I wouldn't be in favor of it if I were an MSU fan. The Sun Belt was bad before C-USA raided it. Now, it makes the MAC look like the NFL. No Sun Belt team has even cracked the top 25. There's no chance someone from there gets the Access Bowl bid. It will be 12 teams fighting for 2 bowl spots against the CUSA and MAC.
Someone mentioned TV coverage. Here are the televised Sun Belt games last year and their ratings:
http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/college ... v-ratings/Rating Viewers Time Away Home Net
(On Thursday 9/12, at the same time as TCU/TT on ESPN and Tulane/LT on FS1)
0.1 137K 7:30 PM Troy Arkansas State ESPNU
(On Thursday, 10/3, at the same time as Texas/IA ST on ESPN)
0.1 81K 7:30 PM W. Kentucky UL-Monroe ESPNU
(On Tuesday, 10/15)
0.3 456K 8:00 PM UL-Lafayette W. Kentucky ESPN2
(On Tuesday, 10/22)
0.5 767K 8:00 PM UL-Lafayette Arkansas State ESPN2
(On Thursday, 10/31, starting a half hour after USF/Houston on ESPN and at the same time as Rice/UNT on FS1)
0.1 73K 7:30 PM UL-Monroe Troy ESPNU
(Thursday, 11/7, at the same time as Oklahoma/Baylor on FS1, with Oregon/Stanford starting 90 minutes in)
0.1 101K 7:30 PM Troy UL-Lafayette ESPNU
..... so basically the league gets 6 games televised, in the middle of the week, with awful ratings, and all but 2 on ESPNU running concurrently with BCS conference games to ensure nobody will watch. If the league expands to 12 you might not even get a televised game as a Sun Belt member. You want to kill your basketball program for that? It might not be such a bad idea if you think you could dominate in basketball and capture the auto bid more often, but I'd wager New Mexico State will stake the claim as top dog there in basketball. It would be NMSU and everyone else, like it was in the Horizon with Butler.