Is USM a done deal?

[ragin50]

If this is accurate we will now have to football stadiums in the conference that are named...."THE ROCK" and ironically both will be black and yellow (I know, I know both schools like to be called black and gold, but like I tell LSU fans all the time, you are not purple and gold, you are purple and yellow. Gold is the color that the Saints wear, yellow is the color that Iowa, LSU, App State, USM and many others call gold.)

The Saints used to wear gold until they started wearing those awful all black and all white unis with no striping. Really a cheap, bad look.

[JayWalker]

I’m going to post this again because I think it is really interesting and may explain why there could be some hesitation about expanding past 10 teams. This is a quote from our former commish Wright Waters:

“Again, the 10-team Sun Belt, and I don't know if we necessarily knew this at the time — we thought we had it. And we looked at the analytics, and we looked at the statistics and we've looked at the history — is that 10-team league delivers more teams that have winning records than a 12-or 14-team does in the percentage. The current revenue distribution of the Group of Five, and whether or not that will remain as is, the Sun Belt has has had a big advantage in producing those numbers: the computer numbers that determine the revenue share as a 10-team league. So I think you really have to keep that in mind.

The 10-team Sun Belt has delivered over the last three seasons, in terms of separating themselves from Conference USA and the MAC. And that the Sun Belt, using those analytics, the Sun Belt is much closer to the Mountain West and the American then Conference USA and the Mid-American are to the Sun Belt. And I truly believe that part of that, or a big part of that, is the 10-team league. Nobody's asked me for my opinion. You're the first person to ask me for my opinion on that, but I think that would be one of my standard questions is, ‘What’s wrong with what the Sun Belt is today as a 10-team league?' And is there anybody out there that truly will add value? You don't want teams to come in and reduce that. Those current computer rankings that are used to determine the revenue distribution."

There’s no doubt the presidents and ADs are aware of this fact.

That was Karl Benson who said that. Not Wright Waters.

[cjr3888]

Adding 2 STATES to the league with USM and Marshall who also have quality fan bases.

[CajunRebel]

That was Karl Benson who said that. Not Wright Waters.

Ah, thanks for the catch. I corrected my brain fart in the original post.

[CajunT]

That was Karl Benson who said that. Not Wright Waters.

Correct

[Peek a boo]

sunbelt will be best G5 League, adding Marshall in Football and I think USM will rebuild. Adding USM in baseball is a big addition also.

[CRAWFISH61]

Even if he was the worst commissioner ever, I don’t think that changes the analytics and data he spoke about.

Last year the SBC received an $18,484,520 payout from the CFP committee. That’s $1,848,452 per school.

C-USA received $16,932,474, which comes out to $1,209,462 per school.

Our payout is higher than C-USA schools because we have fewer schools to distribute to, and we earn more for performing better than C-USA — which is apparently much easier to accomplish as a 10 school conference.

So I think it is a legitimate question to ask if adding USM and Marshall is going to be worth losing out on a share of this CFP revenue, and perhaps even Media revenue. As a fan, I want them in my conference yesterday. As an AD who has to balance the books every year, I think the choice might be tougher than we realize.

But don’t we split this between 12 teams already including the non-football schools.

[CajunRebel]

But don’t we split this between 12 teams already including the non-football schools.

I don’t believe they get any of the football money. Or if they do it is very little. I’d also imagine they get less of the TV revenue as well.

[CajunRebel]

And of course, all those numbers don’t take into account the agony and despair of La Tech watching their wannabe BFFs USM and Marshall leave them. That has to be worth at least a few hundred k.

[Grantvb]

Speaking of USM aside of football, we've had dog fights in baseball/softball and volleyball in recent history. This v-ball season we went to 5 sets. I know v-ball doesn't drive the bus, but this could be our v-ball rival (i.e. - stAte - Football, USA - baseball/softball, GaSt - MBB).

[RaginDave]

Southern Miss would automatically come in and be a really good rival in all sports. Granted our football paths have separated for some time now, but we had some great battles in the 80's and 90's with them.

[CajunFan3406]

Even if he was the worst commissioner ever, I don’t think that changes the analytics and data he spoke about.

Last year the SBC received an $18,484,520 payout from the CFP committee. That’s $1,848,452 per school.

C-USA received $16,932,474, which comes out to $1,209,462 per school.

Our payout is higher than C-USA schools because we have fewer schools to distribute to, and we earn more for performing better than C-USA — which is apparently much easier to accomplish as a 10 school conference.

So I think it is a legitimate question to ask if adding USM and Marshall is going to be worth losing out on a share of this CFP revenue, and perhaps even Media revenue. As a fan, I want them in my conference yesterday. As an AD who has to balance the books every year, I think the choice might be tougher than we realize.

You raise good points, but the CFP money is not static. It changes year to year based on the SBC's ranking amongst the G5. So while there is some validity to not adding more teams and reducing each teams individual payout, if you add teams that potentially increase your CFP payout by improving your overall ranking amongst the G5, then those teams are worth it.