Leatherneck Nation

leatherneckcountry wrote: ↑Thu Oct 21, 2021 1:54 am


 

If they brought up Kennesaw State, that's 4 Owl teams.

UAB, FAU, UNC, UNT, Rice, and UTSA are now officially headed to the AAC: https://theamerican.org/news/2021/10/21 ... ities.aspx

With existing members ECU, Memphis, Navy (football), USF, SMU, Temple, Tulane, Tulsa, and Wichita State (non-football), that puts them at 14 members for football and basketball.

I can see it now.  Fan boards posts with lots of new shortcut words like  "FOWLS", "TOWLS", and "ROWLS"

None as good as the FHAWKS tho.
 

Sounds quite likely that the Sun Belt will pick up Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Mississippi from C-USA as well as invite up James Madison to get up to 14 members.

Assuming that happens, the C-USA will be down to Florida International, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee State, UT-El Paso, and Western Kentucky.
There's also a vague rumor that MTSU and WKU have been in discussion with the MAC, which would make some sense. They're not really that far outside the footprint of the current MAC, and bringing them both in as travel partners seems likely.

The question then is...FIU, LA Tech, and UTEP...do they go "independent" for now? They could probably set up a scheduling agreement with Liberty and New Mexico State (already independent) to get some games. I know that in the past those guys had to schedule a same-season H&H (so two games against the same opponent) just to fill out the schedules, although it looks like this season they've done ok at filling in with mostly G5 schools in their region plus a couple of P5 teams. It's not a great long-term plan, but it might get them through the next couple of years until they can maybe find a home.

More fuel to the dumpster fire that was C-USA...

Next up, looks like C-USA is looking at Sam Houston State, Tarleton State (who is still finishing up a transition from DII to FCS), and New Mexico State for possible invites.
Tarleton State just announced last night that they're expanding their stadium (currently 16,600 seating) to 20k+.
Also, lots of SHSU people don't want to go anywhere without Stephen F. Austin, due to their annual rivalry game which has in recent years been held at Houston's NRG stadium (where the Texans play) and routinely brings in 25k+ fans.

Something interesting is how this will impact the growth of the WAC, who just brought in SHSU and TSU this year and had hopes of moving up to FBS as a conference.

Little bit of an update on the timing of Southern Miss, ODU, Marshall, and JMU to the Sun Belt.
Press conference for Southern Miss is happening tomorrow, the other three...

C-USA looking at NM State, Liberty, and UConn (football only) to help fill in some of their gaping holes.
https://theathletic.com/news/conference ... Hui68hjCp/

Pat Forde is reporting Marshall to the Sun Belt is official

All 4 to the Sun Belt is official as of today.

JMU’s board approved the move up:



This could set off some reorganization with the CAA as well.


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