SBC standings take a twist

MeanGreen61 · November 3, 2005

SBC standings take twist

Title fate still in Mean Green’s control

Rian Johnson

Staff Writer

November 03, 2005

College football has reached the midseason point for most teams in their conferences, and the Sun Belt is no exception. Once again, coaches and players have proven how little anyone covering college football actually knows.

Entering the season, college football experts recognize three teams from the Sun Belt that would represent what is now known as the Lafayette Bowl: NT, Troy and Middle Tennessee. However, two of the three teams are all but out of the conference race, and have been replaced by Louisiana-Monroe and Arkansas State. Fortunately for NT, the Mean Green is not one of them.

Since beating NT at Fouts Field, Troy has lost two of its last three games, both losses coming on trips to Louisiana. They fell 27-3 against Monroe on Oct. 15 followed by a 3-point overtime loss Saturday against Louisiana-Lafayette.

With two losses, the Trojans would need Sun Belt frontrunner Monroe to lose three of its last four games for a chance at the title.

After losing its season opener to NT, Middle Tennessee split its next two conference games, beating Florida Atlantic 35-14 on the road and then losing to Lafayette 13-10 at home. The Blue Raiders will need to win out in conference play, with two of its final three Sun Belt games coming against Arkansas State and Monroe, both of which are at home.

The only preseason conference favorite controlling its own destiny is the Mean Green.

NT’s lone conference loss cannot prevent the Mean Green from winning the Sun Belt. If the Mean Green can win out, with Monroe on its schedule, it can take the conference title, but winning out will be a tough test for a team that has not showed the capacity to perform at a peak level on a consistent basis.

The Mean Green enters its final stretch of the season in third place, half a game behind Arkansas State and a game behind Monroe.

NT will face both of those schools in its final four games of the season, along with Lafayette, who trails the Mean Green by a game.

At this point in the season, to say the Mean Green could win two of those games is probably a stretch, let alone go undefeated. But what does this guy know, his top three picks at the beginning of the season were Middle Tennessee, Troy and NT.