I love Marshall as a conference mate and am glad they are SBC with us. But this explains why they dragged feet so badly and kept trying to keep us on C-USA’s board until we went public.
Solid article.

This quote from the article by WKU AD Todd Stewart kind of reminds me of the stunt WKU pulled when they left the SBC.

"It was just a little bit ironic, I think, for everybody to be in the room together on a Sunday and a Monday, and on Monday night it's learned that six are leaving. It was just tough timing," Stewart said. "Really what it does is it just causes everybody to kind of wonder who they can trust. That's not just in Conference USA – I think that's throughout the industry right now. I think there's real trust issues among a lot of people."

I guess what goes around comes around.

Never good when you hook your wagon to another school. When someone else is determining your future, they will choose what’s best for them, not you,

I would assume the SBC added all three of JMU, ODU and Marshall as a package that also included keeping App St, Coastal and GaSo. Had we not added, we may have lost those 3. Then the SBC would have been the ones stretched to UTEP and NMSU.

My biggest takeaway was a WKU official confirming:

1) They absolutely wanted to move to the MAC
2) MT hosed them and kept that from happening
3) They’ll be on the first bus out if the opportunity presents itself again

None of that is breaking news, but an administrator just laying it all out on the record like that is interesting. Usually when things don’t pan out, you get the “We eventually decided it was in our best interest to do it this way instead” b.s.

There’s a general understanding that Southern Miss moving would lead to the other 2 CUSA teams leaving. I’m not sure I believe in the confidence all 10 would stay together. USM had been talking to the SBC for a while at that point.

(11-13-2021 11:24 AM)Usajags Wrote:  Never good when you hook your wagon to another school. When someone else is determining your future, they will choose what’s best for them, not you,

I cannot fathom the agony I would feel if USM got blocked from joining the Sun Belt because Louisiana Tech was broke and didn’t want to wear a coat.

WKU’s coaches are going to get told to run up the score on MT as badly and as often as possible.

(11-13-2021 11:28 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  There’s a general understanding that Southern Miss moving would lead to the other 2 CUSA teams leaving. I’m not sure I believe in the confidence all 10 would stay together. USM had been talking to the SBC for a while at that point.

Yeah, I don’t buy that part of the story for a second. I can’t remember where, but I heard or read the serious USM/SBC conversations started back in March.

i wouldn't hate it if we invite back WKU down the road.

(11-13-2021 11:41 AM)HarborPointe Wrote:  

(11-13-2021 11:28 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  There’s a general understanding that Southern Miss moving would lead to the other 2 CUSA teams leaving. I’m not sure I believe in the confidence all 10 would stay together. USM had been talking to the SBC for a while at that point.

Yeah, I don’t buy that part of the story for a second. I can’t remember where, but I heard or read the serious USM/SBC conversations started back in March.

Would that be around the time the baseball tourney mysteriously moved from Biloxi to ruston?

WKU has out a “for sale” sign in their front yard for other conferences. They are unhappy with CUSA and unhappy with MTSU. Not sure where the MAC would go for a 14th team if they eventually add WKU. Maybe if one of those directional Michigan schools that average about 1500 a game will decide to drop football.

(11-13-2021 10:22 AM)Eagle in the gym Wrote:  I love Marshall as a conference mate and am glad they are SBC with us. But this explains why they dragged feet so badly and kept trying to keep us on C-USA’s board until we went public.
Solid article.

Marshall was announced four days after USM- the dates are right there in the article- and had no permanent AD or President. That’s not exactly foot dragging.

(11-13-2021 12:13 PM)FairwayEagle Wrote:  

(11-13-2021 10:22 AM)Eagle in the gym Wrote:  I love Marshall as a conference mate and am glad they are SBC with us. But this explains why they dragged feet so badly and kept trying to keep us on C-USA’s board until we went public.
Solid article.

Marshall was announced four days after USM- the dates are right there in the article- and had no permanent AD or President. That’s not exactly foot dragging.

My man, things didn’t just happen overnight. I’m talking about through the process. Ask some of your buddies in the loop. Marshall very much wanted us to back down and we were hell bent on coming the the Belt. Another poster is correct, Jeremy had stayed in communication with his Bely friends in case of such a scenario and jumped to work at the end of June to make it happen. Marshall has been an ally to USM well before they joined C-USA so I’m glad it worked out.

Everything that Marshall wanted to do, which was have an eastern based CUSA was blocked by Judy and minions. I wouldn't say Marshall wanted to stay but they have tried along with other schools including ODU, WKU and App was to put a top notch eastern based conference together. From what Ive been told this had been an on going process since early 2017.

Judy and her staff were hell bent on rebuilding CUSA West, even after 4 of the West was taken in North Texas, UTSA, Rice and UAB. That meant taking one of the worst football programs in the nation in NMSU and IAA schools. At that point there wasn't any use in trying anymore.

(11-13-2021 11:58 AM)Thegoldstandard Wrote:  

(11-13-2021 11:41 AM)HarborPointe Wrote:  

(11-13-2021 11:28 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  There’s a general understanding that Southern Miss moving would lead to the other 2 CUSA teams leaving. I’m not sure I believe in the confidence all 10 would stay together. USM had been talking to the SBC for a while at that point.

Yeah, I don’t buy that part of the story for a second. I can’t remember where, but I heard or read the serious USM/SBC conversations started back in March.

Would that be around the time the baseball tourney mysteriously moved from Biloxi to ruston?

Perhaps. I wouldn’t call the tourney leaving Biloxi a mystery, though. As great an event it was for the schools & fans, the outside group that managed & promoted it had, uh…issues.

I'm glad we did our best to help and protect everyone. I'm also glad that in the end we did what was best for us. No one should have any problem with the way we conducted ourselves during this, as a university. A few people blamed us as the bad guy for leaving after the initial 6 left.

Just as the last round of realignment if everyone stood their ground then the AAC would have floundered and we could have picked over the carcasses. People need to stop looking at them as the top destination and make them as vulnerable as the rest of us. They are only as strong as we let them be. They should have been the ones calling up FCS teams, not CUSA. But greed and perceived power are strong motivators. And I say that knowing fully well we would have gone in heartbeat if they'd asked. Knowing what we have now, it would have been a mistake. I firmly believe that.

If I had one wish, it would be to entice UAB and ECU to join this league. I know that's a lot of teams. But that would be an amazing league and have everybody here that I remotely care about in college football. WKU and LaTech excepted, but I understand why they aren't viable candidates to the Sun Belt peeps and I don't care about them as much as just used to playing them and enjoyed those games in football and basketball.

Honestly I feel bad for WKU. I wish there was room in the SBC or that the MAC could have found another team to add to get them to 14.

(11-13-2021 01:09 PM)MUther Wrote:  I'm glad we did our best to help and protect everyone. I'm also glad that in the end we did what was best for us. No one should have any problem with the way we conducted ourselves during this, as a university. A few people blamed us as the bad guy for leaving after the initial 6 left.

Just as the last round of realignment if everyone stood their ground then the AAC would have floundered and we could have picked over the carcasses. People need to stop looking at them as the top destination and make them as vulnerable as the rest of us. They are only as strong as we let them be. They should have been the ones calling up FCS teams, not CUSA. But greed and perceived power are strong motivators. And I say that knowing fully well we would have gone in heartbeat if they'd asked. Knowing what we have now, it would have been a mistake. I firmly believe that.

If I had one wish, it would be to entice UAB and ECU to join this league. I know that's a lot of teams. But that would be an amazing league and have everybody here that I remotely care about in college football. WKU and LaTech excepted, but I understand why they aren't viable candidates to the Sun Belt peeps and I don't care about them as much as just used to playing them and enjoyed those games in football and basketball.

I feel the same about UAB and ECU. Hopefully, these 14 members are the 14 members for a long time. We all need some stability, and the Sun Belt provides that in the form of tight-knit geography. No other G5 conference consists of a constant connection of states, even in the MAC. There's a high ceiling when it comes to the perception of the Sun Belt 10-20 years from now. The pieces are in place. Now we all just need to build up our programs the best we can, and together we can be the best G5 conference in the country.

10-20 years from now, if 16 members with 9 conference games ever becomes the norm throughout P5 conferences, I'm sure there's a chance the Sun Belt pursues UAB and ECU if the Sun Belt is perceived as either an equal or higher product than the AAC.

Yep ECU and UAB could make more money in the SunBelt with reduced costs. That would be and awesome line up.

(11-13-2021 02:04 PM)Yosef181 Wrote:  

(11-13-2021 01:09 PM)MUther Wrote:  I'm glad we did our best to help and protect everyone. I'm also glad that in the end we did what was best for us. No one should have any problem with the way we conducted ourselves during this, as a university. A few people blamed us as the bad guy for leaving after the initial 6 left.

Just as the last round of realignment if everyone stood their ground then the AAC would have floundered and we could have picked over the carcasses. People need to stop looking at them as the top destination and make them as vulnerable as the rest of us. They are only as strong as we let them be. They should have been the ones calling up FCS teams, not CUSA. But greed and perceived power are strong motivators. And I say that knowing fully well we would have gone in heartbeat if they'd asked. Knowing what we have now, it would have been a mistake. I firmly believe that.

If I had one wish, it would be to entice UAB and ECU to join this league. I know that's a lot of teams. But that would be an amazing league and have everybody here that I remotely care about in college football. WKU and LaTech excepted, but I understand why they aren't viable candidates to the Sun Belt peeps and I don't care about them as much as just used to playing them and enjoyed those games in football and basketball.

I feel the same about UAB and ECU. Hopefully, these 14 members are the 14 members for a long time. We all need some stability, and the Sun Belt provides that in the form of tight-knit geography. No other G5 conference consists of a constant connection of states, even in the MAC. There's a high ceiling when it comes to the perception of the Sun Belt 10-20 years from now. The pieces are in place. Now we all just need to build up our programs the best we can, and together we can be the best G5 conference in the country.

10-20 years from now, if 16 members with 9 conference games ever becomes the norm throughout P5 conferences, I'm sure there's a chance the Sun Belt pursues UAB and ECU if the Sun Belt is perceived as either an equal or higher product than the AAC.

The AAC's status is an illusion.

WKU sat in a room and told all the other Sun Belt schools they were committed to the Belt. They then accepted the CUSA invite and jumped ship. I believe there AD was president of the league at that time also. This is called karma.

WKU's first mistake was following MTSU to CUSA.

Second mistake was believing MTSU would return the favor and follow them to the MAC.

WKU has let MTSU make some bad choices for them. Maybe they will learn that in realignment everyone cares about themselves and there is no such thing as friendships. WKU should have never left the Sun Belt.