Southern Miss has watched as several of its Conference USA brethren have been invited to join leagues that have an automatic Bowl Championship Series bid. The latest was Memphis, which accepted a bid to join the Big East last week.
The call hasn't come for the Golden Eagles. And that's led to some angst.
"I've got e-mails from our fans that could fill a library," Southern Miss interim athletic director Jeff Hammond said. "I understand the concern and I'm glad there's all that passion. But I can't control what Memphis does. We've got to control what we can and for the most part I think we're doing that. Our goal is to go from good to great. That's the mantra I'm beating."
Hammond spent much of last week criss-crossing the deep south, travelling to places like Mobile, Ala., and Pensacola, Fla., to reassure fans about the future of the Golden Eagles' athletic program.
Normally, it wouldn't be a hard sell.
The football program just finished one of the best seasons in school history, with 12 wins, a Conference USA championship and a victory in the Hawaii Bowl. The basketball program has its best shot at making the NCAA tournament since 1991. Even the baseball program is nationally competitive, with a College World Series appearance in 2009.
But in the increasing arms race that is major college athletics, the program's failure to jump into one of the six BCS conferences has caused concern.
School administrators aren't panicking, saying they hope a planned merger between C-USA and the Mountain West Conference can provide future stability. The two leagues -- totaling 16 programs -- have already announced a partnership in football and are exploring an all-sports union for the 2013-14 academic year.
The eight remaining schools from Conference USA are Southern Miss, Marshall, East Carolina, Tulane, Tulsa, Rice, UTEP and UAB and the schools from the Mountain West Conference are Colorado State, Air Force, Wyoming, UNLV, Fresno State, New Mexico, Nevada and Hawaii.
Hawaii would be a football-only member.
A joint announcement from both conferences on Monday afternoon said future plans for the merger include expansion to between 18 and 24 total teams, a championship football game format that includes a semifinal round and a championship basketball tournament.
"I'm very optimistic," Southern Miss president Martha Saunders said. "The consolidation is appealing from a business perspective. We believe from our media advisors that we'll have a stronger media contract and that there's a certain allure spanning five time zones."
Southern Miss recently hired new football coach Ellis Johnson after Larry Fedora left to take the North Carolina job. Johnson wasn't worried about conference affiliation, saying his only focus is to continue the Golden Eagles' football success.
"Southern Miss football-wise has been its own entity and spoken for itself over the years," Johnson said. "It's been successful in every league its every played in, including Conference USA. I don't expect that success to change. We all know money, television and television market size drives the discussion of college sports. That's nothing we can control. We can control winning."
Hammond said he expects the C-USA-MWC merger to be successful and that "the smoke may finally clear." Southern Miss, which is located in Hattiesburg, Miss., has always been hampered by its small media market in its quest for a bigger conference affiliation.
Hammond said the conference realignment upheaval over the past few years has been "stressful" for everyone, but that things might finally be settling down. His immediate goals are raising the football program's season-ticket base from its current level at 10,600 to 12,000 and keeping the momentum of a successful season.
"I'd say let's be proud of what we have and we have to capitalize," Hammond said. "We can't do anything about our television market, but we can certainly control a lot of other things. Southern Miss has a lot going for it."
