Sun Belt Football Keeps Getting Hotter

[MeanGreen61]

Sun Belt football keeps getting hotter

Conference still making strides against others

Dan McDonald

dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

Sun Belt Conference commissioner Wright Waters has been the most vocal booster of the league's football venture for the past six years.

That hasn't changed as the conference enters its seventh year of football this fall. The difference is that this year, he may be right on target.

There are lots of reasons to think that Sun Belt football is hitting its stride. It's not the SEC or the Big 12, and all things considered it's still not Conference USA, the Mountain West or the WAC. But reaching parity with the latter leagues isn't that far away, and it's galaxies closer than its 2001 start - and closer than a lot of people are willing to admit.

Consider:

The league had a winning record (4-3) against Conference USA last fall, including Troy's 41-17 romp over Rice in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. It wasn't just a matter of picking on the bottom-dwellers, either ... fourth-place finisher UL topped C-USA overall champion Houston and next-to-last North Texas beat bowl-eligible SMU for two of those wins.

Sun Belt teams had 11 out-of-conference wins last year, the second-most in league history. More than half of those came against Division I-A competition.

Four league teams were bowl-eligible with wins in six or more games last year, after only nine hit that mark in the first five years combined.

No Sun Belt team lost to a I-AA team in 2006 (5-0). That may not sound like much, but the league had at least one such loss in every other season and had a losing record against I-AA competition in its first year.

One recruiting service ranked the Sun Belt above two other leagues for its overall signing classes.

The league has an all-time conference high four national network prime-time appearances this fall, not including the New Orleans Bowl.

And, the league transitions to a more-stable nine-team football group for 2009 when Western Kentucky becomes the 120th I-A member.

"In past years, we were always asking ourselves if this was going to work," Waters said. "Now, we're starting to ask how good we can be."

If last year's New Orleans Bowl was any indication, that could be pretty good if you're Troy's Trojans. The men of Troy claimed a share of last year's title and grabbed the Crescent City berth courtesy of a head-up win over co-champion Middle Tennessee, and devastated 6-2 C-USA runner-up Rice in the bowl game.

Troy didn't look much like a bowl team at 1-4 entering last October, but won six of its final seven. Still, a surprising loss to Arkansas State in its home finale put postseason prospects in peril, before the Trojans rallied from two touchdowns back in the final five minutes to shock Middle Tennessee's league-leading and home-standing Blue Raiders.

"Winning out got us in," said Troy coach Larry Blakeney, "but being in the conference was part of it, too. We've furnished two bowl teams twice in the last three years, and I think we're developing a scheduling philosophy across the league that's going to help us."

That schedule's still tough this year. Of the league's 40 non-conference games, 28 of them come against teams that went to bowl games last year. Florida Atlantic faces a 2006 bowl team in every one of its non-conference games, and three others play four bowl teams. UL plays three - Tennessee (Outback Bowl, #23 final ranking), South Carolina (Liberty Bowl) and Ohio (GMAC Bowl).

This year, though, some of those games will be played at Sun Belt home stadiums. UL's contest against Ohio is at Cajun Field, Troy brings Indepen-dence Bowl participant Okla-homa State to town, North Texas hosts Navy (Meineke Car Care Bowl), Tulsa (Armed Forces Bowl) opens the college football season on Aug. 30, at UL Monroe (on ESPN2), Florida Inter-national hosts Maryland (Champs Sports Bowl) and FAU has two bowl teams at home - Minn-esota (Insight Bowl) and South Florida (Papajohns.com Bowl).

"We have always stressed how important it is to win non-conference games," Waters said. "And it's always easier to win those games at home. Teams are coming to our campuses now."

Troy is the pick to win the league title, no surprise given the way the Trojans finished last season. And, in every other year of the league's existence, the preseason pick held at least a share of the conference crown in the previous season.

But three other teams in the league got first-place votes, including one from Blakeney who tabbed Arkansas State as his preseason pick.

"Just looking at the players returning," Blakeney said, "it was hard between Middle, ASU and Lafayette. A lot of teams have a lot of good players back."

Of last year's 44 players that claimed regular-position spots on the All-Sun Belt first and second teams, 22 of them are back this year. And the two teams that had the smallest representation on last year's teams - seventh and eighth-place finishers North Texas and Florida International -both have new coaches.

"Last season was a watershed for us," Waters said. "It's getting better. The challenge is for us to keep making it better."

[Arkstfan]

People just don't get that when the Sun Belt started play you had three programs at about the bottom of their history.

ASU since WWII has posted a two year combined win total of 3 only three times (2000-01, 1990-91, 1992-93) the first two times were the I-A transition years and first I-A seasons.

ULL's Jerry Baldwin was securing his place as having the worst career record as head coach ever at ULL.

ULM's Keasler (let go part way through 2002) posted the worst career record of any ULM coach ever and his replacement Collins (fired before the 2003 season due to a DWI charge) posted the second worst.

While none are where they want to be ASU has posted 6 wins three times under Roberts. ULL has posted 6 wins twice under Bustle.

That same season you had two more opening new chapters in their history.

That 2001 season when UNT opened up with a loss at TCU, future member FAU was playing its first college football game EVER.

Troy was not defending its Southland Conference title as it played as a I-A transition team.

Then you had a team with no history

FIU was still a year away from playing its first college football game.

The 2009 season we will finally have a majority of our teams being schools that have been I-A (ack FBS) for 10 seasons.

Or for a difference perspective. When Howard Schnellenberger left Miami only one current Sun Belt member was I-A and one was Division II, two didn't play football, four were I-AA. When he left Louisville only two were I-A and two were in transition, two didn't play football, two were I-AA. When he left OU three were I-A and one was in transition, two didn't play football and two were I-AA.

ULL is the only school that has been I-A for the entire lifetime of the freshmen who reported this week.