College Preview Part XVIII- Sun Belt Conference

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Welcome Back!

Today I continue my conference previews. These previews will attempt to predict how each conference finishes, but realize that doing so is extremely difficult, especially since no conference has a balanced schedule. Also, whatever the conferences come up with in the form of tiebreakers will make a huge difference, as all but the Sun Belt have done away with divisions. In addition, these predictions aren't my personal opinion; they are the result of the formula/model/statistical analysis/whatever. I will sometimes mention my thoughts in the narratives below the predictions.

The list of records for 3-years, 6-years, and 10 years are conference records only, and do not include any results for the conference championship games. You will notice that the teams haven't all played the same number of games, especially when considering they should have. This is because that teams played a varied number of games in 2020, and that sometimes games get cancelled (see Virginia in 2022, for example). In the case of teams switching conferences, I counted the record from their previous conference. Independent teams joining a conference were counted with their full record (UMass), but FCS teams moving up enter with 0-0 records.

In case you are interested, I get all of my information from various sources. I use the 3 main preview magazines (Phil Steele, Lindy's, and Athlon), but I also use many different websites, including (but not limited to): Google, Winsipedia, sports-reference.com, ESPN.com, TeamRankings.com, NCAA.com, and, of course, individual school websites.

I don't have a staff- it's just me- so all of the research is my own from these various sources (it doesn't help when they contradict each other...), so any mistakes are mine. I also don't have an editor/proofreader, so you are likely to find several (many? I hope not) typos, such as commas where periods should be (or vice versa), a misspelled or missing word, doubled words ("the the" in the middle of a sentence, for example), etc. 

Finally, feel free to leave a comment. Interacting is much of the fun! Of course, if you know me personally, feel free to just text. I'll get that a lot quicker.

So, on with the previews!


Sun Belt Conference


3-Year History


JMU 17-7/.708/1st

Troy 17-7/.708/1st

South Alabama 16-8/.667/3rd

Marshall 15-9/.625/4th

CCU 14-10/.583/5th

Louisiana 14-10/.583/5th

App St 12-12/.500/7th

Ga Southern 12-12/.500/7th

ODU 11-13/.458/9th

Texas State 11-13/.458/9th

Arkansas St 10-14/.417/11th

Ga State 7-17/.292/12th

Southern Miss 6-18/.250/13th

ULM 6-18/.250/13th


6-Year History


Louisiana 36-12/.750/1st

App St 32-16/.667/2nd

Marshall 30-15/.667/2nd

CCU 30-18/.625/4th

Troy 26-21/.553/5th

Ga Sou 23-25/.479/6th

Ga St 21-27/.438/7th

S Ala 22-26/.458/7th

ODU 16-24/.400/9th

Ark St 18-30/.375/10th

TSU 18-30/.375/10th

USM 15-31/.326/12th

ULM 12-35/.255/13th

JMU N/A


10-Year History


App St 60-20/.750/1st

Louisiana 53-27/.663/2nd

Marshall 48-29/.623/3rd

Troy 49-30/.620/4th

Ark St 44-36/.550/5th

CCU 34-30/.531/6th

Ga Sou 41-39/.513/7th

USM 37-41/.474/8th

ODU 31-41/.431/9th

Ga St 34-46/.425/10th

S Ala 32-48/.400/11th

ULM 24-55/.304/12th

TSU 22-58/.275/13th

JMU N/A 


Predicted Finish:


East Division

  1. James Madison

  2. Georgia Southern

  3. ODU

  4. Appalachian State

  5. Coastal Carolina

  6. Marshall

  7. Georgia State


West Division

  1. Louisiana

  2. Texas State

  3. South Alabama

  4. Arkansas State

  5. Troy

  6. Southern Miss

  7. ULM


Conference Champion: James Madison


Chances to make the playoff: Though the profile of the SBC is improving, they’re still not on the level of the American or the MWC. Therefore, it would take an undefeated champion that has a victory over a mid to high level P4 team, and both the American and the Mountain West having multiple-loss champions. So which teams might qualify? In the East Division, JMU plays at Louisville and at Liberty and hosts Washington State, Ga Southern plays at Fresno State and USC and hosts Jax State, ODU plays at Indiana and Va Tech and hosts Liberty, and App State plays at Boise State and hosts Oregon State. Any or all of those would be quality wins. In the West, Louisiana plays at Missouri, TSU is at UTSA and Arizona State, South Alabama plays Tulane and at Auburn, and Arkansas State plays at Arkansas and hosts Iowa State. Again, these would be quality wins, if they can pull them off, but my hopes aren’t high. I would say there’s about a 20% chance of a team from the SBC making the CFP.

Don’t be surprised if… Southern Miss finishes in the top 3 of the division, as they may even challenge for 1st place.

I’m not convinced… Georgia State will finish last in the East. I think Marshall may struggle with all of their portal losses and with the transition to an entirely new coaching staff. I don’t think they’ll be down forever; I just think it may take 1-3 years to get that program back to the top again.



Make sure you come back tomorrow as I continue my previews!


Until next time, may you and your loved ones be blessed!  

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