Southern Miss Golden Eagles are joining the Sun Belt Conference, source says

The University of Southern Mississippi will be joining the Sun Belt Conference for the 2023-24 athletic season, a source confirmed to NOLA.com on Friday.

An official announcement is expected next week from the New Orleans-based conference.

The Golden Eagles are leaving Conference USA, which recently had six members picked off by the American Athletic Conference.

USM had been a member of Conference USA since it was first established in 1995.

The Golden Eagles should have more regional partners in the Sun Belt than it did in C-USA, including South Alabama in Mobile and Louisiana in Lafayette.

This story was originally published October 22, 2021 at 5:44 PM.