Conference expansion has left a lot of the mid-majors lacking standard bearers within the conference. Not only has it been the Big Five conferences scooping up the best teams, but it has been mid-majors cannibalizing each other. The Sun Belt Conference has not been a stranger to such things. Founded in 1976, with comprising of members such as South Alabama, New Orleans, Jacksonville, Georgia State, Charlotte, and South Florida, the league would go through membership configuration for the next ten years. This league was primarily a basketball league. Western Kentucky, Virginia Commonwealth, Old Dominion and UAB would also join but New Orleans would be forced out of the conference because its gymnasium did not fit attendance standards. They would merge with the American South in 1991 but retain the Sun Belt Conference. Such members added included LA Tech, Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette, and Central Florida. In 1998, SBC added Florida International. In 2001, the SBC started to sponsor football. That same year, they added Idaho, New Mexico State, and Utah State as football-only members. North Texas, Louisiana-Monroe and New Mexico State were added as full members. In 2004, the SBC added Troy to the conference. In 2005, New Mexico State, Utah State, and Idaho would leave to join the WAC. In 2006, Florida Atlantic would join as full members, the same year UL- Monroe added all their other sports to the mix. In 2009, Western Kentucky became a full member of the SBC. That same year, University of New Orleans, who had rejoined the conference in 1991, left because of the financial obligations placed upon it by the conference.
For the most part, the Sun Belt Conference has been very stable. That would all change in 2012. 2012 saw the utter destruction of the Western Athletic Conference with all of its programs taking flight to other conferences. Before this year, the WAC had actually been the aggressor by taking teams like Utah State, Idaho, New Mexico State, and Denver from the conference. That same year, UT-San Antonio, UT-Arlington, and Texas State had moved up from the Southland Conference to upgrade their sports. When the WAC was being picked apart, those three schools made choices and decided to leave the sinking ship. While UT-San Antonio went to Conference-USA, Texas State and UT-Arlington went to the SBC. Only Idaho and New Mexico State remained in the conference. It is like the last one that leaves the restaurant has to pay for the check. At this time, the Big East were adding SMU, Houston, Central Florida, Memphis, Tulane and East Carolina all by 2014, at the expense of Conference-USA. C-USA was then forced to annex Middle Tennessee State, North Texas, Florida Atlantic, and Florida International from the Sun Belt.
As it stands, the Sun Belt Conference will begin the 2013 with only eight full members including Texas State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Arkansas State, Western Kentucky, South Alabama, Troy and Georgia State. Also, Arkansas-Little Rock and UT-Arlington as associate members. From this point it on, the position of the Sun Belt was perilous at best. Recently, fortunes have been reversed in favor of the Sun Belt. For the longest time, it was speculated that the next in line to join the Sun Belt would be Appalachian State and Georgia Southern and yesterday, it came true. These two are excellent additions because they have a strong tradition of championship caliber football, winning a combined total of nine national championships between them and they also stay in the footprint of the Sun Belt, primarily as southern teams. Today, some news that Aggies and Vandals fans have been waiting for: the Sun Belt has thrown them a lifeline and allowed them to be a football-only member. This is excellent because you are bringing in teams that have some familiarity with playing with other members of the Sun Belt, considering that they were former members and also are bringing in two teams that are not FCS schools. Plus, as football only members, travel will not be that much of a hassle. One of the more ironic aspects of all these developments is the fact that not only is two former members are going back to the Sun Belt, but Karl Benson, current commissioner of the Sun Belt and former commissioner of the WAC, is pulling all the strings.
Overall, it appears as if things will stabilize completely by 2015, but there has been a recent development that might trigger even more moves: Tulsa has accepted an invitation to what currently is referred to as the Big East. Tulsa is currently a member of C-USA but since they are moving to the Big East in 2014, along with East Carolina and Tulane, this will leave C-USA with eleven members, one short of its conference championship game. Here are some possibilities of what C-USA might do next:
1. Get Western Kentucky from the Sun Belt- this will be the most logical move considering that the rivalry between WKU and MTSU would be renewed. Also, this gives C-USA once again a foothold in Kentucky. WKU has also improved significantly in football, recently getting into the Little Caesar’s Bowl and also its basketball team has made it to the NCAA basketball tournament numerous times.
2. Snatch up New Mexico State- This would be another sound move if it were to happen. For one thing, it would give UTEP a travel partner since currently, the nearest team to UTEP is 700 miles away and NMSU is only 90 miles away. New Mexico State, for the past two seasons, has won the WAC and made it to the NCAA tournament. Plus, C-USA would take all of NMSU’s sports for the sake of getting the basketball, considering that the SBC only wants its football.
3. Bring another team up from FCS- this is the least likely of the scenarios. Appalachian State is already going to join the SBC for its sports so the only other option would be a school like James Madison or Richmond. There would also have to be another waiting period for the school to transition at the FBS level. That alone makes acquiring an FCS level school less attractive.
Since the most likely scenario will be taking another team from the Sun Belt, this is what the SBC might do:
1. Bring up a Texas School- This is the most likely scenario since it would help build up a west region whenever divisions are split up. The schools that would get the most consideration would be either Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston State or Lamar. Both are in East Texas and could provide an easy in-state rivalry with Texas State. Such a rivalry had existed before since TSU was a former member of the Southland Conference.
2. Get another team from the Southeast. If this was the route that was to be taken, Liberty University based out of Lynchburg, VA would be the most likely option. For one thing, it could provide a natural intra-state rivalry with Appalachian State. Liberty has in the past, been looking to make the upgrade to FBS. They would be eager to make the jump. The administrators at Liberty University even have the dream of building a 70,000 seat stadium and becoming the Notre Dame and BYU to the Protestants in this country.
Scenario one would be the most likely scenario if Conference-USA were to raid the Sun Belt again. Other than that, the Sun Belt looks like that it will stabilize and will not face anymore huge changes in the future. The Sun Belt has weathered the storm and despite having the perception as the weakest conference at the FBS level. It has also been able to take the initiative by waiting out the seismic shifts of conference realignment by taking teams from the WAC and solidifying its position as a balanced and localized league that by 2015, will have a twelve team football league and the first time, a conference championship. Well done, Sun Belt. Well done.
Filed under: Potential Expansion Posts
