning team an attractive bowl candidate.

(12-16-2012 03:59 AM)Zombiewoof Wrote:  I have stated on several threads on the realignment board that I believe that USM's best option for the immediate future might be a return to independence for football. Since baseball and basketball access can be achieved through winning conference tournaments, it wouldn't matter whether USM was in the Sun Belt, CUSA or some other league for non-football sports. Certainly I would rather they play the best competition possible, like Rice in baseball, but a few of those series could always be scheduled.

Of course, if USM is invited to rejoin some of their old conference mates in whatever happens with the remnants of the Big East, they will likely end up accepting that invitation. But barring that, no invitation will ever come from the SEC nor the Big XII or ACC as they are currently constituted.

Independence in football could position USM for inclusion in the round of expansion that follows any raid of the ACC by the SEC, Big 10 and/or the Big XII. Success with a competitive schedule would draw the kind of attention that USM would need for an invitation. Another added bonus is that any bowl money earned doesn't have to be split with anypne.

While scheduling can be a problem late in the season, I believe it could be worked out. BYU is already on the upcoming schedule and I have heard rumors of discussions with Notre Dame. Navy or Army could fill a late season slot and several SEC schools have an OOC slot for the week before their rivalry game. If you get creative, it can work.

If USM can schedule 3-4 SEC schools, and 2-3 Big XII/ACC schools, I think filling out the rest of the schedule shouldn't be terribly difficult. Just using teams that are on upcoming schedules and recently played teams, I could see a schedule like this:

Kansas/Virginia
Nebraska
Alabama
Tulane
LSU
Memphis
Tennessee
ECU
Mississippi State
BYU
Navy/Army
UAB

Throw in a game with Rice and Marshall when you can or La. Tech/ULL and I think you've got a schedule that coaches can recruit to and would make a winning team an attractive bowl candidate.

several problems with this idea. scheduling 12 games isn't easy especially if you have a reputation of being likely to beat the bigger guys. USM is in such a small tv market it would go too often unnoticed and make recruiting even harder. Conference shares money with it's schools and that is important income especially when you are in our tv market and don't have the wealthy alum like Ole Miss, State and such. C-USA is our best fit right now and if the Big East football teams do form a new conference then if the deal is worthy we could join it, but we would need guarantees to insure it is a viable move. Also I forgot to add that BOWL guarantees will be more available in a conference as well as a bad season like 2012 would be more costly than it has been.

Can we change our votes on this one?

I can see BYU scheduling Southern Miss every year in November.

I'm leaning even more toward the independence option. They could form a more geographically compact conference for Olympic sports or join an existing conference. Then as a football independent, they should be able to schedule enough P5 games to be considered relevant. They are not relevant today and it's looking worse and worse for football as the years go by. It's time to do something radical.

If they could get annual home and home series' with Army, Navy and BYU, that would go a long way towards helping fill tough dates. Any time Notre Dame is playing USC, there is a PAC12 school not playing in conference. Same goes for games the Irish are playing in the Big 10 and ACC. USM should try scheduling the corresponding teams.

So you could end up with a schedule at USM like this:
Florida State
Mississippi State
Louisville
UCLA
Nebraska
Alabama
Texas A&M
Tulane/Rice
Army
BYU
Navy
LSU

That's eight P5 schools and if they were able to schedule a ninth, they could drop Tulane/Rice. That kind of schedule would garner attention and a winning season would get a bowl without the guarantee that conferences provide. But they wouldn't have to split the proceeds 15 ways.

Heck, to see USM relevant again, I'd go along with playing almost all of the P5s on the road if they paid a large enough fee. The point is, USM has to decide whether it is content to be just another team among the other relatively faceless members of the lower G5 or do they want to be relevant again. I am NOT saying that any of this would be without pain and I'm NOT saying it would translate into a P5 invitation, because it wouldn't in all likelihood. But a commitment to playing as close to a P5 schedule as possible would make them relevant again and that would be better than their prospects currently are.

(12-16-2012 03:59 AM)Zombiewoof Wrote:  I have stated on several threads on the realignment board that I believe that USM's best option for the immediate future might be a return to independence for football. Since baseball and basketball access can be achieved through winning conference tournaments, it wouldn't matter whether USM was in the Sun Belt, CUSA or some other league for non-football sports. Certainly I would rather they play the best competition possible, like Rice in baseball, but a few of those series could always be scheduled.

Of course, if USM is invited to rejoin some of their old conference mates in whatever happens with the remnants of the Big East, they will likely end up accepting that invitation. But barring that, no invitation will ever come from the SEC nor the Big XII or ACC as they are currently constituted.

Independence in football could position USM for inclusion in the round of expansion that follows any raid of the ACC by the SEC, Big 10 and/or the Big XII. Success with a competitive schedule would draw the kind of attention that USM would need for an invitation. Another added bonus is that any bowl money earned doesn't have to be split with anypne.

While scheduling can be a problem late in the season, I believe it could be worked out. BYU is already on the upcoming schedule and I have heard rumors of discussions with Notre Dame. Navy or Army could fill a late season slot and several SEC schools have an OOC slot for the week before their rivalry game. If you get creative, it can work.

If USM can schedule 3-4 SEC schools, and 2-3 Big XII/ACC schools, I think filling out the rest of the schedule shouldn't be terribly difficult. Just using teams that are on upcoming schedules and recently played teams, I could see a schedule like this:

Kansas/Virginia
Nebraska
Alabama
Tulane
LSU
Memphis
Tennessee
ECU
Mississippi State
BYU
Navy/Army
UAB

Throw in a game with Rice and Marshall when you can or La. Tech/ULL and I think you've got a schedule that coaches can recruit to and would make a winning team an attractive bowl candidate.

I was around back when we were an independent and remember the horrible time we had with scheduling. With the schedule you propose you are signing the death warrant for USM football. You might get two home games a year if you are lucky. How about bowl games? Do you want to win 8 games and stay home? You might not get fired up about the late season games with conference foes, but they now mean something. How about giving up on the TV contract money? People at USM worked their butts off to get us into a conference. The nightmare days as an independent are thankfully over.

Resurrecting an old thread here, I feel like that USM needs to do whatever it can to get into the AAC. I've been on the fence about C-USA in the past and even supported it too. Not anymore. Banowsky has turned our conference into a laughing stock and while he did manage to lure in Charlotte and ODU, we picked up UTSA, FIU, and FAU too. With the exception of Louisiana Tech( a solid add btw), and UAB, we have no rivals in C-USA. And who's to say that UAB isn't eyeing the AAC as well? All the more reason to leave this conference but continue to play Louisiana Tech pic. UTEP is wanting to leave already. We should take a cue from the Miners, IMO.

I think that particular schedule is a little too tough, but yes, I have been touting going independent for a number of years now. if we don't get in the AAC, then I wish we would bail on this conference.

We would probably have to play a home and home with Alabama A&M to fill a hole in the schedule. No thank you. Independence is a terrible, ill-conceived and honestly ignorant idea.

People that want to go independent just have no earthly idea how tough scheduling already is. It will be a nightmare if we went independent. If you wanted a decent schedule, you'd probably end up with 4 home games.

Even the independents that have entire RELIGIONS behind them are just barely making a go of it. The days of independents who don't have Uncle Sam money are over.

(08-08-2016 10:43 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  Even the independents that have entire RELIGIONS behind them are just barely making a go of it. The days of independents who don't have Uncle Sam money are over.

i bet they arent in worse shape than the CUSA schools.

We can't go indy. How are we going to schedule games in October and November when everyone is booked?

If BYU has trouble with this, you know we will.

(08-08-2016 11:28 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(08-08-2016 10:43 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  Even the independents that have entire RELIGIONS behind them are just barely making a go of it. The days of independents who don't have Uncle Sam money are over.

i bet they arent in worse shape than the CUSA schools.

I wonder if you know where our budgets ranks in CUSA? Nationally?

(08-08-2016 11:28 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  i bet they arent in worse shape than the CUSA schools.

And that's a bet you'd lose. Our budget is tiny, even smaller than many FCS schools.
Here's a chart from 2014-15:
http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/

You'll find Southern Miss behind schools like Townson, William and Mary, California Polytechnic, etc, etc

(08-10-2016 12:04 PM)Bleacher Eagle Wrote:  

(08-08-2016 11:28 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  i bet they arent in worse shape than the CUSA schools.

And that's a bet you'd lose. Our budget is tiny, even smaller than many FCS schools.
Here's a chart from 2014-15:
http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/

You'll find Southern Miss behind schools like Townson, William and Mary, California Polytechnic, etc, etc

The "they" im referring to is BYU, not USM.

Independant stature would be the death of USM football.

This post is 4 years old......

(08-10-2016 01:04 PM)99beers Wrote:  This post is 4 years old......

Yet there are goofballs that still think this is a viable option.

You can't fix stupid - Ron White

The only way it conceivably works is if you convince a few other schools to do it at the same time, collectively negotiate for a bowl bid, and agree to schedule one another round-robin.

...which of course is what we did prior to creating an actual conference because being a Independent sucked so badly on so many levels.