I still love the fact they have a championship belt in the Sun Belt.
Many things have been affected negatively by the Coronavirus. Not so for the Sun Belt when it comes to how many national television audiences they will get this season. With four conferences not playing, the Sun Belt is already enjoying a lot of viewers who may have never seen these teams before (or even heard of them). Even once all six conferences who are playing in the Fall start their seasons, expect to see the Sun Belt on Saturdays, either on the specialty pack or, dare I say it, one of the TSN stations at least once every week through the end of the season. This is the kind of thing that will be huge for this conference when it comes to recruiting and if one team breaks out and has a monster of a season, well look out since they could rocket up the recruiting rankings and become the next Boise State or UCF.
Alright let’s get to this year’s Sun Belt standings predictions. I will follow that with some Fun Belt Tomfoolery:
| Conference | Overall | ||||
| East | W | L | W | L | |
 |
Appalachian State | 8 | 0 | 11 | 0 |
 |
Georgia Southern | 6 | 2 | 7 | 4 |
 |
Troy | 5 | 3 | 7 | 5 |
 |
Georgia State | 2 | 6 | 3 | 7 |
 |
Coastal Carolina | 1 | 7 | 3 | 8 |
| West | |||||
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Louisiana | 7 | 1 | 9 | 2 |
 |
Arkansas State | 5 | 3 | 9 | 3 |
 |
South Alabama | 3 | 5 | 4 | 7 |
 |
Texas State | 2 | 6 | 3 | 9 |
 |
ULM | 1 | 7 | 2 | 10 |
Fun Belt Tomfoolery
- It’s the third year of having a Sun Belt Championship Game and lo and behold, guess who I have in it? This is becoming a trend. I will get to that later on.
- The West is going to be a little bit easier at the top this season. Louisiana’s Ragin Cajuns are breaking away from the pack in the division and have a better overall team than any other in the Sun Belt West. There’s no team in this conference and very few in the country who have as good a running attack as the Ragin Cajuns. So don’t expect Arkansas State to be that close to Louisiana. I have the other three teams farther down the pecking order but don’t be surprised if one of these teams breaks out and hits .500 at least.
- I can’t say anymore that the East is where the absolute strength lies. Appalachian State is still the class of the league but Louisiana and ASU have caught up with Troy and Georgia Southern. Really though, expect to see a lot of the Mountaineers on national TV WHERE WE CAN ACTUALLY SEE IT this season. I have a feeling that we will be monitoring App State’s undefeated run throughout the season.
- No the Sun Belt Championship won’t lead into a new episode of Hee Haw (although they should really dip into anything southern to tie to this championship). I believe the Mountaineers are running the table and then beating Louisiana in a surprisingly close Sun Belt Championship. Then they await their fate as, for the first time ever, a Sun Belt team could qualify for the New Year’s Six and if there’s any year it could be done, this is the one.
- Again, no word on what bowls or bowl-eligibility will look like. I am guessing we will find out in early November because if there’s one thing college football does well, it’s be completely unorganized.
- So if I my predicted conference champion, Appalachian State, doesn’t get into the New Year’s Six then you know what they receive? That’s right, sweet fuck all. I have gone over this a few times in the past in that each Group of Five conference champion should get their shot against a Power Five team in a bowl game. That should be the reward. Not going to fucking Mobile, Alabama (no offense to the probably fine patrons of Mobile).
Alright we keep chugging along with the conference predictions. Next up will be one of the Sun Belt’s neighbours in G-5Ville…Conference USA! Have a great Labour Day Monday night everyone!
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