As Dr. Daryl Burckel and Heath Schroyer drove together to Beaumont, Texas, Friday morning it must have felt like a victory lap.

The McNeese State president and athletic director were off to welcome Lamar back into the Southland Conference.

The Cardinals’ return to the league comes one year after leaving for what they thought would be greener pastures in the Western Athletic Conference marks a huge win for the Cowboys duo.

Six months ago McNeese flirted with the WAC, the pretty new star in the college football galaxy. But that star is quickly burning out.

Lamar jumped ship for the same reasons McNeese ultimately said no to a move: the WAC’s promises were too good to be true.

In the fall Schroyer became the biggest winner when he brokered a deal to keep the Cowboys home. Essentially he held a gun to the head of the league and demanded just about everything to stay.

It was a huge bluff for only he and Burckel knew the gun held no bullets.

So the conference caved and McNeese, the school ready to bolt, became the center of the Southland universe. All things SLC now revolve around Lake Charles.

Friday, McNeese’s move began to pay off.

Lamar’s reentry is the first time a current Division I football school has become a full member of the SLC since 1991.

The return proves the grass isn’t always greener as Lamar got lost in the weeds of the WAC. The Cardinals lost every league game they played in football and men’s basketball.

“This is a great day for McNeese,” Burckel told the crowd in Beaumont. “We welcome back Lamar into our conference, our natural rival, our Sabine River foe. This is good for us, good for our league and good for Lamar.”

McNeese and Lamar fans have always traveled the hour between schools in solid numbers.

“It is great to have somebody back that you hate to play every day,” Burckel said. “We love to hate you.”

Nobody becomes a bigger winner in all this than SLC Commissioner Chris Grant, who’s three days into his job.

The timing speaks for itself.

While welcoming back Lamar, Grant said the league is still looking to expand a year after the SLC was left for dead when five schools exited, four for the WAC itself.

Grant also said it will remain a “gas-tank league.” So geography is important.

As for future members, one has to wonder about Stephen F. Austin, which last year ran off to the WAC, or even Incarnate Word, set to leave this June for the same destination Lamar is running from.

And what of Texas-Rio Grande Valley or Tarleton State? They might now look on the Southland in new light. An increased alliance with the Ohio Valley or Atlantic Sun is more possible.

“We are definitely looking to expand,” Grant said.

As for Lamar, it will officially rejoin on July 1 of 2023. It was really the lone option.

“In my mind, this was an obvious choice,” Lamar President Dr. Jaime Taylor said. “It just makes sense.”

So on the drive back from Beaumont, maybe even as they crossed the river back safely into Louisiana, Burckel and Schroyer could be forgiven if they exchanged a few high-fives and even got in a few laughs knowing that in less than a year they have helped create a new Southland out of the ashes of the old.

That deserves a victory lap.

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Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers McNeese State athletics for the American Press. Email him at jimgazzolo@yahoo.com