Sun Belt Inching Up In Respect

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Sun Belt inching up respect ladder

BY TODD TRAUB

Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007

It might not be a seismic shift in the college football landscape, but the Sun Belt Conference did its best to shake things up last week.

The Sun Belt, which began football in 2001, earned an unprecedented three nonconference victories against NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A ) teams. Troy beat Oklahoma State 41-28 on Thursday night; Florida Atlantic beat Minnesota 42-39 on Saturday, and Arkansas State chimed in with a 45-28 victory over SMU.

Before an Indian Stadium crowd of 17, 465, Arkansas State avenged last year’s 55-9 loss to SMU in Dallas. The Indians got career nights out of Corey Leonard — who passed for a personal- best 266 yards and 2 touchdowns and ran for 3 more — and Reggie Arnold, who rushed 19 times for a career-best 156 yards and 1 score.

“I can’t remember a time when the Sun Belt has won three Division I nonconference games since I’ve been here,” seventh-year Indians Coach Steve Roberts said.

“I’m sure people are looking around and people may be saying ‘Hey these guys could be for real,’” Commissioner Wright Waters said of the Sun Belt trifecta.

To make cash for their programs, Sun Belt schools have made it a practice to schedule nonconference games with bigger opponents, usually enduring one-sided whippings that helped the bank book but not the conference’s prestige.

However, with some random exceptions, even the non-top 25 schools have given the Sun Belt fits. The conference entered the year with a 48-191 non-Sun Belt record, and the mark is worse when it is taken into account that several of the victories came against Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA ) opponents.

Every now and then a team has had its moments. Troy beat Marshall and Missouri in consecutive weeks in 2004, Middle Tennessee has beaten Vanderbilt three times and Arkansas State beat Tulsa in 2002 and Army and Memphis last year.

But for the Sun Belt to consider itself a big-time player, the victories have to come with some regularity, Waters has said. With that in mind, last week was a good sign.

“In many ways, this is not the end of the road, it’s a step in the right direction,” Waters said.

Waters said things began to turn last year. Arkansas State posted its season-opening victory over Army at home and edged Memphis on the road, North Texas beat SMU and the Sun Belt had two bowl teams: Middle Tennessee, which lost in the Motor City Bowl to Central Michigan, and Troy, which beat Rice in the New Orleans Bowl.

“[it was ] a watershed year,” Waters said. “Turning a corner and being able to shift gears and it’s no longer about ‘Can we survive ?’ but it’s about ‘How good can we be ?’ I think this weekend is really evidence of that trend.”

After Arkansas State’s victory Saturday, Roberts pointed out that all three winning Sun Belt teams got their victories at home. He said that’s the result of successful scheduling by the athletic directors, including Arkansas State’s Dean Lee.

In the past, the Indians have either had to sign 2-for-1 contracts to get teams to come to Jonesboro or sign two-year deals in which they play a team at its place with the return game at a neutral sight instead of Indian Stadium.

Being able to entice Memphis, Army, Southern Miss and SMU into legitimate home-and-home series makes a huge difference, Roberts said, and Waters agreed.

The Sun Belt now needs to keep it up if it wants to take the next step, Waters said.