The difference is, last time you were drawing well there wasn't an in-state team a couple hours from Jonesboro in the Southland.
That's the draw and what Brady is really concerned about (right.
) - playing an in-state school, not playing a Southland school. The conference affiliation shouldn't have any bearing on it.
It's one thing to pass on a home & home with Sam Houston State - where you're bringing in a team nobody really cares anything about (even though they're pretty good) and going the following year to a place where nobody cares about you; and passing on a home & home with UCA - where there's the wonderful in-state competition angle and you bring in an opponent that will bring some fans and generate local interest and then, on the other side, have a short road trip in an area where a lot of your alumni are and many of your fans can attend.
No there was a TAAC team in Central Arkansas and we are such elitists that when the American South and Sun Belt merged and your now conference mates at Lamar tried to block UALR's admission, ASU got them in despite the fact that UALR had canceled a multi-year contract that cost ASU thousands of dollars a few years earlier in a political move pushed by the UA system.
Weird thing about college athletics. Most schools do what is economically best for them.