Conferences

[BassinEagle]

I was sitting here watching Tulsa and Memphis and thought how far removed Southern Miss is since they played these teams. I know this has been said many times before but USM needs to do whatever it takes to get in the American or something else. Tulsa and Tulane really have nothing to offer that makes them better fits other than being in larger cities. East Carolina is almost a mirror image of USM. With the arrival of the Texas schools(UNT & T-SA) they are at a risk of being left behind again. FIU & FAU now have high profile coaches and that should help them recruit. I don't know if any of you have been around the South Alabama campus lately but they are putting a lot of money into that school. Once they build their own brand new stadium on campus it will be even more difficult to recruit in Mobile.
Maybe the administration did everything they could when CUSA was being robbed but I have my doubts. Being the only charter member of CUSA left means nothing. USM got beat last week by a team that hadn't even had a team the last 2 years. Maybe the AD can bring new energy to the program case in point the Adidas deal. Someone needs to before Hattiesburg High out draws them. USM has been its best in the past when they had a charismatic head coach(Collins, Hallman (He had Brett), a Young Bower, Fedora, even Monkin) but they have always followed up these coaches with one who may be a good coach but lacks personality(Carmody, Johnson and maybe Hopson).
I've been following USM athletics since Sammy Winder & Reggie Collier. It seems like they have made a career out of 1 step forward 2 steps back. Its way past time that all factions at USM come together to determine what is in the best interest of the USM football program. Otherwise, this precipitous decline will continue till they wind up in the Sun Belt.

 

[SethManKA1]

I knew a player on the USM team under Bower. He told me discussions were coming up back then about USM joining the Big East. I went through USM during the Bower years and loved it. But he said Bower was against moving to any conference but CUSA. I know that comes from just one guy but I don’t know that USM has done what needs to be done to make a move. The SunBelt is begging for us but hopefully we never end up there. I believe there will be another shuffle in conference alignment maybe then we can make a move.

 

[Houston Eagle]

It begins with a president and AD that are vocal about making a change. The only AD USM has had about making that change was Mack the Knife when he said CUSA is our home but not our destination....then he left for USD.....I don't know much about the current AD but he seems to be content for USM to remain where it is.

 

[BassinEagle]

It begins with a president and AD that are vocal about making a change. The only AD USM has had about making that change was Mack the Knife when he said CUSA is our home but not our destination....then he left for USD.....I don't know much about the current AD but he seems to be content for USM to remain where it is.

The last thing they need to be is content. USM needs a dynamic AD and Coach even if they are not around but a few years. I understand wanting a coach who is going to hang around long term like Bower, but look at W. Kentucky. They seem to have a revolving door at head coach but their program has gotten better and there seems to be no drop off in their team. Why not at USM?

 

[Petal Eagle]

Steve, when I asked about this, I was told our endowment and being unable to fund scholarships held us back. That and Memphis and Tulane doing nothing to help, if not hurt us. I know the easy thing to do is to complain, but that's what Tulsa and Tulane have that we don't have.

 

[Houston Eagle]

East Carolina?

 

[Petal Eagle]

I believe they have a medical and law school.

 

[BassinEagle]

What is keeping USM from having their own engineering, medical schools or law schools? Hasn't USM been around long enough have plenty of wealthy benefactors. There needs to be someone in charge that has an aggressive vision. When USM was at its peak in football Shelby Thames and Bobby Chain were big influences. I understand the financial limitations USM has but that has been the same story for 30 years.

 

[Eaglebird Humperdink]

What is keeping USM from having their own engineering, medical schools or law schools?

College Board would have to sign off on any of those. And it would cost a lost of money.

 

[jshace]

Why the heck don't we start a large capital drive and be vocal about our desire to move from this pissy conference, it don't matter if we hurt any conference mates feelings hell we are the only charter member left, we don't owe them nothing and I mean nothing. If we sit back and accept mediocrity then the members we brought in will do what I mentioned we should do. If our fanbase knew we were getting out of this crappy league we could raise enough money to offer the AAC to join them, they aren't gonna ask us on our merits alone we have to offer them some cash incentive. It's sad but that is the only way to get in the other boat now, but if we sit here being complacent then we will get to the point where it is more feasible to just disband football and pump what little resources we have coming in to basketball and baseball. We are losing fans at an alarming rate because of the perception of C-USA and that is not gonna change with the revolving door of no name teams that we compete against. You tell me we are moving to a better conference and I will give a lot more but people are tired of throwing money at a sinking ship and our ship is taking on water at an alarming rate. Opine!!!!!!!!!

 

[USM76]

I agree with all you guys, Southern Miss lacks true leaders at every level - President, AD, College Deans, Head Coaches. Instead we have leaders who do not know how nor have the ability to enable us to get "to the top". Our AD hates crowds and speaking in front of people, our HC has only seen success as a coordinator or HC at Alcorn and has trouble with the names of his players. He was passed over by ULM for a reason. He was so bad as a coordinator at Michigan and Memphis that he was fired at mid season and even then it was not soon enough. His lack of energy when he talks tends to put everyone asleep (see his half time speeches) He tends to recruit players that are only being recruited by the sun belt or the SWAC. Most obtain a single digit score on their first ACT try.

So what do we do.... First start with a new President. Bennett is a good person but not what we need, This time we need a bull in a china shop. Someone who knows how to lead. Maybe someone from business or the military (see General McCain) who is not scared of pushing us ahead and refuses to be held back. We need a President who understands that our current path is leading us to the bottom and not to the top. A president that will work with industry and health care to build a partnership that will benefit both. We need good paying jobs and a first class university. Our academic role model should be more like a Sanford or Duke and our athletic programs should be more like Oklahoma State.

We then need an AD that is first a good business person who will reach out to everyone including die hard ole miss or mistake fans. He needs to tell them that they need to get on this bus if they want an exciting ride. He also needs to reach out and form a coalition of wealthy individuals out side Mississippi to adopt our university.

As for conferences I wish we had moved to the AAC. However I still think that our long term goal should be to be invites to join the BIG 12 as the SEC has just too many teams. The BIG 12 could use a strong program outside of Texas but close enough to other teams to travel too. Memphis and Southern Miss are good fits.

 

[norfolkeagle]

We had a golden opportunity in the mid to late 90's and we missed the boat because of bad administration.

 

[BassinEagle]

All government institutions suffer from the same issue, Career Government Employees. They lack imagination and the drive to grow what all athletic programs are these days, a big business. USM needs a leader who has been a businessman and actually had to run something to make a profit. How often do you hear about any goals that are set. I've worked in and around manufacturing companies all my life and the best managers we had were of the opinion "If your not changing your not improving". The south end zone improvements was a good addition, but what's next. As nice as that looks it really looks like its not finished. I spoke with someone in the athletic office before the season about how the stadium looked like it needed pressure washing on the 49 side. He said someone else in the office had made that comment as well. Did anyone get up there on a manlift with a pressure washer? "NO". If you can't get the simplest tasks done then someone else needs to be in charge.

 

[yeoyeo78]

Maybe the administration did everything they could when CUSA was being robbed but I have my doubts.

If you're referring to Giannini's administration, then no, I'm pretty sure they did not do everything they could. He seemed to put all of our eggs in a CUSA-MWC merger that any fool could have said sounded far-fetched and unlikely to pan out — and they would have been right. It was too far-fetched and it didn't pan out. And there seemed to be no back-up plan for what to do if it didn't pan out.

 

[yeoyeo78]

College Board would have to sign off on any of those. And it would cost a lost of money.

Given how the folks in Jackson keep cutting from funding for higher education, I don't see the money being allocated for any of that. At one time, there was talk about aiming for the school of mass communications and journalism spinning off to become its own college. Instead, they merged it with the Department of Communication Studies (which despite the similar names, is very different from mass communications. One is basically speaking and public debating and the other much more technically-based) and called it the School of Communication. They basically rolled the clock back and turned the mass communications school into what it was 20 years ago.

 

[EasyEagle]

This discussion comes up every year. What is past, is unfortunately past. It's clear we made some mistakes. I always wonder just what might have been if the old Metro had survived and Louisville would have played nice and not blown the whole thing up.

That aside, we are where we are now. As mentioned, our endowment, lack of professional schools and academic tier have held us back, but nothing holds us back more than WHERE our university resides. Hattiesburg is a tiny town in a tiny state with NO TV market.(dominated by the SEC) Winning big in the 2000's would have helped us some and that might have gotten us into the AAC, but there was no guarantee.

The dream stated above of USM getting into the Big12 is just silly! That will never happen! We weren't even invited to provide a proposal a few years ago when the expansion talk was happening. We don't fit anything they're looking for. Zero. Our ONLY hope is the AAC.

Getting into the AAC will happen only if the Big 12 does expand and takes a couple of teams from the AAC. However, USM WILL NOT be the AAC's first choice. Losing has knocked a lot of sheen off of our once proud program. But our history with ECU, Tulane and Memphis could help us.

If the Big 12 takes Cincinnati and USF (just for example) then the AAC will need to replace two teams and USM might fit the bill. Unfortunately for us CUSA has other teams in bigger TV markets that could be more attractive. lets look:

UAB - Birmingham (220k population), heart of SEC country, bowl game city, very good medical school
MTSU - Murfreesboro (130k pop) but Nashville is only 30 mins away.
FAU - Boca Raton, FL (100k pop) Medical school, Engineering school, Lane Kiffen, up and coming football program, bowl game city
FIU - It's in MIAMI!! Law School, Med School, Engineering School. It's in MIAMI!
Then there's Charlotte and ODU. Charlotte, NC has 2.4 million pop and Norfolk, Va has over 250k pop. and these schools are putting money into their new programs.

Now I'm not saying USM wouldn't get an invite, but if you look at the needs of a conference, we just don't fit a whole lot. No population (tv sets), average or below in football and basketball performance, average or below facilities, poor attendance across the board, average academics and no professional schools, small endowment.....you get it. So the road is going to be tough without a huge resurgence in on the field performance and attendance.

If I'm predicting, I say we will end up in some sort of CUSA/Sunbelt blended conference when all is said and done. However, there is still the possibility that the Big 12 implodes and UT, OK and OK State head off to the Big 10, SEC or PAC12. If that happens, who knows exactly what will happen.

 

[Wonder Boy Eagle]

Ole Miss will never let us have any type of professional programs. I know from a law professor at USM (not a law program but he is a law professor) that the university had the funds several years ago to create a law library, the first step in the creation of a law school, but the OM IHL leaders shot it down before it got started.

 

[EasyEagle]

Ole Miss will never let us have any type of professional programs. I know from a law professor at USM (not a law program but he is a law professor) that the university had the funds several years ago to create a law library, the first step in the creation of a law school, but the OM IHL leaders shot it down before it got started.

This too is old news. USM had the opportunity in the late 80's early 90's to take over/buy the law school from MC, but it didn't get far because Ole Miss told the IHL they didn't want USM to have that. Somehow...MC managed to come up with funding to keep the school.

 

[Wonder Boy Eagle]

Not what I heard (about MC). Still, we will never have a professional school.