MTSU has a good location, a fickle fan base, and a history of peaking before reaching the big time.
When Middle Tennessee made the jump to the FBS and joined the Sun Belt Conference in 2001 and watched the conference expand again in 2004, it looked as if Middle Tennessee would be an also-ran as conference rivals FAU, FIU, North Texas, and Troy all had better recruiting bases.
That came to fruition as Middle Tennessee went 50-38 in conference play with two Sun Belt Conference championships from 2001-2012.
In 2005 they hired Rick Stockstill and just over ten years later in a different conference Middle Tennessee is still at a disadvantage compared to FAU, FIU and North Texas in regards to location and facilities (minus FIU).