Yes, but put Kansas in Conference USA and put Southern Miss in the Big 12 and try to convince ANYONE with even a passing knowledge of college football that those numbers wouldn't be reversed.
Puh-leeeeeze.
Texas and Okalhoma are great teams, but the Big 12's mid-tier teams are just as mediocre as those in any other conference. A&M lost to Baylor, for crying out loud.
My point remains that there is a strong, fan-supported winning football tradition at Southern Miss and none at Kansas. The fact that KU has been Oklahoma's (and Nebraska's...and Kansas State's...and Colorado's...and even Missouri's...and hell's bells, Iowa State kicks Kansas' ass on a regular basis) perennial doormat for 50 years carries no weight with me or any other knowledgeable college football fan.
The good mid-major teams - and Southern Miss is one of them - are as good or better than many major conference mid-tier teams. Southern Miss (or Utah or Louisville or Cincinnati or TCU) would fare just fine in the middle of the Big 12 pack. Kansas would still suck in any conference - even the Big LEast.
Kansas (or Duke or Indiana or Vanderbilt or Baylor or fill-in-your-favorite-loser-program-here) football is a joke. They have been and will likely remain the "major" cupcakes that other schools seek out to schedule in non-conference play. There isn't an athletic director in the country that feels that way about Southern Miss.
p.s. It's hard for me to have any good feelings about the Big 12 with their larceny of Cal's BCS spot. Four coaches in the final AP poll voted Cal 7th and two coaches voted Cal 8th. During the previous month, ALL coaches voted Cal at least 6th or better. Cal and the Pac10 have called for the AP coach's ballots to be made public.
What is nearly certain, but is not being said directly, is that 6 Big 12 coaches changed their votes to put Texas in the BCS and bring home a $12-15 million BCS payment for the Big 12 conference to divvy up among its members.
If I were a coach, AD or univeristy president from any other conference, I would be screaming bloody murder and demanding AP ballots be made public next year.