So with the wheels falling off the USM football program....

[Dawgology]

Does this hurt or help MSU and TSUN bolster their own football programs. From what I hear USM only has approx. $500,000 to hire a new coach and I wonder how long they can hold on as a D-I program.

I looked back at their past recruiting classes for the past 6 years and they tend to get a lot of Mississippi 3 stars with a couple of 4 stars from MS sprinkled in every other year...and the rare, occassional 5 star. Some of those 3 and 4 star MS players would have looked good in Maroon and White though and would certainly help us with depth.


What says the pack? USM D-I days dwindling quickly? Helps MSU at all?

 

[patdog]

I don't think USM is in any danger of losing their I-A status for a long time, and probably not ever. But it's going to be much harder for them to compete in the future than it was 10-30 years ago. CUSA used to be a pretty good mid-major league. With the defections in the next year, it may be the worst league in I-A.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

Definitely not in danger of losing I-A; however, USM will likely be selling home games-- the one against Nebraska comes to mind as does the one against MSU & I think you're right-- the Sun Belt's going to be better than CUSA.

 

[stinkfoot]

They may sign MS 3 stars but that doesn't mean that State or OM wanted those players. They rarely take one that either school wants because of grade issues or the fact the coaches didn't agree w/ the recruiting sites.

 

[engie]

With the defections in the next year, it may be the worst league in I-A.

They are poaching the Sun Belt and WAC just as quickly as they are getting poached. Actually killed the WAC as a football league going forward. They got some decent teams in this round of expansion that should have been there from the get go IMO in La Tech and MTSU.

The impatience of expansion schools is what baffles me. People are freaking out and jumping the gun at all these schools and it's backfiring on a bunch of them. For the life of me, I can't understand why ANY football school would have jump to the Big East in the past 2 years knowing the BCS deal was going to expire in 2013 and the whole landscape would probably change anyway. Why not wait it out a year or two? The impatience of the Mountain West teams basically killed that conference. They would have easily gotten more leverage in this round of negotiations than the Big East had they simply held onto their schools. Utah and TCU ACTUALLY took better deals(can't blame them), but would they be an AQ league now had those teams stayed?

Mountain West(without being poached)
BYU
Utah
TCU
Boise St
Nevada
Fresno St
San Diego St
Utah St

Air Force
Colorado St
UNLV
New Mexico
Wyoming
Hawaii
San Jose St(probably never gets the invite)

 

[patdog]

Agree on both counts. I've been mystified as to why anyone joined the Big East in the last 2 years other than Memphis, who wins because of the basketball upgrade no matter how bad Big East football is. I read an article from the Providence RI newspaper a day or 2 ago that said the Big East is just CUSA rebranded. And in football, that's really what it is. And I thought the MWC was on the verge of getting BCS status (or today automatic major bowl status) before teams started bailing on them.

 

[maroonmania]

How are they selling a home game to us?...

Definitely not in danger of losing I-A; however, USM will likely be selling home games-- the one against Nebraska comes to mind as does the one against MSU & I think you're right-- the Sun Belt's going to be better than CUSA.

isn't our deal a home and home which has us playing them in Hattiesburg in 2015?

 

[Maroon Eagle]

Not sell to us, but to Coach 34's proposed Jackson Business Folks...

...if USM's athletics department were really desperate for money. If DS wants to use his Big Screen TV Money™ to buy the game, he could.

Edit to add: Yes, the deal is a home-and-home with USM currently scheduled to host in 2015.

 

[was21]

They've never really been a dual threat to either State or OM for the most part in recruiting. But they've also found diamonds in the rough and over the years they've gotten more bang from their buck as far as success is concerned although admittedly usually in **** conferences, as the one they're in now.

 

[Todd4State]

If it helps anyone, it's probably us

As far as recruiting goes.

 

[InaccuratePredictionsDawg]

The wheels will not be off for long...

...they'll finally hire a decent coach & he'll get them back on track. They've got some young talent that was forced to play too soon this year. They have enough of a winning football tradition that a good coach will right the ship pretty fast. As far USM recruiting...they take projects, rejects & grade casualties & usually win 8 games with such outcasts. MSU's recruiting & USM's recruiting seldom intersect.

 

[patdog]

They way they would sell a home game to us would be to play the game in Starkville and then sell the Hattiesburg game to either MSU or to someone in Jackson. Supposedly they are doing this with the home game they have scheduled next year with Nebraska to pay Ellis Johnson's buyout. They're definitely in the market for selling home games in a big way with the deficit they accumulated under the prior AD.

 

[patdog]

USM's record the last 20 years is 141-103-1 and in 14 of those years they lost at least 5 games. Considering how weak their schedule is, that's not really all that impressive. They were once a dangerous team to play. But those days have been gone for a long time.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

And here we go. Deadspin today: USM sells its game back to Nebraska...

...for slightly over $2.1 million dollars, which was Ellis Johnson's buyout.