(02-27-2023 02:59 PM)CatMom Wrote:  

(02-27-2023 02:05 PM)Dukes94 Wrote:  

(02-27-2023 01:56 PM)CatMom Wrote:  Pull back on the reigns there, newbies. Haven't been in the conference a year, yet, and want to proclaim being the best?

How about waiting a year, or two, or a decade and get back to the rest of us?

Well, was the question right now, in a year, two years or a decade?

We’ve been good in all the sports we’re good in now for a while. Except men’s basketball…I can’t predict how good any of us will be in the future, and neither can you. And is JMU a conference member or not? We’re a member. We’re the best. Fight me!

Nah, you're just all full of yourselves.

Read the title of the OP. It doesn't say right now (no timeframe is specified) and just because you think you are, doesn't make it true.

TXST has been good, all around, for a decade but I wouldn't thump my chest in any given year; even when we won more than our fair share of the championships (and with a sucky football program). You folks want to claim superiority because you have an overblown sense of entitlement. I see it on Facebook and Twitter, all of the time. Not a humble, or thankful, bone in your bodies.

Any chance we can change the thread title to is JMU the best program in the Sun Belt? Because that's what this thread is about now and the title makes USM fans look like they have a superiority complex even though it was started by a Marshall fan.

(02-27-2023 03:12 PM)HarborPointe Wrote:  

(02-27-2023 11:42 AM)Luckyshot Wrote:  Is that Southern Miss in the SB? No. Do we have the potential to be ONE of those each season for the SB? Yes. Our history and large support base definitely give us a strong foundation to be a school like that. We were one of those for C-USA 1.0 and 2.0, but fell off. We need to get back there.

The move to the SBC has already and will continue to help those efforts tremendously. We became invisible after the last round of CUSA realignment. Even when we had that great final year under Monken, hardly anyone noticed. Our former division had a team in Alabama that had its football shut down for 2 years, 4 in Texas, and 1 more in Louisiana that thought of itself as the 5th Texas school due to its stint in the WAC and refusal to accept who they are. Our new division has 2 SBC lifers in Louisiana, 2 more in Alabama, plus 1 in Arkansas on the same highway as us. Being part of the SBC’s compact geography and almost singular cultural identity instantly brings us back into the regional consciousness—from which we’d disappeared for a while—because now all those people have good reason to pay attention to us again.

Speaking of our former conference, not one of the 3 schools primed to be natural rivals with us ever gave a **** enough about their own school to make it special. Battle for the Bell, Black and Blue bowl... these games had names and they didn't care. I'm good with trying something new.

(02-27-2023 08:44 PM)Eagleyed Wrote:  Any chance we can change the thread title to is JMU the best program in the Sun Belt? Because that's what this thread is about now and the title makes USM fans look like they have a superiority complex even though it was started by a Marshall fan.

Anybody that reads this thread and comes to the conclusion that Southern Miss fans have superiority complex really has a problem with comprehension. Not one of us thinks we're even close, never mind the fact we didn't start this thread. Who has time assuage the feelings of morons, much less cares what they think.

(02-27-2023 09:09 PM)Big Dub Wrote:  

(02-27-2023 08:44 PM)Eagleyed Wrote:  Any chance we can change the thread title to is JMU the best program in the Sun Belt? Because that's what this thread is about now and the title makes USM fans look like they have a superiority complex even though it was started by a Marshall fan.

Anybody that reads this thread and comes to the conclusion that Southern Miss fans have superiority complex really has a problem with comprehension. Not one of us thinks we're even close, never mind the fact we didn't start this thread. Who has time assuage the feelings of morons, much less cares what they think.

That seems to be going over the heads of many people.

(02-27-2023 08:40 PM)olddawg Wrote:  

(02-27-2023 02:59 PM)CatMom Wrote:  

(02-27-2023 02:05 PM)Dukes94 Wrote:  

(02-27-2023 01:56 PM)CatMom Wrote:  Pull back on the reigns there, newbies. Haven't been in the conference a year, yet, and want to proclaim being the best?

How about waiting a year, or two, or a decade and get back to the rest of us?

Well, was the question right now, in a year, two years or a decade?

We’ve been good in all the sports we’re good in now for a while. Except men’s basketball…I can’t predict how good any of us will be in the future, and neither can you. And is JMU a conference member or not? We’re a member. We’re the best. Fight me!

Nah, you're just all full of yourselves.

Read the title of the OP. It doesn't say right now (no timeframe is specified) and just because you think you are, doesn't make it true.

TXST has been good, all around, for a decade but I wouldn't thump my chest in any given year; even when we won more than our fair share of the championships (and with a sucky football program). You folks want to claim superiority because you have an overblown sense of entitlement. I see it on Facebook and Twitter, all of the time. Not a humble, or thankful, bone in your bodies.

Seriously. Someone from Texas lecturing about hubris?

(02-27-2023 08:44 PM)Eagleyed Wrote:  Any chance we can change the thread title to is JMU the best program in the Sun Belt? Because that's what this thread is about now and the title makes USM fans look like they have a superiority complex even though it was started by a Marshall fan.

I think ODU fans warned y'all, we've got more than our share of trolls and insecure blowhards. Probably the only time an ODU fan was ever right about anything.

We're having a good season, but let's not get into the whole "flagship" BS.

(02-27-2023 03:48 PM)2Buck Wrote:  

(02-27-2023 09:19 AM)PolymerEagle Wrote:  No. You have to be good in football to claim the top spot imho. Until Southern Miss is consistently competing in Football Championships I don't think you can claim anything. I love our baseball success, and basketball had a great year this year too. However, football is what really matters, as it pays the bills.

We don't have the ability (State Laws) to charge large student athletic fees like some of our competitors, so our football program needs to win to fund all of our sports. We also are in a State where our college board holds us down and won't let us add high paying degrees (Law, Medical, and Engineering), so our donation dollars are a little harder to come by than a school with a med school. It's just harder at USM, and we have to learn to do more with less resources than many of our competitors.

The fact that some schools call out line items for athletics and put it under student fees doesn't change the fact that every public school in this conference gets the majority of its athletic funding from students. You may wrap it up and hide it in the tuition or somewhere else, but our students aren't paying some huge amount more than anyone else's in the SBC. Virginia just requires schools to be transparent about it.

Granted, we don't have 100+ years of football history to have grown the donor base like some of y'all have, but with JMU having almost double the enrollment as some schools, our students might be paying less per student than others.

Our alumni giving has been historically pathetic, but as that grows I'm sure we'll rely less on student fees. Unfortunately, being a step or two below the power conferences, we're all going to have to raise our athletics investment as coaches and athletes get lured away by the outlandish media revenue and booster money we're competing against.

As many do, I feel there will be another split where the "P2" conferences leave behind a second tier made up of lower P5 and upper G5, and then the upper FCS rises to join the CUSA/MAC teams that can't keep up. Schools with massive enrollment potential like the F_Us, Texas State, North Texas, etc and diploma mills like Liberty and Grand Canyon have a shot at a dramatic UCF type path.

You make it sound like USM and JMU are very similar in how they fund athletics, and it is simply not true. In 2021 USM collected $8.71 million in student fees that made up 32% of the revenue used by Athletics. In 2021 JMU collected $46.13 student fees that made up 87% of the revenue used by Athletics. Per student fee at USM is $600 and at JMU it is $2340. What USM can charge in student fees is directly controlled by our oppressive college board that exist to make sure the two $EC schools in the state thrive and we decline. We are not equal, and it is not even remotely close.

Let me be clear again, I do not in any way think USM is the class of this conference. I and most all USM fans are thrilled to be turning things around a little bit in athletics, and also thrilled to be a part of the Sunbelt Conference. We just experienced our worst decade ever in major sport performance, so I can assure you USM fans don't think we deserve to held up as the pinnacle of any sports conference.

(02-28-2023 09:11 AM)PolymerEagle Wrote:  Let me be clear again, I do not in any way think USM is the class of this conference. I and most all USM fans are thrilled to be turning things around a little bit in athletics, and also thrilled to be a part of the Sunbelt Conference. We just experienced our worst decade ever in major sport performance, so I can assure you USM fans don't think we deserve to held up as the pinnacle of any sports conference.

^^^

This

(02-28-2023 09:16 AM)gdunn Wrote:  

(02-28-2023 09:11 AM)PolymerEagle Wrote:  Let me be clear again, I do not in any way think USM is the class of this conference. I and most all USM fans are thrilled to be turning things around a little bit in athletics, and also thrilled to be a part of the Sunbelt Conference. We just experienced our worst decade ever in major sport performance, so I can assure you USM fans don't think we deserve to held up as the pinnacle of any sports conference.

^^^

This

this has been stated by every southern miss fan throughout the thread and too many others to count...

it helps to remember a marsha fan started this thread...

(02-27-2023 11:33 AM)USM3000 Wrote:  I think it was a perfect storm for us change from C-USA to SBC. It ignited a fire in the teams and fanbase alike. I wouldn't say we're the premier program, but have the ability to possibly be that one day. But, more likely, the rising tide floats all boats and it just makes for even better competition, in turn making the whole conference even better. Still excited about the move to SBC and the future of So Miss.

This ^. Holding on to the rise has become less a challenge with the programs that make up the Sun Belt. No longer the feeling of being on an island enhancing your position alone. There's enough talent in the conference to keep the foot on the gas while the inevitable break from glory occurs when your athletics program is gutted from above.

(02-28-2023 09:11 AM)PolymerEagle Wrote:  Let me be clear again, I do not in any way think USM is the class of this conference. I and most all USM fans are thrilled to be turning things around a little bit in athletics, and also thrilled to be a part of the Sunbelt Conference. We just experienced our worst decade ever in major sport performance, so I can assure you USM fans don't think we deserve to held up as the pinnacle of any sports conference.

The twenty-teens were very humbling. Any superiority complexes were washed away.

USM's fanbase is hard to hate. One of the more humble fanbases when success of the programs is considered.

(02-28-2023 09:45 AM)Saint3333 Wrote:  USM's fanbase is hard to hate. One of the more humble fanbases when success of the programs is considered.

Well dang.. We were told for years we were hateable, miserable, and delusional.

Now I can't dislike you or the Mountaineers until we play again.

(02-28-2023 09:45 AM)Saint3333 Wrote:  USM's fanbase is hard to hate. One of the more humble fanbases when success of the programs is considered.

They got a couple, but in general they're a good bunch.

Marshall fans too, they've got a couple more though.

JMU fans are like an excitable little puppy that can't help but piss all over itself. Hopefully they grow out of it.

God help this board if ODU has significant success in multiple sports in the same year. We've got a few.

(02-28-2023 10:02 AM)mturn017 Wrote:  

(02-28-2023 09:45 AM)Saint3333 Wrote:  USM's fanbase is hard to hate. One of the more humble fanbases when success of the programs is considered.

JMU fans are like an excitable little puppy that can't help but piss all over itself. Hopefully they grow out of it.

I think that has more to do with you being rivals, and proximity. From my vantage point down here in Alabama, the JMU fans have been great. I see them similar to App State fans. They are very outspoken about the school they love, and sometimes that's confused with arrogance.

JMU fans are proud of their school, but 99 percent of the talking we do on here is to get everybody else riled up. We still play the games and accept the outcomes, just like everybody else in the SBC.

We do have a lot of really good programs, but so do a lot of the other SBC schools. We’ve landed some punches and taken a few too. We love being in the SBC, and it’s because of what the other 13 schools have made it.

JMU comes across a little like Ole Miss fans for us in the state of Mississippi. They certainly have reasons from time to time to brag a little, but do they ever take those opportunities seriously!