Interesting move in that the SOCON has been a higher rated basketball conference this past year and three of the past four years. With that said, over the years, Coastal has been a better program (4 NCAATs) than WCU (1 NCAAT), and would assume that Coastal is offering a hefty pay raise. All that said, not sure a Sun Belt basktball job is an easy entry to the Power Conferences. More Southern Conference coaches (Forbes, Young, Paris. Wes "The Greatest of All Time" Miller) have made that jump in recent years.
Some odd Sun Belt tidbits. University of Denver was a member of the Sun Belt conference from 2000 through 2012. New Mexico State, Texas Pan American, Arksansas-Little Rock and UT-Arlington are all former Sun Belt members.