You totally, as usual, missed the point. Not one media report eluded to the fact that they had actually contacted anyone in Athens as to the accuracy of this report. Poor reporting. My comment has nothing to do with communication from Cutler or the Convo.

Take a deep breath. It's gonna be okay.

Should have been listening that day. Because it was 30 min.

"After 12 years in Conference USA, Louisiana Tech appears headed for a new home.

The Sun Belt will hold a meeting Monday that is expected to end with the league inviting the Bulldogs to join, according to a Friday evening report from ESPN's Pete Thamel that cited the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Va.

The Bulldogs have played major college football on and off since 1975, and have in that time called four different conferences home: the Southland Conference, Big West, WAC and Conference USA. Its basketball teams—including its two-time national champion women's squad—have spent time in those four leagues as well as the long-defunct American South Conference.

Louisiana Tech's football team made its first bowl game in four years in 2024, while neither basketball team has made an NCAA tournament since 2011.

In the Sun Belt, the Bulldogs will reunite with rivals such as Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe and Southern Miss."


As the post above mentioned, La. Tech appears to be headed to Sun Belt.

I do not understand why you are saying this to me.

I know that you being sarcastic again, but while this is very unlikely, it isn't insane to think of a way that this could happen, and I also wouldn't tab it as outlandish as the Ohio to the SEC comment you made. If Memphis and another school or two like Tulane and Tulsa go to the Pac then you might actually see schools like ECU, Charlotte, South Florida, and FAU looking at the Sunbelt. If an long term Sunbelt East\West break is as plausible as I have heard many posters and media say that it might be then maybe Rice, UTSA, UNT and whatever schools I listed that didn't go to the Pac join up with the SB West then what does Temple do at that point? WSU and OrSU deciding to rebuild the Pac 12 instead of just joining the MWC could lead to scenarios where the whole G6 scene just becomes as broadly and suddenly completely unstable.

I just sit and watch all these moves, and my overwhelming reaction is that the B1G and the SEC keep getting more powerful, while most conferences are aggressively fighting over the crumbs. Meanwhile, the MAC has mostly been sleeping through the whole thing, but the loss of NIU was a jolt, which could lead to more reaction. Other teams could bolt, or, the MAC could decide to try to grow. It could go either way.

I wonder how long it's gonna take Western Kentucky to get sick of CUSA adding FCS school after FCS school before they finally make a move and leave Middle Tennessee behind.

My thoughts are Ohio wants to keep their options open depending on what happens with the MAC the next few years and a few of the eastern Sun Belt schools like the possibility of Ohio joining them based on their football and basketball profile.

Nothing appears to be close to happening but developing a relationship is a good thing so they can be proactive if necessary down the road.

Ohio would be a really good fit for the Sun Belt if they ever expand to 16 teams and break into North/South or East/West divisions.

James Madison, Old Dominion, Marshall and App State would be good competition from a football standpoint. Add another school like WKU, Liberty or Toledo and you could have a nice G5 division for football.

I think the Sun Belt, PAC and Mountain West are gearing up for the next round of media rights expirations which happen around 2028-31. The shine on the AAC is wearing off and if you look at it's current roster, its a total mess of a conference that makes absolutely no sense from a geographic or rivalry standpoint. They've lost all of their best schools to bigger conferences and backfilled with basically small schools in big cities or a rival/travel partner for another league member.

When they signed their media rights deal in 2020, this was their roster:

Cincinnati
Houston
SMU
UCF
Tulane
Tulsa
Memphis
Navy
East Carolina
Temple
USF

They lost those top four and replaced them with: Charlotte (city), Florida Atlantic (travel partner with USF), North Texas (cityish), Rice (city), UAB (city), UTSA (city) and Army (rival with Navy).

Memphis has already looked into leaving and have stated their desire to be in the Big 12. Temple doesn't have the resources to compete at the level the AAC demands. East Carolina was rumored to be a Sun Belt target.

There's no way in hell the current AAC is getting another TV deal even close to what they got back in 2020, which was close to $1 Billion in total, $83 million annually. They'll be down in the dumps with the rest of the have nots more than they already are. More shakeups are going to happen, it's almost guaranteed. The MAC and Ohio better be prepared.

If the AAC actually folds, the following is far more realistic than anything the Sun Belt crazies are throwing around:

Buffalo
UConn
UMass
Temple
Army
Navy

It's 2025. If you want to have a D1 football program at this level, you need to spend money. If Ohio isn't prepared to do so, they can stick in the MAC and wait out whatever happens to the league and accept whatever mediocrity they have. That's a risk and could lead to even more schools surpassing them.

Or they can choose to be bold at some point and try to rise the G5 ranks. It could come back to kill them or help them pick up a little more legitimacy along the way.

The Sun Belt isn't a great league and I'm not saying it's the answer for several reasons but it's eastern schools are a class above the MAC right now. SBC football has been among the top G5 leagues the past three years from a metrics standpoint.

Realistically the MAC is closer to the FCS than it is the other levels of FBS. Half the schools in our conference could care less about football. I know Ohio will never drop down but I'm surprised some people would rather play Akron on Wednesday night in November in front of hundreds versus at least seeing what else is out there.

NIU is literally going to the Mountain West! I know they'll be in the Horizon for their other sports but we have to figure out how committed we are to athletics moving forward. The fact it was even a discussion proves Ohio's own athletic department isn't completely confident that the MAC is the way to go.

We're hypocrites if we say we want what's best for OU athletics but then talk down any possibility of changing conferences. I'd like more information before making my own opinion.