Column: Can Southern Miss make a bowl game this year? Here’s what ESPN says.
Southern Miss is roughly 70 days from joining the Sun Belt Conference and less than six months from playing in its first SBC football game.
Its new digs are expected to have a big impact on athletics in Hattiesburg and especially on a rebuilding football program.
The Golden Eagles are entering a new competitive environment much different from their last, one filled with burgeoning coaching staffs and aggressive competitors in the facilities arms race.
The new-look SBC is divided around the East Division-West Division line and USM finds itself on the friendlier side of that fence.
Though the Wild West isn’t as packed with title contenders as its counterpart division, it is among the trickiest subsets of the college football landscape.
ESPN college football writer and statistician Bill Connelly attempted make sense of the situation in his annual divisional preview on ESPN+.
In short, the numbers say the West will be won by Louisiana for the fifth straight year. After that, the middle of the fray will be a mess of jockeying teams with ULM looking up from the bottom.
- Louisiana: 72nd in SP+
- Troy: 93rd
- Southern Miss: 98th
- South Alabama: 107th
- Texas State: 118th
- Arkansas State: 121st
- ULM: 130th
A division title is a lofty goal for Will Hall’s second season at the helm and Connelly’s numbers suggest as much. But the intriguing aspect of the preview is where his rankings suggest USM will land in terms of number of wins.
Connelly’s projection gives USM a predicted 5.9-6.1 record, which would put the Golden Eagles on the cusp of a bowl game.
Such an accomplishment would be a significantly positive sign for USM’s rebuild.
It’s also a very real possibility. Southern Miss is going to enter the season with a defense that has the potential to be one of the best in the 14-team conference. Connelly’s numbers rank the USM defense at 59th in the country, second in the SBC West only to Troy.
The onus will be on the offense to turn it around, though. The SP+ rankings place the Golden Eagle offense at 122nd in the nation and the only West Division team lower is ULM.
The race for second place and the coveted sixth win of the season is going to be a hot one between USM, Troy and even budding rival South Alabama.
Just how loud of an entry into the league will the Golden Eagles make?
