James Madison, Liberty, Missouri State, Jacksonville St, Lamar and Sam Houston State are still possible candidates for Sun Belt expansion!
The
conference that lost 4 members and will be losing one more next summer, will be
meeting during the Annual spring meeting beginning Sunday in Destin, Florida.
The meeting will last thru Wednesday and is expected be centered on conference
expansion.
We all know that Florida International, Florida Atlantic,
North Texas and Middle Tennessee have all left the Sun Belt Conference for
Conference USA for the upcoming season. Not only the four have exited the Sun
Belt, but Western Kentucky joins them in a brand new home in CUSA as well. They
said they were looking for a better conference with more exposure and revenue.
Maybe CUSA offers that to them and others.
Well I want to give my input on all of this conference
realignment and the positions that the Sun Belt Conference has already taken
and should consider on this issue. After the departure of the Sun Belt four,
they went out and search and added four additional members. Two of those four
additions are FCS powerhouses (Appalachian State & Georgia Southern) that
will certainly add to the Sun Belt profile and membership, and two of the
programs are former members of the conference (New Mexico State & Idaho)
that will be independents this season only after being without a conference
when the WAC decided to abandon football. The same conference that commissioner
Karl Benson formerly headed before coming to the Sun Belt Conference.
Now that
Western Kentucky is leaving and joining the other Sun Belt teams in CUSA, the
Sun Belt Conference is looking to find a replacement to get back to their ultimate
and dream goal of 12 all sports teams. The SBC has a big task in finding that
right fit to fill that open spot to get to 12 football members to stage a conference
football championship game as they head into the new Football Championship
Playoffs as a FBS member. The question is who will that 12th team be
and how soon will they be added?
Let’s forget
geographic footprint now that the Sun Belt Conference has went outside of that
to add new programs early this year in New Mexico State and Idaho way out west,
and you have Appalachian State up in North Carolina. But there are several
other programs that could be considered for expansion to get to that magic
number of 12 that is not in the footprint that the Sun Belt Conference wishes
to remain in. Missouri State, Liberty
and James Madison are all outside of the geographic footprint and remain
possible candidates.
Over the
past couple of days and weeks all I been hearing is programs rejecting the Sun
Belt Conference offers and conversations on becoming a member of the Sun Belt
Conference. And then I learn that there are programs inside the conference that
are rejecting programs that can possibly be a benefit for the Sun Belt
Conference and help improve the conference profile.
Rejecting a
program over resources, finances and religion shouldn’t be the answer to growth
and expansion consideration. Why would you do that when you are about to bottom
out as the WAC did and you have the same commissioner that lead the WAC now
leading the Sun Belt? When will the bold leadership come forth and put politics
aside for name sake? Don’t start to assume so early and accuse me of saying
that our Commissioner has poor leadership skills and abilities. I believe he
can get the job done, if he get the conference AD’s and presidents on board of
this changing idea of conference realignment. All this conference shuffling is
real and programs are looking for what’s best for them and if you don’t provide
that, they will leave you.
James Madison
(JMU) has been long rumor to be a possible replacement for Western Kentucky,
but JMU has decided to go with a consultant to see whether a move to the FBS is
reasonable and if so what conference is the best possible fit for their
programs. But we all know that Old Dominion, who has just been added to CUSA,
is lobbying for JMU to be a part of CUSA, Old Dominion and JMU are long time
rivals and want that to continue. So if JMU are waiting on CUSA move to get to
16 teams that possible would be added, why would the Sun Belt Conference wait
on JMU?
There are
other programs out there that could be seriously considered and added to the
Sun Belt Conference so that the conference can move forward and continue to
work to become the best of the group of five. Prolonging the matter of adding
another program is prolonging progress. Several years ago many doubted that many
of the current Sun Belt Conference members would be where they are today
winning games, participating in bowl games and defeating BCS teams but they did
it and now they are received by other conferences. The same will happen when
you add other programs. Just have to prove the nay sayers wrong.
Liberty has
made it known over the last couple of years that they are FBS ready and they
are ready to make the move up. Liberty has been in talks with the Sun Belt
Conference lately but no one really knows the outcome, besides we find out that
several programs in the Sun Belt Conference is possibly rejecting Liberty. Why,
your guess is better than mind right now? Some indications are that SBC members
are rejecting Liberty because of resources and finances. How silly could that
be, when you have a conference that rank last in conference revenue? Liberty is
a program that has what the SBC needs, and should be glad to consider them as a
new member. Liberty does bring finances, a renovated football stadium and a TV
network. Something Sun Belt programs barely offer.
The Sun Belt
Conference only pays out roughly $40,000 in revenue to its current members. Really!
And you wonder why programs are leaving to go get approx $1 million or more in
another conference. What can $40,000 do for a FBS program in this day? LOL!
Then you only have two bowl tie-ins, and have three or four teams being bowl
eligible for the post season, where do you send them when you don’t have any
contractual bowls? Commissioner Benson says they are working to add at least
one more bowl possibly two in 2014. It’s going to take more than that; the Sun
Belt Conference is going to have to increase their conference profile, revenue
and TV contract. Members are looking for more exposure and more money as a FBS
member, that’s the benefit of being a FBS member right? How can you attract new
members and star athletes if your conference is not attractive? Teams are
looking for better than ESPN3 and CSS, LOL.
Why not go out a get more television contracts with other networks such
as the new FOX Sports Network, CBS Network and or NBC Sports Networks. Those
networks are carried over several distributors, where I live in the North
Mobile area, we can’t even see CSS programming but we have a Sun Belt
Conference team. - LOL. ESPN and Comcast
is not the only sports network around anymore. The revenue is out there, just
have to go and get it.
Missouri
State is another program that could be consider and believed to wanting in a
FBS conference, even Jacksonville State, Lamar and Sam Houston State.
The wise
move that the Sun Belt Conference could make at this time is to add two more
programs it want hurt much more than help. It would put the conference in a
position to overcome all this conference realignment and settle the dust among
the group of five just in case the dust come dusting up again in the near
future. What I mean is, if CUSA decides to go to 16 teams and add one from the
SBC and add JMU, the Sun Belt Conference will be in a position to still have 12
members. Why? Because they has one extra member that will help balance the
conference if the dust come dusting up again.
Liberty and Missouri State would be the two that I would go after or
even Lamar or Sam Houston State to get a stronger presence in Texas.
Waiting on
the chickens will cause you to starve; you have to go get them so you can eat. We
will wait to possibly Tuesday to see if anything happens with his issue as the
Sun Belt Conference meet in Destin, FL.
