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Conference Expansion: Stanford, California and SMU Join the ACC

According the Brett McMurphy, C-USA and the Sun Belt are fighting over Marshall, ODU and James Madison (who is moving up to BCS level). If Marshall and ODU leave CUSA, it could be lights out for that conference. Also, Liberty is apparently in the mix as CUSA is now courting Liberty in an attempt to get Marshall and ODU to stay in CUSA>
 
The Sun Belt was always thought of as worse than C-USA, but by virtue of Coastal's recent rise along with App's and Louisiana's success, the Sun Belt has raised its profile. The conference just signed a contract with ESPN, better than anything CUSA has (I think they have contract with CBS Sports Network). FWIW, Board Favorite John Feinstein just wrote an article touting the success that Keith Gill has had as the Sun Belt commissioner. Gill played football at Duke, and worked for the NCAA, then at Vandy, OK, got the AD job at American University, and then was the assistant commissioner at the A-10 before getting the Sun Belt gig. Gill is the first African-American to get an FBS conference commissioner's job (Kevin Warren was the second), and he apparently has done well raising the profile of the conference: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/10/19/keith-gill-sun-belt-conference/

The FUN Belt
 
According the Brett McMurphy, C-USA and the Sun Belt are fighting over Marshall, ODU and James Madison (who is moving up to BCS level). If Marshall and ODU leave CUSA, it could be lights out for that conference. Also, Liberty is apparently in the mix as CUSA is now courting Liberty in an attempt to get Marshall and ODU to stay in CUSA>

If Liberty joins a conference, maybe we can get out of our series with them.
 
WF plays Liberty next season. Even if Liberty was invited to join the SEC, they wouldn't be joining another conference before 2023-4. FWIW, here is WF OOC schedule next year:

September 1: VMI
September 10: @ Vandy
September 17: Liberty
October 8: Army

Gag. If WF manages to win the ACC and finish in the top 10 this season, that is not exactly the sexiest OOC schedule to build program momentum. The networks aren't going to be fighting to televise any of those contests. WF does host UNC as the cross-over opponent next year. Otherwise, hard to imagine a worse schedule.
 
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WF plays Liberty next season. Even if Liberty was invited to join the SEC, they wouldn't be joining another conference before 2023-4. FWIW, here is WF OOC schedule next year:

September 1: VMI
September 10: @ Vandy
September 17: Liberty
October 8: Army

Gag. If WF manages to win the ACC and finish in the top 10 this season, that is not exactly the sexiest OOC schedule to build program momentum. The networks aren't going to be fighting to televise any of those contests. WF does host UNC as the cross-over opponent next year. Otherwise, hard to imagine a worse schedule.

I see four W's.
 
Pre-season rankings bias is a thing though. Look at Cincy and Coastal. If we finish the season in the top-15 we'll almost definitely be in about the same spot in next year's pre-season polls. Start the season off with 3 or 4 straight wins and you're looking at cracking the top-10. I have no problem taking easy wins in this case.
 
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If we finish the season in the top-15 we'll almost definitely be in about the same spot in next year's pre-season polls.

Mmm. Based on the roster churn we’ve had recently with skill positions, I would wait until the offseason to make predictions regarding consistency. We need our offensive players to stay at Wake.
 
Mmm. Based on the roster churn we’ve had recently with skill positions, I would wait until the offseason to make predictions regarding consistency. We need our offensive players to stay at Wake.

Meh. UNC had big roster churn at its skill positions and got top 10. It was unwarranted but still.
 
 
Everything I’ve seen today is JMU decided to go to the Sun Belt which helped ODU and Marshall make their decision. App was previously the northern most team so it makes sense those three would join as a group.

CUSA is looking at independent NM St. Not sure why Army stays independent. I assume they have had offers but they’d be a good pick up. I also saw CUSA is talking to McNeese St. and Sam Houston.

I’m sure whoever they add will end up on our non-con with Army, Liberty, and a FCS.
 
Thanks in part to Bobby Petrino's success there, Western Kentucky moved up from the Sun Belt to C-USA after the 2013 season. Now they will be left in an irrelevant C-USA while the part of the conference gets poached by the Sun Belt. Oops.

I forgot he was there. Turns out it was only for a season.
 
That was the whole concept behind the conference and name in the first place. The original CUSA spanned from Milwaukee to Tampa and from New Orleans to Charlotte. Now they've taken it to the extreme.
 
NM State was booted from the WAC and the Sun Belt. They are the red-headed step-child of the FBS. They are so desperate to find scheduling partners that NM State plays a home and home with Hawaii this year (no one wants to pay the freight to fly a team to Hawaii), and 2019, they played home and home with Liberty (at the time, no one would play Liberty). Extending an invite to NM State is a the last move of a dying conference.
 
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