I don't think "better" is necessarily THE reason USM is supposedly leaving for the Sun Belt. USM hasn't come at this decision easily, that isn't the way they roll in Hattiesburg. If they go to the SBC, that means that USM has looked at everything they can envision at this time...and they've made the decision that for USM, the Sun Belt makes the most sense.
I sincerely wish them the best, they've been good conference mates.
They do not have more national exposure. Their football has done better than CUSA over about 1 and a half years. Other than that, there is no name brand in that conference. Ask most people who Appy State is and they would not know. Even more, they probably think most of the Belt is FCS. I think it is unbelievably short sighted for USM to join, if they do.
No matter what happens, I’ll be glad to be rid of CUAB. I’d rather share a conference with anybody but those obnoxious pricks. I figure once the dust settles we will wind up in the Sunbelt. Maybe not this round, but soon. Tech adds too much for them to spite just because of past history.
I think it boils down to the question -
Do you want to be associated with
Southern Miss
USL
Arkansas St
South Alabama
Troy
or
ODU
JMU
FIU
MTSU
To me, I'll take the former not the later
If you remove your blue and red goggles you can see with more clarity
Now the question remains will we even be issued an invite? That remains to be seen and tea leaves don't look promising
Either way - I've basically reconciled myself to the fact I'm going to start spending alot more of my disposable income on me and mine instead of propping up Tech
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
Belt will be gaining a real dumpster fire with USM. Yes we have some history. Yes we have decent facilities and fan support.
But it looks as though 3 of our last 5 coaching hires don't belong in D-1 football. We can still right the ship but the clock is ticking.
The decline of USM Football really damaged CUSA.
The other choice is:
SMU
Tulsa
Tulane, etc..
My hope is that our goal is that and not settling for less. I know most of us are not privy to the internal discussions, but I haven't seen anything at all stating that we do not have a chance. Anyway, I am always the optimist (as most of you label me), so I will keep holding on to the chance. I was wrong about getting in CUSA on the first round over UTEP, but we did get in on the next round soon after. I have no clue what will happen, so I may as well hope for the best... It is certainly better than hoping for the alternative, which are the two choices you posted.
I will, also, add that one conference having a couple of good years does not make it that much better than the current one. I would have thought Southern Miss would have figured that out. The Belt is still the Belt and a year and a half of being decent in football will not change that. I would venture to say that they will not continue any success for any sustained period of time. We are WAY too reactive to a year of success.
Ironically, the C-USA invite to UTEP will be it's ultimate undoing. UTEP really belongs in the MWC, NOT C-USA. It is an outlier that has drained the regional pocketbooks of the conference and failed to add any real value in it's time in the C-USA.
So ultimately Memphis killed the C-USA.
The SBC has beaten C-USA in every legitimate ranking (like the CFP) for the past three years, and it will almost certainly happen this year too.
As far as national exposure is concerned, C-USA basically has none. Your conference games are on channels or platforms that nobody has, and nobody watches. The SBC is an ESPN conference. They have weekly conference games on ESPN and ESPN2. ESPN talks about Sun Belt games on College Gameday and Sportscenter.
And given that App State has been ranked 2 or 3 times in the past few years, if someone really thinks they are FCS then they clearly aren’t a real college football fan.