By james art Like the rest of the college football landscape, the Sun Belt Conference was turned upside down in 2024.
The top Sun Belt favorite, Louisiana-Monroe (which hit 350/1 over the summer), is 5-1 overall and 3-0 in conference play, while the clear favorite, Appalachian State, remains at the foot of the standings with 0-3 record against Sun Belt opponents.
Colloquially known as the “Fun Belt” among college football fans, the Sun Belt is making a comeback this season, and we’re betting on more mayhem this week with our Ugly Underdog: The Golden Eagles of Southern Mississippi.
It’s been a rough start to life in the Sun Belt for Southern Miss.
After establishing themselves as one of the powers in Conference USA from 1996 to 2019, the Golden Eagles took a step up in class.
The decision has yet to pay off as Southern Miss went 3-9 in its first year, 7-6 in 2023 and is 1-6 overall in 2024 and has yet to win a conference game in three tries .
Facing the prospect of another down year, Southern Miss fired head coach Will Hall and replaced him with Reid Stringer, who has been at Southern Miss since 2018 on an interim basis.
Stringer has his work cut out for him as Southern Miss has yet to defeat an FBS opponent this season.
In fact, their best result was a 10-point loss to Louisiana in Hattiesburg on Oct. 5. It was ugly.
But a change of helm can often do wonders for a team, especially in its first game under a new head coach. It’s always best to err on the side of caution when betting on narratives, but “running into a new coach” is a real thing in any sport.
You have to get an inspired effort from Southern Miss against James Madison on Saturday, and the best thing is that we don’t want the Golden Eagles to pull off the upset, but rather just keep this game within a 24.5 point margin.
And as daunting as this spread is, it seems to flatter James Madison a little.
The Dukes have been one of the stories early this season thanks to one of the strangest starts to a season we’ve ever seen.
JMU started things off with a 30-7 win over Charlotte in the opener, but then narrowly defeated Gardner-Webb, 13-7, on September 7.
The Dukes then followed up that performance with a 70-50 (yes, you read that right) win over North Carolina and a 63-7 (also, you read that right) win over Ball State.
That team scored 13 points against an FCS opponent and then put up 163 in three wins against FBS teams, including UNC.
College football is weird.
That discrepancy continues to be a theme in recent games as the Dukes posted an impressive win over Coastal Carolina with losses to Georgia Southern and UL-Monroe.
In other words, no one has any idea what to expect every time James Madison takes the field, and the same can be said for Southern Miss for this upcoming game, given the change in the sidelines.
Betting on college football?
This should (and I stress should) be the best effort you get from the Golden Eagles this season.
There is so much chaos built into this game, and that should be good news for an underdog who just needs to lose by 24 points or less to get you to the window.
Let’s hope the Reed Stringer era gets off to a strong start.
Tip: Southern Miss +24.5 (-110, ESPN BET)
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