(08-28-2019 10:29 AM)Nugget49er Wrote: To steal Appy from the Sun Belt, would they not need to actually have been in the Sun Belt? They did not join until after C-USA "stole" WKU, MTSU, NT and FAU. The Sun Belt reached down into the SoCon to grab that one-sport program to shore up its depleted ranks.
If you read the article in its entirety, here is what they say about the Mountaineers:
Quote:SP+ is not (yet) programmed to take coaching changes into account, so the view of Appalachian State is as if Scott Satterfield were still in charge there. You tend to regress toward the mean a bit with a new coach, so it's probably going to be pretty hard for the Mountaineers to maintain top-30 status.
This is where Karl Benson showed his true genius.
The incompetent CUSA inexplicably took the Sun Belts lowest performing programs (and some medium ones), and he turns around and makes the best two football invites he possibly could have, while also cutting outliers in the conference.
App and Ga Sou have ushered in a Renaissance (or more realistically an establishment) of high quality Sun Belt football, and have started an athletic arms race from Sun Belt programs to keep upping the competitive nature of the conference.
Meanwhile, perception has changed and most outlets and models are consistently putting Sunbelt over CUSA for the product on the field. The Sunbelt is positioned nicely from a conference stability standpoint.
Sure, basketball hasn't buttoned up as nicely, but basketball is easier to fix than football.
Edit to add RE: Karl Benson conference moves, I think the Sunbelt ended up with the better of the "big market" potential teams (GSU over UNCC), the better of the Texas potential teams Texas State over UTSA (this is more of a tossup than definitive) but CUSA got the better of the "mid market" potential teams imo (ODU over USA).