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Marshall had its best season on the football field in close to a decade after Charles Huff led the team to the 10-3 record that earned them an invite to the Independence Bowl. However, they opted out of the contest due to the depleted roster they ended up with after he left for another gig, and the Sun Belt has subsequently hit them with a sizeable fine and stern talking to for good measure.
Smaller college football programs were already facing an uphill battle in their quest to field a competitive team prior to the advent of the NIL Era, and it’s gotten significantly steeper in a day and age where it’s easier than ever for players to transfer to another school and immediately pick up where they left off at their old one.
It’s also become increasingly difficult for the G5 conferences to hold their own against the P4 juggernauts that already had a huge advantage on the financial front, and those comparatively diminutive organizations need all the help they can get when it comes to making money.
The Sun Belt got a boost on that front this season after eight of its teams punched their ticket to a bowl. That includes Marshall, which secured its first 10-win season since 2015 to go bowling for the eighth year and a row and had the (admittedly slim) chance to snap a five-game losing streak in those contests against Army in the Independence Bowl.
However, things took a very unexpected turn a day after the Thundering Herd cruised to a 31-3 victory over Louisiana in the Sun Belt Championship Game, as we learned Charles Huff’s fourth season at Marshall would be his last when he left for the job at Southern Miss in what was positioned as a mutual decision.
Dozens of Marshall players quickly leaped into the transfer portal (including close to 30 guys on scholarship and every single one of their quarterbacks), and the team announced it was opting out of the Independence Bowl two weeks before it was scheduled to take place after determining it had fallen “below the roster minimum that was deemed medically safe,”
A Louisana Tech squad that finished at 5-8 ended up facing up against Army in a game where the Black Knights earned a 27-6 victory while splitting the $2.2 million payout reserved for the teams who played in it.
Marshall’s opt-out meant the Sun Belt and the rest of its members missed out on their share of that six-figure reward, and on Friday, the conference hit the Thundering Herd with a $100,000 fine and a public rebuke that reads:
While the conference acknowledges the medical model and best practice guidance adhered to by Marshall, as well as their fundamental concern for the health and safety of the remaining eligible student-athletes to compete in a safe and viable manner, the nature and timing of this decision was detrimental to the Sun Belt Conference and its membership, to Army, the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl, the American Athletic Conference and ESPN.
Bummer.