I rarely post here and would not if not for the original post.

This WKU poster above has 7 all-time posts--not saying what he said is not true--but...

I don't think its over Yet.

Too many rumors. Too early. Anything could happen.

I think the big worry for WKU would be the possibility of schools in the East leaving.

I could see a combination of Ohio, WKU, and one other as appealing to the WKU leaders.

Realignment is crazy--all bets are off at this point.

(10-14-2026 11:43 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(10-14-2026 11:16 AM)MT FAN Wrote:  Middle isnt coming either, not that many are advocating for it here, we've been terrible in football for awhile. More money and much better basketball in CUSA. As far as MT not leaving classy, in what way did we not? All we did was pay the conference more money to leave a year ealier along with FAU. We were absolutely screwd out of a bowl game, and so was Western their last year in the Sun Belt I believe.

You guys weren't screwed by the Sun Belt. You were screwed by a certain school in Ruston, LA who turned down a bowl invite in order to avoid playing a football game against Monroe. The changes that followed behind that shifted where the SBC teams went and it came down to you or WKU for Detroit, and it went to WKU. I would also point out that all you had to do was beat us in the conference title game to clinch a spot, and you kind of lost 45-0, so yeah.

Now we did screw WKU the next year, but by that time the league was full scorched earth at the departing schools.

Fortunately, the decision makers at every single school involved have now changed.

Oh that season where we had 7 of 8 teams reach bowl eligibility but only had two bowl slots to go around. Fun times.

(10-14-2026 10:37 AM)FreeBirdJohnnyReb Wrote:  Well that's good to know.
It makes Ohio and Liberty (who has plenty of $$ and wants to come) more appealing and maybe one of those TX schools (Tarleton?).

the last thing the belt needs is another Tejas school...

when applying the concept of geo-realignment in the G category, it's Bibberty or bust...

(10-14-2026 10:26 AM)lexingtontopper Wrote:  WKU isn’t coming back to the Belt. Why would they at this point?

CUSA is paying them more than they would make jumping ship to the Belt. So why would they take a pay cut, when finances are already tight?

Added to the payouts is the issue of 10 million dollars being paid just to leave CUSA. I think most WKU fans would prefer to re-join the Sunbelt, but I don’t believe from a financial perspective it makes any sense.

And if we are being honest, CUSA in present form is a much better basketball conference than the SunBelt presently is.

I kind of hoping they would be the add when Texas St left. Now I'm glad it wasn't them. I think we have better options out there.

(10-14-2026 02:12 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  I rarely post here and would not if not for the original post.

This WKU poster above has 7 all-time posts--not saying what he said is not true--but...

I don't think its over Yet.

Too many rumors. Too early. Anything could happen.

I think the big worry for WKU would be the possibility of schools in the East leaving.

I could see a combination of Ohio, WKU, and one other as appealing to the WKU leaders.

Realignment is crazy--all bets are off at this point.

Teams also completely don't understand the differences in how the SBC and CUSA disperse. The reality is the leagues get roughly the same money. CUSA might be slightly more because they feed 4 fewer mouths. But as La Tech Demonstrated, its not so much that it offsets easier travel and the need for more Saturday games.

And we have got to get past the bad blood stuff. That was from 2013. There's so few people left in either league outside of fans who remember what happened.

Bad blood is more fun!

WKU would probably already be in the league, but they didn't want to play in the west and both Georgia schools voted down any move that would get them moved to the west.

(10-14-2026 10:26 AM)lexingtontopper Wrote:  WKU isn’t coming

Sounds like a personal problem.

They keep mentioning making more in CUSA, but it’s simply schools exiting and entering the conference paying all that. When the music stops and the chairs are full it will be CUSA trying to survive on their FCS salary. I wouldn’t leave if I were them, either, knowing an enormous pay cut was looming over my head. They need to spend their effort figuring out how to pinch pennies over the next decade.

(10-14-2026 05:31 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(10-14-2026 02:12 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  I rarely post here and would not if not for the original post.

This WKU poster above has 7 all-time posts--not saying what he said is not true--but...

I don't think its over Yet.

Too many rumors. Too early. Anything could happen.

I think the big worry for WKU would be the possibility of schools in the East leaving.

I could see a combination of Ohio, WKU, and one other as appealing to the WKU leaders.

Realignment is crazy--all bets are off at this point.

Teams also completely don't understand the differences in how the SBC and CUSA disperse. The reality is the leagues get roughly the same money. CUSA might be slightly more because they feed 4 fewer mouths. But as La Tech Demonstrated, its not so much that it offsets easier travel and the need for more Saturday games.

Fans sure as hell don’t understand the distribution model. I see “CUSA pays over twice as much” repeated over and over again on Twitter (mostly by Liberty fans).

The fact that a school literally just went to court and paid a pile of money not only to make the switch, but do it an academic year faster, seems lost on those geniuses.

(10-14-2026 09:12 PM)MUther Wrote:  They keep mentioning making more in CUSA, but it’s simply schools exiting and entering the conference paying all that. When the music stops and the chairs are full it will be CUSA trying to survive on their FCS salary. I wouldn’t leave if I were them, either, knowing an enormous pay cut was looming over my head. They need to spend their effort figuring out how to pinch pennies over the next decade.

The Sun Belt uniquely handles certain member expenses through the conference office. The net payment to the school is the gross income minus those expenses, which the school in turn doesn’t owe. It’s like getting withholdings on your paycheck instead of having to make actual payments for your taxes, insurance, etc. Other conferences pay out the gross but then the schools are responsible for the expenses.

CUSA probably is still churning through a bunch of exit/entry fees, but even without that, there’s a disparity built into the accounting that deflates the SBC “payouts” vs. theirs.

(10-14-2026 05:31 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(10-14-2026 02:12 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  I rarely post here and would not if not for the original post.

This WKU poster above has 7 all-time posts--not saying what he said is not true--but...

I don't think its over Yet.

Too many rumors. Too early. Anything could happen.

I think the big worry for WKU would be the possibility of schools in the East leaving.

I could see a combination of Ohio, WKU, and one other as appealing to the WKU leaders.

Realignment is crazy--all bets are off at this point.

Teams also completely don't understand the differences in how the SBC and CUSA disperse. The reality is the leagues get roughly the same money. CUSA might be slightly more because they feed 4 fewer mouths. But as La Tech Demonstrated, its not so much that it offsets easier travel and the need for more Saturday games.

And we have got to get past the bad blood stuff. That was from 2013. There's so few people left in either league outside of fans who remember what happened.

don't forget CUSA's payout is artificially inflated by one-time payouts from non-renewable sources.

beyond that, is anyone really having fun in CUSA? the products on the field is so poor. I watched both CUSA football games tonight. The quality of competition just doesn't pass the FBS eye test. Where is the money going?

(10-14-2026 10:54 PM)GSUALUM17 Wrote:  beyond that, is anyone really having fun in CUSA? the products on the field is so poor. I watched both CUSA football games tonight. The quality of competition just doesn't pass the FBS eye test. Where is the money going?

You realize we are basically the same conferences competitively?

Series Breakdown (2020s / Last 5+ Years)

- 2020s Decade Record (All Games): Conference USA teams are 39–27 against Sun Belt opponents (Sun Belt is 27–39).
- 2020s Decade Record (Bowl Games): 9–9 (50.0%).

(10-15-2026 04:39 AM)army56mike Wrote:  

(10-14-2026 10:54 PM)GSUALUM17 Wrote:  beyond that, is anyone really having fun in CUSA? the products on the field is so poor. I watched both CUSA football games tonight. The quality of competition just doesn't pass the FBS eye test. Where is the money going?

You realize we are basically the same conferences competitively?

Series Breakdown (2020s / Last 5+ Years)

- 2020s Decade Record (All Games): Conference USA teams are 39–27 against Sun Belt opponents (Sun Belt is 27–39).
- 2020s Decade Record (Bowl Games): 9–9 (50.0%).

Colley Matrix has a different view for SBC vs CUSA
https://www.colleyrankings.com/curconf.html

6-3 this year in matchups, and significantly weaker across the board. Two of those 3 wins were against a bottom SBC team.

Any CUSA team that values football would be dumb to turn down SBC unless their finances prevent it.

(10-15-2026 04:39 AM)army56mike Wrote:  

(10-14-2026 10:54 PM)GSUALUM17 Wrote:  beyond that, is anyone really having fun in CUSA? the products on the field is so poor. I watched both CUSA football games tonight. The quality of competition just doesn't pass the FBS eye test. Where is the money going?

You realize we are basically the same conferences competitively?

Series Breakdown (2020s / Last 5+ Years)

- 2020s Decade Record (All Games): Conference USA teams are 39–27 against Sun Belt opponents (Sun Belt is 27–39).
- 2020s Decade Record (Bowl Games): 9–9 (50.0%).

I found the website you got that from, and you have that backwards. It's 39-27 Sun Belt.

Conference USA has cleaned up in bowl games (because it usually means a 3-5 Sun Belt team plays a 6 or 7 win CUSA team). But in Massey Composite averages and SP+ rankings the Sun Belt has always been well ahead of CUSA.

(10-15-2026 08:10 AM)EigenEagle Wrote:  

(10-15-2026 04:39 AM)army56mike Wrote:  

(10-14-2026 10:54 PM)GSUALUM17 Wrote:  beyond that, is anyone really having fun in CUSA? the products on the field is so poor. I watched both CUSA football games tonight. The quality of competition just doesn't pass the FBS eye test. Where is the money going?

You realize we are basically the same conferences competitively?

Series Breakdown (2020s / Last 5+ Years)

- 2020s Decade Record (All Games): Conference USA teams are 39–27 against Sun Belt opponents (Sun Belt is 27–39).
- 2020s Decade Record (Bowl Games): 9–9 (50.0%).

I found the website you got that from, and you have that backwards. It's 39-27 Sun Belt.

Conference USA has cleaned up in bowl games (because it usually means a 3-5 Sun Belt team plays a 6 or 7 win CUSA team). But in Massey Composite averages and SP+ rankings the Sun Belt has always been well ahead of CUSA.

In the 2020s, I think pre-pandemic CUSA was on top though

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(10-14-2026 04:24 PM)stinkfist Wrote:  

(10-14-2026 10:37 AM)FreeBirdJohnnyReb Wrote:  Well that's good to know.
It makes Ohio and Liberty (who has plenty of $$ and wants to come) more appealing and maybe one of those TX schools (Tarleton?).

the last thing the belt needs is another Tejas school...

when applying the concept of geo-realignment in the G category, it's Bibberty or bust...

Take Tarleton any day over Sam Houston - T has their stuff together and is a grower AND a shower

I never even heard of WKU until they showed up on the schedule in 2014. I dont understand why their name keeps coming up.

And seriously, what the Hell is a Tarleton????

(10-15-2026 09:04 AM)polkhigh Wrote:  I never even heard of WKU until they showed up on the schedule in 2014. I dont understand why their name keeps coming up.

And seriously, what the Hell is a Tarleton????

WKU used to be a basketball power, so you never having heard of them is a you thing.

(10-15-2026 08:50 AM)hannibalDawg Wrote:  

(10-15-2026 08:10 AM)EigenEagle Wrote:  

(10-15-2026 04:39 AM)army56mike Wrote:  

(10-14-2026 10:54 PM)GSUALUM17 Wrote:  beyond that, is anyone really having fun in CUSA? the products on the field is so poor. I watched both CUSA football games tonight. The quality of competition just doesn't pass the FBS eye test. Where is the money going?

You realize we are basically the same conferences competitively?

Series Breakdown (2020s / Last 5+ Years)

- 2020s Decade Record (All Games): Conference USA teams are 39–27 against Sun Belt opponents (Sun Belt is 27–39).
- 2020s Decade Record (Bowl Games): 9–9 (50.0%).

I found the website you got that from, and you have that backwards. It's 39-27 Sun Belt.

Conference USA has cleaned up in bowl games (because it usually means a 3-5 Sun Belt team plays a 6 or 7 win CUSA team). But in Massey Composite averages and SP+ rankings the Sun Belt has always been well ahead of CUSA.

In the 2020s, I think pre-pandemic CUSA was on top though

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Pre-pandemic, 3 current Sun Belt programs were in CUSA.