The Really easy solution: "join" the Sunbelt. They are a football-oriented conference that played through the pandemic. They can likely overtake CUSA if they have a better bowl deal.

So, we "join" the Sunbelt with a bowl agreement - we share their bowl games, and their "champion" for the purpose of the autobid is the highest ranked team.

Benefit for us: We get the G5 autobid, better bowl games, and don't have to change our schedule.

Benefit for Sunbelt: They move ahead of CUSA in the pecking order, potentially get better bowl games, and get another team with a chance to get the autobid.

It is a clear win-win. We win even bigger if the other independents can get the same deal, and the Sunbelt can negotiate even better bowl agreements due to covering more teams.

Working together is something the nonBCS/NonAQ teams have always been extremely terrible at. Lose a bunch of power by not joining together and leveraging whatever pull we have.

Go Cougs!!!!!!