ESPN. Power rankings. Travel. What the Sun Belt move really means for USM football.

After nearly three decades as a charter member of Conference USA, the University of Southern Mississippi is leaving for the expanding Sun Belt Conference, a sign of the rapidly changing college athletics landscape.

Southern Miss is one of four schools joining the Sun Belt: C-USA mates Marshall and Dominion are following suit, along with James Madison of Colonial Athletics Association. The wave of realignments kicked off when Texas and Oklahoma announced they would be leaving the Big 12.

The move to Sun Belt will occur “no later than July 1, 2023,” conference commissioner Keith Gill said.

For the Golden Eagles football team, moving to the SBC will carry a big impact on many levels.

Why the Sun Belt?

Southern Miss accepted the SBC invite after the university was faced with a stay-or-go choice when the AAC poached six schools from C-USA, athletic director Jeremy McClain said.

“I think it begins with geography,” McClain said. “If anybody were to look up at a map, they’d say, ‘Hey, this feels like it would make a lot of sense.’”

The rapid growth in the SBC’s competitiveness on the football field field was also a factor.

McLain said the Sun Belt has taken off and “raised the bar” in the last few years, proving to be one of the top Group of Five conferences in the U.S.

“I firmly believe it has the chance to be the best with the changes of landscape,” he said.

Southern Miss will be joining a conference that is made up largely of universities in small towns similar to Hattiesburg, a change of pace from locations that house C-USA schools.

McClain said schools in the SBC are similar to Southern Miss in the sense that they “are not in airport communities.”

The colleges, he said, “are not large in metro areas but in more smaller communities that are really passionate about their institutions. Often times, the community revolves around the institution. In that regard, we are a lot better fit.”

How will USM be impacted financially?

The $2 million entry fee for joining the SBC was waived, McClain said, just as it was for other realigning schools. Southern Miss will pay $80,000 in annual dues.

The school’s exit fees will be the sum of C-USA’s revenue distribution over the next two years, which is estimated at $3 million. If USM were to leave a year early for the Sun Belt, the school would only be forfeiting one year’s worth of revenue from C-USA, or an estimated $1.5 million.

The switch to the new league is also expected to bring a significant amount in savings, particularly with travel. The current landscape of C-USA spans from El Paso, Texas to Miami and there are only two other schools within 250 miles of Hattiesburg. In contrast, there are four Sun Belt schools within the same distance.

“We have the potential to save $400,000 to $500,000 a year in travel,” McClain said. “Just from getting on planes less, to be honest. Being able to get on a bus and travel, it adds up. You’re talking about 17 sports. If you save one football flight a year, that’s a big number.”

Southern Miss will also be moving into a new media rights deal that will place Golden Eagle athletics strictly on ESPN networks upon entry into the SBC. The payout that deal will have is still in negotiation.

“I think all the conferences will be going back to their media partners and having conversations about what things look like tomorrow versus what they look like today,” McClain said.

How does USM football fit in?

Some of the most consequential changes will be felt in Southern Miss football, the school’s front porch sport. There are three future games scheduled, beginning with Troy in 2024, that will be converted into conference games, leaving openings in USM’s schedule in 2024, 2028 and 2029.

McClain says there will be an effort to schedule soon-to-be former conference mates and regional opponents.

“What would have been a conference game for us now has the potential to be a non-conference game,” McClain said. “We’ll have those conversations with UAB or whoever may still fit within our footprint. We’ll try to fill the gaps there.”

On the field, USM is joining a conference that led the nation in non-conference wins a year ago, despite having just 10 members. The Sun Belt has won a higher percentage of its bowl games in the last five years than any other conference in the U.S.

The Golden Eagles will join the west division with six other schools.

“From a competitive standpoint we’ve got some work to do to carry our own weight and add to the conference,” McClain said. “But I firmly believe we will do that. We’ll add value very soon. It’s a very competitive football league.”