So far C-USA has added:

North Texas, UNCC, UTSA, Old Dominion, La Tech, & FIU

The Sun Belt has added:

Georgia State & Texas State

Let’s be straight here, with the exception of LA Tech, those schools didn’t get picked up for their performance. They were market-driven adds, and they know it. But despite what the people in charge seem to think, markets aren’t everything.

First let’s look at the real overall value a school offers to a conference. An excellent article over at SB Nation did just that – for every school in the NCAA. They used a mathematical formula taking into account revenue, football success, all-sports success, academics, football attendance, and even market value. Where did App State rank up against those newly added schools? Take a wild guess:

#89 FIU (C-USA)

#93 Appalachian State

#103 Old Dominion (C-USA)

#106 UTSA (C-USA)

#108 LA Tech (C-USA)

#110 North Texas (C-USA)

#113 Georgia State (Sun Belt)

#114 Texas State (Sun Belt)

#127 UNC-Charlotte (C-USA)

So the numbers proved what common sense indicated to us all along. They screwed up…big time. Wait? Those schools will help with basketball you say? Not so fast.

Sports Illustrated shows how realignment would have played out if those schools had been in C-USA for the last few years compared to what happened in reality. Let’s just say C-USA didn’t do so hot:

So yeah, call me jealous, call me whatever you want. But C-USA and The Sun Belt have really boned this whole conference realignment thing up. Honestly, I’d rather play football against Georgia Southern and Furman over UNCC and Georgia State. Don’t get me wrong, the original members still give C-USA the edge, but for the most part these new adds have only watered-down both conferences.

Appalachian State and MTSU are the most attractive targets left. But then again, with the exception of FIU, we were the most attractive targets from the beginning – and that didn’t matter. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see if they come to their senses.

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