The thread below prompted me to make a phone call. This is what I found out.
Houston backed out of negotiations, at the urging of Conference USA, citing that they feel like they have a chance to break into the BCS next year, and although the deal made financial sense for Houston, giving up a home game against an SEC team did not make sense in that respect.
He says that with the lack of any marquee out of conference games for State in the coming years, the group is still interested in Jackson but have begun to look at Ole Miss' future games (Fresno State 2011) as well as USM playing a home game against Nebraska in Jackson in 2013. We are out of the picture, at least for the time being.
Houston backed out of negotiations, at the urging of Conference USA, citing that they feel like they have a chance to break into the BCS next year, and although the deal made financial sense for Houston, giving up a home game against an SEC team did not make sense in that respect.
He says that with the lack of any marquee out of conference games for State in the coming years, the group is still interested in Jackson but have begun to look at Ole Miss' future games (Fresno State 2011) as well as USM playing a home game against Nebraska in Jackson in 2013. We are out of the picture, at least for the time being.