In anticipation of a move to the Sun Belt Conference, three schools — Old Dominion, Marshall and Southern Miss — have all announced their decision to end their alliance with Conference USA in June 2022.
Sports Illustrated’s college football insider Ross Dellenger reports that this decision comes in response to all three of these schools being included on the official C-USA fall schedule that was released earlier this week. The Sun Belt has also included each of these three schools in their scheduling for the 2022 season, Dellenger adds.
Conference USA released to its members privately its 2022 schedule last week with Southern Miss, ODU and Marshall (three schools that now say they’re leaving the league in June).
Today, CUSA released the schedule publicly with the three out-going members on the schedules. https://t.co/WyjVNfEXuJ
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) February 15, 2022
In two weeks, the Sun Belt conference schedules are expected to be released. Most believe that ODU, Marshall and Southern Miss will be on those schedules as well.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) February 15, 2022
Each of these three schools have since released statements opposing the C-USA’s 2022 scheduling.
“The University first advised the Conference in early December 2021 of the University’s plans to terminate its membership in June 2022. Since then, the University has clearly and consistently repeated its intentions to the Conference. The University offered to cooperate with the Conference to ensure that all remaining C-USA members had complete competitive schedules for those sports in which the University competes. The Conference refuses to discuss such an arrangement with the University,” Old Dominion wrote in a release.
“The Conference’s unwillingness to discuss the concept of separation this year creates confusion and doubt for all concerned. The remaining members of Conference USA deserve certainty about their schedules as they plan for competition next year. For their sake, the University makes public its intent,” Southern Miss added.
— Marshall Athletics (@HerdZone) February 11, 2022
Conference USA has released a statement of it’s own in response to this controversy.
“There is major realignment happening across the collegiate athletics landscape. All conferences and their members have agreed upon bylaws and contractual obligations for when transition occurs. We have chosen not to engage publicly, but have communicated with our member institutions and expect them to meet those obligations,” the conference said, per college football insider Chris Vannini of The Athletic.
The C-USA has also announced it’s intentions to “exhaust all necessary legal action” to make sure Old Dominion, Marshall and Southern Miss meet their contractual obligations.
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