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UL-Monroe announced yesterday that they are leaving the
Southland Conference after this years upcoming sports season and joining the SunBelt Conference where they participate in
football, swimming and diving. Last week ULM's athletic department received an evaluation report from Carr Sports Associates recommendint full membership in the SunBelt Conference.

Also, Bobby Staub accepted the athletic director's job at ULM ending the school's four month search.

I wish the Indians all the luck in the world in their new endeavors.

Go Tribe!!!

I wish Florida A&M had tried to join the Sun Belt for Football, they could have stayed in the MEAC for all other sports...that would give the Sun Belt 9 teams, and a more stable future as a conference....but maybe in a couple of years

Good point.

UL-Monroe LOST more games to I-AA opponents last year than they WON against I-A competition. And that game included inherent motivation against a rival UL system school, ULL. It was also close.

More info:

ULM only managed 11,300 in attendance last year. Granted, that was a marked improvement of nearly 3000. On top of that, no one came to Monroe of note:

2003 HOME GAMES
--------------------------
Stephen F. Austin (I-AA)
NW'ern State (I-AA)
NM State
N Texas
Idaho

So maybe they can get into gear after all, if they pull 11,000 for a I-AA caliber schedule like they did in '03.

I would suggest to the new AD there, though, that scheduling some decent teams might be a good idea:

2004 HOME SCHEDULE
--------------------------
Arkansas St
Florida Intl (I-AA this year)
Utah St
UL-Lafayette

Yep, that's it. One home OOC game, and that's against a I-AA school. While it's true that FIU and FAU are joining the Sun Belt next year in some capacity, it hurts ULM to have to schedule them both, but....

They're VISITING a I-AA school (Florida Atlantic) as well as Wyoming. Add conference away games and a pair of body bags in the SEC (at the hands of Auburn and Arkansas) and there isn't much prospect for a winning season here. 3 games won would be nice.

ULM will be joining its brethren back in the Southland if this keeps up, even with their recent announcement. They'll have to schedule like a I-A school if they want to be taken seriously. For starters, don't travel to I-AA schools. Ever.

Sources: http://www.ncaa.org/stats/football/attendance/2003/2003footballattendance.pdf
http://www.jhowell.net/cf/scores/Louisiana-Monroe.htm
http://www.nationalchamps.net/NCAA/college_football_2004_schedules/louisiana-monroe.htm

Just to let everyone know where ULM stands as far as it's athletic programs.

3 years ago ULM athletic dept was 4 million in debt (university total buget is 51 million. ULM finally got rid of their coach the season before last and appointed the asst coach....he ran ass backwards into a house becasue he was drunk....the school fired him. he beat the rap and then sued the school. In the meantime, ULM hire Chuck Weatherbie. His salary was 15K (yep 15 thousand dollars) plus a nice house. Renegotiated this year and now makes a whopping 75K

And now ULM is going full throttle into the Sunbelt. The extra cost to the university will be on average 3 million more to the athletic dept than they currently spend. Remember that ULM's tota budget is ~ 50 million. so 3 million more is 6% of the total budget on top of what they already put in. For clarity, the 3 million per year is supposed to come from donations and not the budget.

A review of the university by outside consultants 3 years ago suggested ULM go back to AII football.

This year is likely to be just like the last 4 years with respect to football. Many losses.

ULM was the first to pursue the name change in the mid 90's. The Board of Reagents indicated that a second school would need to join ULM if there was to be a name change. ULL joined ULM in 1999 for the offical "UL" designation.

Please do not speak about something of which you know nothing about.

http://www.raginpagin.com/louisiana/

The glory days for the sunbelt are long past in my opinion....speaking more on basketball than football.

the good times for bball were back in the early 80's with the likes of VCU, ODU, AUB, USF, USA, WKU and others. When was the last time the Sunbelt had a basketball team ranked #11 at the end of the season? WKU has had a very good bball program in recent years but that is about it. But the major days of the sunbelt in basketball were in the early 80's.

How do I know? I was a member of one of those school above way back then.

I love this site. I'm a realignment junkie, have been for years. I realign sports conferences COSTANTLY when i'm bored. But i digress. To me this is the BEST possible scenerio for the SUN BELT. Granted this will be in say 10 years, but here goes:
FOOTBALL
WEST
North Texas
Texas State
Louisiana-Lafayette
Louisiana Tech
Louisiana-Monroe
Arkanasas State
EAST
Western Kentucky
Middle Tennessee
Georgia State
Troy
Florida Atlantic
Florida International
BASKETBALL
[WEST
Arkanas-Little Rock
New Orleans
EAST
South Alabama
College of Charleston

Granted this is all based on Texas State and Western Kentucky moving up and Ga. State getting there program up and going in the next few years (fingers crossed). Anyway that's 12 football, 16 basketball, and VERY well balanced across the southeast. I love this scenerio. Agree or disagree?

Georgia State is in the A-sun. They don't have football and they aren't in or going to be in the Sunbelt. They are going to be in one of the highest ranked mid major conferences, the CAA (although the addition of Northeastern sure won't help)

I have a feeling the most likely agent for change in the Sun Belt would be if two or more conferences raid Conference USA that caused CUSA to fall below seven members (such as the Mountain West and the Big East).

The next most likely would be more I-A upgrades, which could possibly include Texas State, UTSA, WKU, and Missouri State. If the Sun Belt gets above 9 in football, I'd expect Denver, USA, UNO, and UALR to all be gone, and quite possibly all to separate conferences.