Like the rest of the college football landscape, the Sun Belt Conference has been turned on its head in 2024.
The biggest long shot to win the Sun Belt, Louisiana-Monroe (which was as high as 350/1 in the summer), is 5-1 overall and 3-0 in conference play, while the outright favorite, Appalachian State, is sitting at the foot of the standings with an 0-3 record against Sun Belt opponents.
Colloquially known as the “Fun Belt” among college football diehards, the Sun Belt is delivering once again this season, and we’ll bet on some more chaos 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 itself as one of the powers in Conference USA from 1996 to 2019, the Golden Eagles took a step up in class.
The decision hasn’t paid off as yet, 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.
Staring down the prospects of another down year, Southern Miss sacked head coach Will Hall and replaced him with Reed 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 beat an FBS opponent this season.
In fact, their best result was a 10-point loss to Louisiana in Hattiesburg on Oct. 5. It’s been ugly.
But a change at the helm can often do wonders for a team, especially in its first game under a new head coach. It’s always best to proceed with some caution when betting into narratives, but the “new-coach bump” is a real thing across every sport.
You should get an inspired effort from Southern Miss against James Madison on Saturday, and the best part is we’re not asking the Golden Eagles to pull the upset but, rather, just keep this game within the 24.5-point spread.
And as daunting as that spread may be, it does seem to flatter James Madison a bit.
The Dukes were one of the stories in the early going this season thanks to one of the most peculiar starts to a season we’ve ever seen.
JMU kicked things off with a 30-7 win over Charlotte in their opener, but then barely scraped by Gardner-Webb, 13-7, on Sept. 7. T
he Dukes then followed that performance with a 70-50 (yes, you read that right) upset of North Carolina and a 63-7 (you also read that right) win over Ball State.
This team scored 13 points against an FCS opponent and then put up 163 across three wins against FBS teams, including UNC.
College football is weird.
That inconsistency has continued to be a theme in recent games as the Dukes bookended an impressive win over Coastal Carolina with losses to Georgia Southern and UL-Monroe.
In other words, nobody has any idea what to expect any time James Madison takes the field, and the same can be said of Southern Miss for this upcoming game given the change on the sidelines.
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This should (and I stress, should) be the best effort you get from the Golden Eagles this season.
There’s so much chaos built into this game, and that should be good news for an underdog that 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.
Recommendation: Southern Miss +24.5 (-110, ESPN BET)
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