Fixin’ College Football: Shuffling the Conferences (10/11)

Sun Belt
Established 1976 (Added Western Kentucky in 2009)
9 Teams
7 States
Longest Distance Between Schools: 1135 Miles (Florida International and North Texas)

Arkansas State
Florida Atlantic
Florida International
Louisiana-Lafayette
Louisiana-Monroe
Middle Tennessee State
North Texas
Troy
Western Kentucky

The Sun Belt conference is probably the most overlooked conference in the country, for good reason though since it is often devoid of talent (12 opening day starters in the NFL in 2008, the fewest of any conference), has very little football history (beginning play in 2001 and owns a 3-5 overall bowl game record), has constantly changed members (New Mexico State, Utah State, and Idaho have all joined and departed since 2001 while Middle Tennessee State, North Texas, Louisiana-Monroe, Troy, and Florida Atlantic have all joined since 2001), and lays in the heart of the SEC. To show how unsuccessful the Sun Belt has been, consider its most memorable game: the Florida International - Miami brawl in 2006 in which 31 suspensions were dished out in its aftermath.

Though the teams in the Sun Belt are in proximity of each other, not too many fierce rivalries exist due to both lack of history and lack of winning amongst the teams. Louisiana-Lafayette and Louisiana-Monroe have their annual Battle on the Bayou, but considering Louisiana-Lafayette hasn't had a winning season since 1994, not too much excitement is generated. Similarly, Florida Atlantic and Florida International have begun a rivalry, but since each has only played football for 8 and 7 years respectively, and FIU only has 7 conference wins in its history, calling this a rivalry is somewhat generous. The lack of consistency among the teams is not helping either. North Texas, which dominated the conference from 2001-04 and won the conference title all four years in that span has been absolutely terrible since then, winning a total of 8 games since 2005. Recently, Troy has been the Sun Belt's top team and has won the conference title in 2 of the last 3 years but has not garnered attention like that of top teams in other non-BCS conferences such as Tulsa or Ball State.

Although a lot needs to be done to improve the conference's image and substance, not too much is feasible in the short-term. Western Kentucky will be participating in football in the Sun Belt for the first time, but considering that WKU did not experience too much success as an independent the last two years, hoping WKU will improve the Sun Belt is unreasonable. One move that does make sense, at least in the logistical point of view, is adding SMU from C-USA. Though SMU has gone 1-11 in each of the past two seasons and does not have much of a football history, adding another team won't hurt the Sun Belt. SMU will create another in-state rivalry (and a very close one) with North Texas and give the Sun Belt 10 teams. The addition of another team can only help the conference because it means one more conference game per year for each team (and likely one fewer uncompetitive out-of-conference game). Even if the talent and wins are lacking, much more excitement is generated for an in-conference game compared to an out-of-conference one. Similarly, the more conference games a team plays, the more likely rivalries will fortify over time. This move not only helps the Sun Belt gain another team and C-USA become stronger from addition by subtraction (see C-USA), but SMU will have a chance to restart its football program and compete in an overall easier conference. -J.S.

Solution: Add SMU from C-USA to reach a total of 10 teams, Adopt Pac-10 scheduling in order to play an extra conference game