Southern Miss is set to join the Sun Belt Conference, which could soon add more members, sources told ESPN.
The Southern Miss move is a "done deal," a source said, and the school likely will join the Sun Belt for the 2023 fall athletics season. Southern Miss is the latest school to depart Conference USA, which this week lost six members -- UAB, Florida Atlantic, Charlotte, North Texas, Rice and UTSA -- to the expanded American Athletic Conference.
The Sun Belt also has had conversations about membership with two other Conference USA schools, Marshall and Old Dominion, as well as James Madison, one of the nation's top FCS programs, which competes in the Colonial Athletic Association.