Sun Belt Conference continues its RISE with success of 2016 football season

By Dan McDonald

 

Those in the know – especially those who have followed the Sun Belt Conference for a while – knew that the 2016 season was a special one for Sun Belt football.

 

It’s not that the league hasn’t had its share of memorable moments. Since starting from scratch in the 2001 season, the Sun Belt has coupled steady growth with scenes of the greatness that its founders sought when it added football to its core lineup.

 

In past seasons those hopes turned into reality in many different areas.

 

Reality, in this case, came one day after Monday’s College Football Playoff National Championship game, when the Sun Belt received affirmation of this year’s success compared to its peer conferences. The Sun Belt, which boasted several regular-season landmarks and its most successful postseason in history this year, finished the year ranked third among the “Group of Five” conferences in the 2016 final conference rankings announced Tuesday.

 

That position, after two years of ranking fifth among the five peer conferences, gives the Sun Belt a big boost in prestige – and a big boost to the league’s wallet.

 

“That definitely shows improvement,” said Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson, who was in Tampa for league meetings and the CFP championship game. “Our goal is to be the highest-rated conference with the highest-rated champion, and this year we made some big steps. Finishing ahead of two of our peer conferences is a good first step.”

 

The league did that by compiling the best record among the “Group of Five” in bowl games with a 4-2 record, one that included wins over teams from the top-rated American Athletic Conference, the second-rated Mountain West and the Mid-American in the postseason.

 

“The bowl season definitely validated the regular season that we had,” Benson said, “and proved what we’ve been saying all along. The overall credibility of the Sun Belt has been increasing, and the media and the fans that have been expecting to see positive results out of the league are now seeing that.”

 

They saw it in a big way during the two-week bowl season that had six Sun Belt teams in action, 50 percent more than any season in the league’s 16-year history. The Sun Belt was one victory away from a win in ESPN’s “Conference Bowl Challenge” among all 10 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) conferences, and percentage-wise finished tied with the Big 12 Conference (4-2, .677) for the second spot.

 

Among peer conferences, the Sun Belt’s 4-2 mark was better than the Mountain West, Conference USA, American and Mid-American. Wins by Arkansas State over Central Florida in the AutoNation Cure Bowl, Appalachian State over Toledo in the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl, Troy over Ohio in the Dollar General Bowl and Idaho over Colorado State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl helped the league double its previous single-season bowl victory high (two).

 

In fact, by the end of the very first day of bowl season, Sun Belt members had already matched the previous mark for bowl wins when league co-champions Appalachian State and Arkansas State both won Dec. 17 bowl games.

 

“Our teams stepped up this year,” Benson said. “We had the best record among our peer conferences. To go from two bowl games to five bowl tie-ins in a five-year period, for our teams to deliver like they have, and to throw television in there for the huge growth of people watching Sun Belt football, we had a banner year and it all came to a pinnacle in the bowl season.”

 

The on-field success in the postseason also ensured success in another area — a tangible financial windfall for the Sun Belt and its football-playing member institutions.

 

Revenues from the College Football Playoff are distributed to all conferences, with the “Group of Five” receiving $90 million in allotments of which $50 million is distributed evenly to the leagues, and the other $35 million is distributed to the five conferences based on regular season and post season performance. That ranking is determined by a combination of the six computer rankings that were used in the BCS era, combining to produce a collective ranking of each conference.

 

“Improving from fifth in 2014 and 2015 to third this year provides a significant financial increase for the Sun Belt member schools,” Benson said. “We budget as if we’re going to be number five in the rankings, so finishing third will result in an increase of nearly $3 million to our members.”

 

The finish also provides league coaches a boost in their final month of recruiting, Benson said.

 

“This gives them some real momentum leading up to signing day,” he said. “We know we recruit against our peer conferences, especially Conference USA and the American which share our footprint. The bowl success and the end-of-the-year ranking can only help them.”

 

Troy, whose 10-3 record tied with Appalachian State for the league’s best, became the first league school to crack the Associated Press Football Top 25 when the Trojans reached No. 25 on Nov. 14. That highlighted a season in which the Trojans had a five-win improvement over 2015 to rank among the nation’s top five.

 

South Alabama also provided a milestone with a victory over a nationally-ranked opponent when the Jaguars topped No. 19 San Diego State 42-24 in early October. USA also had a win over a “Power Five” conference team when the Jags beat Mississippi State to open the season.

 

Ironically, though, neither of those teams wound up with a regular-season trophy. Appalachian State and Arkansas State shared the title in the league race with 7-1 records, just ahead of both Troy and Idaho at 6-2. Those four teams also combined for 37 wins during the season.

 

The four were among six Sun Belt teams earning postseason bowl invitations, with Louisiana earning a berth in the R L Carriers New Orleans bowl for the fifth time in six years and USA playing in the NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl in that bowl’s first year as a primary partner with the league. The New Orleans Bowl remained a Sun Belt bowl partner for the 16th straight year dating back to the league’s addition of football prior to the 2001 season.

 

“We had meaningful discussions about both Troy and Appalachian State with our CFP committee members into November,” Benson said. “That bodes well that we had teams the CFP committee was talking about, and obviously next year we hope to have a team in consideration for that Jan. 1 game.

 

“We had some good wins, and we also had a lot of recognition due to us having more games on the ESPN platforms than we’ve ever had, along with some games on the American Sports Network. As ESPN3 continues to grow in popularity and usage, there are a lot of eyeballs on Sun Belt football.”

 

Those eyeballs – along with postseason success both on-field and in the rankings — are starting to view Sun Belt football differently. Several league athletic directors are of the thought that the conference is far from the one that was the weakest of the 10 FBS leagues for many years.

 

“I think it’s very important,” Arkansas State athletic director Terry Mohajir told Arkansas Online, “but it’s something that I already knew. I had belief all along that the Sun Belt, unless you’re in a Power Five conference, we’re at the right place at the right time.”

 

Benson said that possible overtures to league members from other conferences may be looked upon differently now than in the recent past.

 

“We now have athletic directors that are declaring publicly that the Sun Belt is the right conference for their teams and programs,” he said. “That is a big statement and a significant statement, and it’s a demonstration of the growth that the Sun Belt has made.”

 

That growth is expected to continue as the league finalizes its football transition this season. Idaho and New Mexico State’s football-only memberships end this year, and new league member Coastal Carolina will become a full-fledged football member this fall. One year later, the Sun Belt stages its first-ever championship game in 2018.

 

“We are very excited going forward,” Benson said, “and having our championship game in 2018 will only increase what we already have going. The footprint of this league was done to ensure long-term success and sustainability, and with the membership structure we now have in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas, that footprint is set up for even more success.”