Sunbelt Might Add 11Th School For Football

CUSA had two teams in the NCAA tournament where we've had one most years since UNT joined. They appeared in six bowl games last year where the SBC was in three. CUSA schools average just a hair less than 10k per football game more than SBC schools. They average almost 3k more per basketball game than the SBC; 2k more if you remove Memphis from the equation. They just got a $43 million contract with FSN, and I can't find any information about how much the SBC's is currently worth.

The SBC is coming along, especially in facilities, but the conference as a whole is not on the same level as CUSA. Now if you're talking strictly perception, I doubt your average joe sees much of any difference between CUSA and SBC, since most average joes are all about the big six conferences.

The main problem with the SBC is there are certain schools that underfund their programs either by choice or by lack of options. The smallest athletic budget at any CUSA school is $19.5m at Southern Miss. The smallest in the SBC are Louisiana-Monroe at $10.7 million, Louisiana-Lafayette at $12.3m and Arkansas State at $13.3m. We've been at about $17 million, and next year I'd imagine it'll be $24-25 million. You basically have NT, WKU, MTSU, FAU, and FIU pumping cash into athletics (all spending in the low to mid $20m range), and then it falls off a cliff from there.

Edit: Another thought is that the SBC is barely on TV compared with CUSA. An SBC basketball or football game on ESPN is an event, because it doesn't happen but half a dozen times a year for both sports combined. Hopefully that changes as ESPN attempts to put the screws to CUSA and the MWC via the SBC and MAC (or maybe WAC still instead of MAC?). Good timing on our contract being up for re-negotiation. It'd be great to see one of our games this year on ESPN2 or ESPNU. Bet that stadium is gonna look as amazing on TV as in person.

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