Red Wolf

Good news! It would appear that Little Rock is joining and they also don't have football and have no intentions of adding it.

Isn't Chicago State constantly in danger of closing down entirely?

I would have preferred to forget, so thanks.

According to this, they spend more money on football than anybody in Conference USA.

UTA's said they have no intention of adding football until they get their other sports better funded. Little Rock football ain't happening, no way no how. LR doesn't even sponsor the Sun Belt's minimum of sports. I made a long post about Little Rock a while back so I'll just quote that here if you want a little more detail.

WKU and MTSU wouldn't stop Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday night football from happening. Not sure what else about MACtion would be sacred. McNeese moving up to FBS seems like a longshot to me. Louisiana schools are constantly trying to stave off financial crises.

Not that Middle had great options here, but it's worth pointing out that FIU, NMSU, and UTEP are all further away from them than literally every single MAC school. Regional is definitely not the term I would use here.

Another mouth to feed that doesn't bring anything to the table. Same reason New Mexico State isn't there.

C-USA is clearly no longer a viable FBS entity, but the one thing I would point out is that they still have an NCAA auto-bid for basketball, and should have some money from all of these exit fees, though those always seem to be negotiated down. So there's still something there, even if it isn't much. Little Rock and UTA need homes now, and that gets you to five. They could probably grab WAC or ASUN schools, or if nothing else grab those left behind in the Southland during that exodus. Obviously doesn't save the football side of things, but it could keep the conference alive. This is all assuming MTSU and WKU are gone. If not, it's a little easier to keep the conference alive even if they're still not an FBS league.

If those were going to happen they would have happened. Louisiana Tech is redundant as there's already a northern Louisiana school in the Sun Belt. In an alternate universe, Louisiana Tech is already in the Belt in place of ULM, but they balked and went to the WAC instead so that they could spend all of their money on travel expenses. Would be fitting for them to end up there again. A large part of the appeal of the Sun Belt as it's being constructed is that it's geographically sound and made up of like-minded schools. They're all public universities, mostly in college towns, with an emphasis on football. Texas State is already a bit of a geographic outlier, but nothing like UTEP, and Miami is further from its closest potential opponent than San Marcos is. As somebody who has been watching Sun Belt football since its inception, it's really weird to see how far the conference has come. The first ever champion had a losing record. We've outlived the old WAC, and now we're killing Conference USA, and schools actually want to be here.

Well yeah, Nick Foles won him a ring. Who has bothered to win a ring for Dak?

I was driving a bunch Thursday, so I forgot to bring up the fact that the Broncos now officially have a losing record after starting 3-0 against the NFL's version of the FCS and C-USA. All of my fears about them have been realized and that's a bummer. Oh well. Why did the Titans have to wait until they had crap uniforms to get good? Though they lost to the Jets which is weird.

Adding three only saves C-USA if the rumors of MTSU and WKU going to the MAC aren't true. Otherwise, they'll need FCS schools. As far as who they can get? Eastern Kentucky tried to join the Sun Belt a while back, so there appears to be an appetite for moving up and they have a large enough stadium. Not sure how nice it is, but it can't be much worse than what ULM is working with right now. Beyond that, I guess you have to look towards the ASUN and Texas WAC schools for the most part. They tried to get in for all sports with the Sun Belt but there wasn't any interest from the conference. Non-football membership may not be a thing for C-USA if things are as cataclysmic as they seem, so NMSU might not have the ability to argue for full membership vs. football only. But do they have the money to add even more scholarships and build up facilities? I know very little about this school. I don't even know how to pronounce Tarleton.

UCA would have to do major construction to get their stadium up to FBS standards, including possibly demolishing surrounding buildings. Sam Houston would have to up grade to be FBS compliant as well. Missouri State, Jacksonville State, and Eastern Kentucky have large enough stadiums, but I don't know if any of these schools have the budget or the appetite to add scholarships along with jumping into the facilities arms race.

Having talked to a guy that knows people who know things (so take that for what you will), it sounds like the rumor of Southern Miss, Marshall, Old Dominion, and James Madison to the Sun Belt is going to happen. Which would leave us with a Conference USA made up of UTEP, Louisiana Tech, Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, and Florida International. And there's some rumors out there that Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky could be heading to the MAC, leaving just UTEP, La Tech, and FIU in C-USA. Potentially dire stuff. There is the possibility of C-USA's zombie corpse becoming a football only conference to survive in some form and then everybody finding homes elsewhere for their other sports. They could also conceivably cobble together FCS schools to make the move up, but I'm not really sure who all is actually capable of actually making that move.

It's fair. Only so many people are going to pay enough attention to G5 conferences to know what's going on and most people think of the Sun Belt as being closer to their inaugural season when the champion had a losing record. Whereas people might still remember when Conference USA had Cincinnati, TCU, Louisville, Houston, and when they had Southern Miss and East Carolina when they were both really good. Not to mention it was C-USA that was poaching Sun Belt schools last time around, so in most circumstances that would mean C-USA is the better option. It's unusual for their to be a flip like that. Imagine if the SEC, after taking Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, and Missouri ended up being surpassed by the Big XII somehow. It's a much more extreme example since the SEC never hemorrhaged teams of their own like C-USA did, but it's still odd.

No. The Sun Belt passed C-USA on the field and in media rights, and it only gets better with two football schools shoving out the two non-football schools. Even if they had football, Little Rock and Arlington do nothing to help UTEP. Little Rock is closer to every current Sun Belt school (and even Marshall) than they are El Paso. The only team that would help UTEP in any meaningful way is New Mexico State because of geography and willingness to be a full, football playing member.

Correct. The Southern Miss + Marshall to the Sun Belt rumor has been around pretty much since this all started and I would support the addition of both. I'd also be on board for Old Dominion and James Madison. C-USA would be in a bad way with only five schools in this situation. They could definitely get New Mexico State as a full member in a pinch, but UMass and UConn aren't joining as anything other than football only. Would Liberty still want it a Conference USA that's such a disaster? Regarding the eastern G5 plan that Old Dominion is putting forth, I do wonder if James Madison would be interested. They balked at the Sun Belt in the last realignment, thinking they were better off waiting for a C-USA invite, but the landscape has totally flipped in that regard. And again, is Liberty desperate enough to be in a conference to make that happen? And what about UTEP? The Mountain West isn't taking them and neither is the Sun Belt.

Especially when they already have the DFW market in SMU. Maybe it's to prepare in case SMU leaves, or perhaps the talk that the AAC was going to just gobble up all of Texas to keep the Mountain West away was true. This does feel very much like when C-USA focused too much on markets. Rice and UNT seem like duds, though I think UTSA is good pickup. At least they were smart enough to go with FAU over FIU and also not go with both. Assuming this happens, C-USA is left with Florida International Louisiana Tech Marshall Middle Tennessee Old Dominion Southern Miss UTEP Western Kentucky I feel like UTEP is pretty much screwed here because nobody really wants them due to geography and general lack of on-field success. Everybody else at least has a shot at getting into the Sun Belt. Louisiana Tech might be a hard sell.

FCS doesn't pull from the same pool as FBS. They'd need to compete for that talent as much as they do now. The American taking Mountain West schools always seemed like a longshot just because the geography gets really wild in a hurry. It's one thing if you're talking about Big XII money to make the difference, but a whole other issue when it's AAC money.

Exactly. It's great to be 3-0, but I'm still pretty sure the Broncos are the fourth best team in the AFC West, so I guess I'm just trying to talk myself out of getting too hyped.

The Broncos are about to be 3-0, but I don't really feel good about it because they've played such a garbage schedule, beating the Giants, Jets, and Jags. It's like when Texas Tech would be 4-0 to start every season having played schools most people had never heard of. I mean, I guess I feel better than if they had lost to the trash pile teams.

If the Mountain West hypothetically loses Colorado State and Air Force to the American, and Boise State to the Big XII, then you still have nine football playing teams. They can just play a standard eight-game conference schedule and pit the two best teams in a championship game. I doubt UTEP and NMSU bring enough to make it worth splitting any money with them. I also have my doubts about calling up any FCS schools. They could maybe try and snag the other C-USA Texas teams, which worked with TCU, but Rice, UNT, and UTSA are decidedly not TCU.

Sounds like they just shouldn't schedule those sports against Hawaii then since they're a football-only member.

Yes, and C-USA wouldn't try and stop them either.