Three schools are reportedly looking to jump off the Conference USA ship early.
On Friday, CBS Sports‘ Shehan Jeyarajah revealed Southern Miss, Marshall and Old Dominion all plan to leave for the Sun Belt a year early. This would put them in their new conference in time for the 2022 athletic year, rather than initial target date of “no later than June 2023.”
However there appears to be some pushback from the conference itself.
In case anybody is wondering, Conference USA confirms to me that their current bylaws stipulate that any member who intends to leave must provide a minimum of 14 months advanced notice and is responsible for two years of conference distribution.
— Matt Brown (@MattBrownEP) September 16, 2021
“The University first advised Conference USA in early December 2021 of the University’s plans to terminate its membership in June 2022,” Southern Miss said in a statement. “Since then, the University has clearly and consistently repeated its intentions to the conference.”
“The University has from the outset expressed its desire to work with [C-USA] to achieve an amicable separation, including offering to cooperate to ensure that all remaining conference members had complete competitive schedules for those sports in which the University competes. [C-USA] has so far refused to discuss any such arrangement with the University.”
CUSA & its Sun Belt-bound three departing schools – Marshall, Southern Miss, ODU – are in a serious fight.
As the three schools announced their June departure, CUSA sent its *final* 2022 football schedule to members – with the three included on the schedules, sources tell @SInow
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) February 11, 2022
A story to watch for sure, as things continue to develop.
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