Poll: Would Missouri State accept a Sun Belt invite?

[MSUBear42]

Just to prove how irrelevant the Sun Belt is on a national landscape, two fans on here have mentioned North Texas as being a SBC opponent and another mentioned Florida Atlantic. Ten years ago those schools were Sun Belt, but they are now CUSA and getting ready to go join Wichita's league in a couple of years.

This is the current Sun Belt:
Arkansas State
Louisiana Lafayette
Louisiana Monroe
Texas State
Appalachian State
Georgia State
Georgia Southern
Coastal Carolina
Troy
South Alabama
James Madison (joining)
Southern Mississippi (joining)
Marshall (joining)
Old Dominion (joining)

Oh yes, a conference is irrelevant because a couple message board posters messed up teams in said conference.

What exactly has the Sun Belt done recently in the NCAA Tournament and what memorable bowl games have they won? I need a reminder, because I honestly have no idea. My guess would be not much, but maybe I'll be surprised.

Nothing. They are a sh!! basketball conference. It's probably the sole reason MSU hasn't already left. But it is an upgrade in nearly every other sport. Football plus their TV contract money, SBC soccer is one of the best conferences in the country now with Marshall, Baseball a step up, etc. etc.

[TBS_20]

Very poor basketball conference. Solid football conference but not better than the MVC. But, if you want to move up this would be the place to do it because the whole MVFC won't move up.

For those who care the football conference RPI last season was...

8. Sun Belt 18.56
9. Mid-American 17.17
10. Conference USA 17.07
11. Missouri Valley 17.02

The MVFC is on par with 2 FBS conferences already and getting on the Sun Belt level is easily attainable.

[MSUBear42]

Very poor basketball conference. Solid football conference but not better than the MVC. But, if you want to move up this would be the place to do it because the whole MVFC won't move up.

For those who care the football conference RPI last season was...

8. Sun Belt 18.56
9. Mid-American 17.17
10. Conference USA 17.07
11. Missouri Valley 17.02

The MVFC is on par with 2 FBS conferences already and getting on the Sun Belt level is easily attainable.

But what good would moving up actually do?? No sports network is going to fork over tens of millions to barely grab any TV sets, which is what is ultimately driving all of this.

[MSUDuo]

Very poor basketball conference. Solid football conference but not better than the MVC. But, if you want to move up this would be the place to do it because the whole MVFC won't move up.

For those who care the football conference RPI last season was...

8. Sun Belt 18.56
9. Mid-American 17.17
10. Conference USA 17.07
11. Missouri Valley 17.02

The MVFC is on par with 2 FBS conferences already and getting on the Sun Belt level is easily attainable.

But what good would moving up actually do?? No sports network is going to fork over tens of millions to barely grab any TV sets, which is what is ultimately driving all of this.

Gotta start somewhere. Same reason they made the jump in the 80s.

The whole MM vs Bowls thing is silly as well. It's not like we're giving up basketball. They play in the same MM as everyone else and if we want a decent seed and run the formula is the same: win.

[MSUBear42]

Very poor basketball conference. Solid football conference but not better than the MVC. But, if you want to move up this would be the place to do it because the whole MVFC won't move up.

For those who care the football conference RPI last season was...

8. Sun Belt 18.56
9. Mid-American 17.17
10. Conference USA 17.07
11. Missouri Valley 17.02

The MVFC is on par with 2 FBS conferences already and getting on the Sun Belt level is easily attainable.

But what good would moving up actually do?? No sports network is going to fork over tens of millions to barely grab any TV sets, which is what is ultimately driving all of this.

Gotta start somewhere. Same reason they made the jump in the 80s.

The whole MM vs Bowls thing is silly as well. It's not like we're giving up basketball. They play in the same MM as everyone else and if we want a decent seed and run the formula is the same: win.

Should have clarified. I meant what good would moving the entire conference up do. It would be the same teams in small media markets. So we’d have added costs WITHOUT the added contract money.

[Aargh]

My guess is the Mountain West will end up being:


Air Force
Boise State (won't get into the Big 12 until the ACC is raided in 10 years)
Colorado State
Fresno State
Hawai'i
Montana
Montana State
Nevada
New Mexico
North Dakota State
San Jose State
South Dakota State
Tulsa/UTEP
Wyoming
UNLV
Utah State

The MWC is either going to disappear or be a complete rebuild similar to CUSA. The PAC-12 is going to raid them to replace USC and UCLA. The AAC ALMOST got Air Force and CO State in the last realignment. PAC-12 is likely to pick off San Diego state and UNLV (big market) and may go after Boise, even though there is little value in having their fan base.

Tulsa is unlikely to leave the AAC. Even with the loss of Houston, Cincy, and UCF, the AAC has a better media contract than the MWC.

If the MWC is damaged and if Memphis (doubtful - nobody wants them even with their market) or SMU (doubtful - the Dallas market likes all the Texas P5 schools better than SMU) leaves the AAC, the AAC will go after CO State and Air Force. That would give the AAC both Navy and Air Force, and those schools get viewers.

[TBS_20]

I said the whole MVFC WONT move up. I think you're confused

[Mikovio]

My concern if I was MSU would be moving to Sun Belt means shifting resources from basketball (and the whole department) to football. You wind up moving toward mediocrity in both.

Here’s a new list of all public school athletic departments and their profit/loss.
The top 24 performers are exclusively P5.
Numbers 25-83 are a mix of P5, FCS and no-football.
The bottom 80 are almost exclusively bottom-rung FBS, posting losses of on average $20 million.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/i-found- ... rko-ph-d-/

[CornerSeats]

The expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams is important to this discussion. Initial reports have described the model as the six highest-ranked conference champions and six at-large teams. If true, I think that does two notable things:
1) Guarantees CFP access to a G5 team yearly
2) Reduces the chances of an SEC/Big10 breakaway from the NCAA

The current CFP TV deal with ESPN deal pays about $470M per year. Television rights for the expanded playoff could reach $2B. The G5 in general and the Sunbelt will get a piece of that pie.

Not to mention, it was a great day for Sunbelt football with wins over #6 Texas A&M and #8 Notre Dame.

[MSUBear42]

The expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams is important to this discussion. Initial reports have described the model as the six highest-ranked conference champions and six at-large teams. If true, I think that does two notable things:
1) Guarantees CFP access to a G5 team yearly
2) Reduces the chances of an SEC/Big10 breakaway from the NCAA

The current CFP TV deal with ESPN deal pays about $470M per year. Television rights for the expanded playoff could reach $2B. The G5 in general and the Sunbelt will get a piece of that pie.

Not to mention, it was a great day for Sunbelt football with wins over #6 Texas A&M and #8 Notre Dame.

I’d say. Days like this to a long way for increasing the “optics” of any move.