Southern Miss paid Conference USA $1.75 million to leave early for Sun Belt, document shows
The University of Southern Mississippi agreed to pay Conference USA $1.75 million in order to leave the league one year earlier than originally announced, according to the “confidential settlement agreement and mutual release” document obtained by the Sun Herald Wednesday.
Southern Miss, Marshall University, Old Dominion and C-USA commissioner Judy MacLeod signed the agreement on March 29.
It included a special provision allowing USM to host the 2022 C-USA baseball tournament in May and a confidentiality clause preventing the parties involved from disclosing the terms of the agreement to the six C-USA schools leaving for the American Athletic Conference.
How we arrived here
The three C-USA-departed universities released a joint statement in February stating their intent to join the Sun Belt Conference a year earlier than originally announced.
Conference USA shortly thereafter released a statement that said the league fully expected the schools to fulfill their contractual obligations and released a 2022 football schedule with the schools included.
When an the exit agreement was announced in late March, the Sun Herald filed for access to the documents and was blocked by a restraining order filed by C-USA. The league dropped its suit on Tuesday, Sept. 13, two days before a scheduled hearing in Poplarville.
Financial impact
Southern Miss Athletic Director Jeremy McClain told the Sun Herald during the summer the first year in the new conference was going to be a difficult one from a financial standpoint.
The school will not be receiving any of the money the SBC gets from its media rights deal with ESPN during the first academic year in the league.
According to the exit agreement, C-USA did pay USM its share of monies owed from the NCAA and for bowl game expense reimbursements during the 2021-22 academic year, among other reimbursements.
It did not pay USM its full share of the total distributions, though the agreement does not clarify what was withheld.
Old Dominion athletic director Wood Selig told the Virginia-Pilot that ODU, under the same agreement with C-USA as USM, will be missing “roughly $1.1 to $1.2 million” from the league in revenue.
Selig said the total expense from missing media revenue between C-USA and the SBC was about $2.4 million. If Selig’s figures are accurate, USM is taking a total financial hit of roughly $4.15 million in making the move to the SBC.
This story was originally published September 22, 2022 at 5:50 AM.
