Southern Miss announces football home-and-home series with Kentucky
- Thread starter SSME
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Some former SEC commish said no SEC team would/could play in Hattiesburg...I'm glad he is eating his words...I'm glad that those who said that our stadium is too small...the State gane being moved, etc, now have their foots in their mouths...USM played UK before in Lexington in 1984(date escapes me but not the score
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)?I'll add one more observation...why couldn't the 3 previous ADs do this? Yes I well remember the teams don't want tot play us argument, but I thought Pecos Bill could've pulled off an agreement like this instead of 4 home games in the past.
Good job by our AD. This proves that we can play a good home schedule. I believe it only takes two home and home games like this each season to make our schedule. We have four OOC games, so that would leave two for teams such as U La La, USA, Tulane, Troy, or whoever. It's doable. Anyway, good get.
So two SEC games next year: LSU and UK? I think the LSU game is Oct 2016...that game has been moved literally for the past 15 years starting with hosting the best team ever to play in the Rock #4 Cal.
I welcome home and home arrangements with SEC teams. Even would take a 2 for 1. Just hope we don't have an 11:00 p.m. kickoff.
Kentucky will pay USM $200,000, and USM will pay them $0.
http://www.fbschedules.com/2015/06/kentucky-southern-miss-schedule-2016-17-football-series/
http://www.fbschedules.com/2015/06/kentucky-southern-miss-schedule-2016-17-football-series/
This game can be used to sell season tickets like the State game...like it or not fans will come to Hattiesburg to see the SEC....
This is the best news to come out of USM athletics is a long while.
This is REAL Kentucky. Not Western Kentucky. Not Eastern Kentucky State. Not South Central Kentucky A&M. I wish the rest of USM's schedule would be made up of real schools that I have heard of before.
This is REAL Kentucky. Not Western Kentucky. Not Eastern Kentucky State. Not South Central Kentucky A&M. I wish the rest of USM's schedule would be made up of real schools that I have heard of before.
Why? perhaps because in years past, USM has been a tradionally winning, tough, very good football program that SEC schools woud be foolish to play in H'Burg. NOW, USM has some name recognition but have been one of the least talented and worst teams in the country. So when these schools schedule, they can do a home and home without the worry of a loss as much, and use their payout to USM's visit as leverage. Notice how we are getting paid $250k, as opposed to the $800k - $ 1 milllion for the visit. Saves Kentucky money and they feel warm and cozy about some victories against a team people are familair with moreso than a Florida A&M or UT San Antonio. sure, Kentuky is playing Austin Peay but they arent doing a home and home with them I dont think. Believe it or not, USM still has name recognition and is a respected program in comparison to the likes of Florida Atlantic, South Alabama, etc., (for how long, i don't know).
Georgia was willing to come to Hattiesburg in 2003. We declined because with Nebraska already on the home schedule, USM would have had to raise season ticket prices beyond what they wanted to charge the fan base.
Only USM fans can seek out a negative side like that. It's common for home and home contracts to pay only traveling expenses. You can't compare what we get in a contract for an away game only to a home and home game.
Here is a good article on the finances of the series with Kentucky from the Lexington, KY newspaper.
http://www.kentucky.com/2015/06/02/3881390/kentucky-agrees-to-home-and-home.html
http://www.kentucky.com/2015/06/02/3881390/kentucky-agrees-to-home-and-home.html
Good insight but I'm thinking politics had to also play a part on why USM playing football since 1912 has NEVER hosted an SEC team not named OM/MSU, and only OM once due to Roland Dale and Bobby Chain. Many other equal programs in our geographic areas have hosted SEC teams. I cannot emphasize how major of an accomplishment that this is.
It was our call in 2003 not to host Georgia. They would have been the first SEC program outside of Mississippi to visit USM.
Shocked that our own fans would write something that I would normally attribute to SEC snobbery. Hopefully they didn't think before they wrote that.
Yup, It's not a Western Kentucky that whipped our @$$.
And I can't believe we have fans that don't know Roland Dale and what he did at Southern Miss
REAL Kentucky is currently the third best team in the state of Kentucky, for what that's worth.
At the end of the day whether we want to admit it or not, the Pine Belt will flock to the Rock to see the SEC, whether its the TSUNS or any other member of the SEC. Think about the irony of the SEC network broadcasting from The Rock...let that sink in....you can also bet that UK will bring a good number of fans as well.
I always felt like the Louisville series was great. I miss it a lot. I'm already starting to miss the East Carolina too.
I'm really happy to see this series added to our future schedule. I think there is little doubt that Kentucky agreed to this series as a result of our past three seasons- and a hope on their part that it will translate into two victories. I think if USM had its typical 8 win seasons over the past three years, Kentucky probably would have looked elsewhere for another opponent. I've felt all along that if there is any silver lining in the past three dismal seasons it's the potential for scheduling some great future match-ups that might not otherwise happen. The argument in the past is that many mid/lower-tier football programs from the power conferences were afraid to schedule USM for fear of losing. There is no way any program should feel that way now. I hope Bill McGillis uses this opportunity to line up quality opponents well into the future. He needs to do it now, because once Southern Miss football starts winning again these programs might crawl back into their shell.
Yeah, I really liked our series too. Those were some great games and I hope we can resume the series soon. In the meantime, we wish you all the best against those mildcats.
It's Kentucky. Not exactly the SEC's flagship football program. Fans will "flock" because it's a better opponent than our CUSA schedule. But sports fans aren't calling their friends saying, "Hey, the SEC is in town this week. Let's buy some tickets."
I'm glad we're playing Kentucky a home and home. We need to try and get other home and home games with teams like Arkansas, Georgia Tech, Texas Tech, Duke, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, North Carolina, Virginia (again), TCU, and Oklahoma St.
AND, while I'm thinking about it, rather than teams like Austin Peay, South Alabama, Texas State and Troy....I'd rather see us play East Carolina, SMU, Tulane, Air Force, Memphis, Houston, Cincinnati, and South Florida. We need to keep closely connected to the AAC for future opportunities.
No offense to Western Kentucky, UTSA, North Texas, Florida International, Florida Atlantic, Old Dominion, etc...but our fans don't have much connection to these programs.
AND, while I'm thinking about it, rather than teams like Austin Peay, South Alabama, Texas State and Troy....I'd rather see us play East Carolina, SMU, Tulane, Air Force, Memphis, Houston, Cincinnati, and South Florida. We need to keep closely connected to the AAC for future opportunities.
No offense to Western Kentucky, UTSA, North Texas, Florida International, Florida Atlantic, Old Dominion, etc...but our fans don't have much connection to these programs.
"I'd rather see us play East Carolina, SMU, Tulane, Air Force, Memphis, Houston, Cincinnati, and South Florida. " Sorry but the AAC teams will not play any CUSA teams home and home according to a report that was discussed on the CUSA board. The AAC is very upset that their conference was rated below CUSA last year, and is rated below CUSA this year too in the preseason.
The AAC teams have NOTHING on the SEC teams as far as fan support...you can guarantee that UK fans will come to Hattiesburg to support their team...AAC teams will not....
HOUSTON, no argument there. Look at the first part of my comment for the home and home with Power Conference teams. The point I was making with the AAC teams was, I'd like to play them rather than Austin Peay, Troy, South Alabama and Texas State for non-conference games. I think I fans would enjoy those games more.
Certainly no arguments intended....I would definitely rather see AAC teams as opposed to Austin Peay or other FCS schools as well too...I wasn't aware that no more other out former conference members would come to The Rock. I just get frustrated when USM hosts a teams that are at least with in driving distance and none of their fans show. Tulane would bring a few fans when they were winning, but that is all I can remember.That is why it was nice when USM hosted NU, A&M, etc where there was not only competition on the field but in the bleachers as well. Hopefully now more schools like USM have more leverage to host teams like Kentucky. I remember some years ago that Duke hosted Bama, and there stadium is comparable to USMs.
Houston, to add to your point, I've always thought that the two lesser schools up north fill their stadiums because of the competition they face. Sure, they have a lot of fans, but even last year when we went to starkville their stadium was at capacity and filled with a lot of black and gold. Their opponents bring fans, our home opponents rarely do. Of all the CUSA schools, we travel the best. We would definitely sell more seats with better competition.
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