Sunbelt is 4 and 1

[AppUSMC]

I may have missed another thread, but has anyone noticed the sunbelt has four bowl wins and one loss. South Alabama plays Chair Force on Friday. Not too shabby.

[App91]

Too bad c-usa had such a good bowl season. Who would have thought ODU would be a 10 game winner?

[CVAPP]

Too bad c-usa had such a good bowl season. Who would have thought ODU would be a 10 game winner?

Not me, but then again Charlotte beat Marshall and So Miss this year. Then So Miss goes on to hand Louisiana and the Sun Belt their only bowl loss so far.

[hotrod2001]

If my math is right, neither the AAC or MAC have won bowl games yet and the MW only two...

Pretty sure you can't make the argument that our conference is the bottom of the FBS at the moment with those stats.

[AppinVA]

Tulsa won for the AAC, but that's it, so far.

[hotrod2001]

Ah, yeah forgot they weren't in CUSA anymore.

[NewApp]

Too bad c-usa had such a good bowl season. Who would have thought ODU would be a 10 game winner?

Not me, but then again Charlotte beat Marshall and So Miss this year. Then So Miss goes on to hand Louisiana and the Sun Belt their only bowl loss so far.

What year are we scheduled to play UNC-C?

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

2018 at Charlotte and 2019 in Boone.

http://www.fbschedules.com/ncaa/sun-bel ... ineers.php

[NewApp]

2018 at Charlotte and 2019 in Boone.

http://www.fbschedules.com/ncaa/sun-bel ... ineers.php

I certainly hope Coach Satterfield is still with us in 2018 and 2019.

[Gnomeneer]

This bowl season has to move the Sun Belt up a notch or two.

Looking forward to the '17 season at the Rock. Road trip in the making for '17 is UGA and one other game. I do enjoy New England, as far as visiting.

[Saint3333]

If USA could upset Air Force the SBC could win the Progressive Cup (highest bowl win %). That would be a big step for the conference.

[Goapps15]

Good point Saint. It would still be a huge step forward to be the top or one of the top G5 conferences in bowl action. The MAC now needs WMU to beat Wisconsin in order to avoid being shut out in bowl season.

[Rick83]

2018 at Charlotte and 2019 in Boone.

http://www.fbschedules.com/ncaa/sun-bel ... ineers.php

They have a pretty small stadium in Charlotte so I hope that we pack it with black and gold and make it essentially a 7th home game. Charlotte's actually a shorter drive for me than Boone is. Will need to get tickets as soon as they are available.

[bcoach]

I am not one to start digging out all the stats but there are many on here who are. Here is my question. Is this really a gauge of how the conference stacks up? What were the records of the teams involved? Did we play the best teams in those other conferences? In other words was it a fair comparison? I hope so but I really don't know.

[Yosef84]

I am not one to start digging out all the stats but there are many on here who are. Here is my question. Is this really a gauge of how the conference stacks up? What were the records of the teams involved? Did we play the best teams in those other conferences? In other words was it a fair comparison? I hope so but I really don't know.

I do think it is a gauge but it is not a simple "one for one" type thing for the reasons you imply. The SBC beat two of the MAC's top three but didn't play the best (WMU). The Idaho win over Colorado State is a pretty significant win, but the Arkansas State win over UCF is tough to evaluate since UCF was nowhere near the top of the AAC. I was happy to see it but it really shouldn't have been considered surprising. Frankly, I'm just glad Arkansas State decided to show up for an OOC game!

We can only play the games on the schedule and I do think this bowl season represents significant improvement. It has exposed some of the pretense / arrogance of the AAC. Yes, they are still probably the best of the G5 but they aren't as far above the pack as they want to believe. The SBC was given zero respect before the games were played, so the 4 wins we've had help to move the needle upwards for us. Bowl matchups are so screwy these days that attempting to assign a ranking based on bowl wins is not realistic, but they certainly give an indicator.

[t4pizza]

While it doesn't really matter much,I do not believe that any Sun Belt team was favored to win their bowl games (We were essentially a pick em, some books had us -1 and some had us +1 but there was no consensus that we were favored). So the fact that we are currently 4-1 says that we are performing better than the folks in the desert thought we would.

[bcoach]

I am not one to start digging out all the stats but there are many on here who are. Here is my question. Is this really a gauge of how the conference stacks up? What were the records of the teams involved? Did we play the best teams in those other conferences? In other words was it a fair comparison? I hope so but I really don't know.

I do think it is a gauge but it is not a simple "one for one" type thing for the reasons you imply. The SBC beat two of the MAC's top three but didn't play the best (WMU). The Idaho win over Colorado State is a pretty significant win, but the Arkansas State win over UCF is tough to evaluate since UCF was nowhere near the top of the AAC. I was happy to see it but it really shouldn't have been considered surprising. Frankly, I'm just glad Arkansas State decided to show up for an OOC game!

We can only play the games on the schedule and I do think this bowl season represents significant improvement. It has exposed some of the pretense / arrogance of the AAC. Yes, they are still probably the best of the G5 but they aren't as far above the pack as they want to believe. The SBC was given zero respect before the games were played, so the 4 wins we've had help to move the needle upwards for us. Bowl matchups are so screwy these days that attempting to assign a ranking based on bowl wins is not realistic, but they certainly give an indicator.

That makes sense.

[hotrod2001]

I am not one to start digging out all the stats but there are many on here who are. Here is my question. Is this really a gauge of how the conference stacks up? What were the records of the teams involved? Did we play the best teams in those other conferences? In other words was it a fair comparison? I hope so but I really don't know.

I do think it is a gauge but it is not a simple "one for one" type thing for the reasons you imply. The SBC beat two of the MAC's top three but didn't play the best (WMU). The Idaho win over Colorado State is a pretty significant win, but the Arkansas State win over UCF is tough to evaluate since UCF was nowhere near the top of the AAC. I was happy to see it but it really shouldn't have been considered surprising. Frankly, I'm just glad Arkansas State decided to show up for an OOC game!

We can only play the games on the schedule and I do think this bowl season represents significant improvement. It has exposed some of the pretense / arrogance of the AAC. Yes, they are still probably the best of the G5 but they aren't as far above the pack as they want to believe. The SBC was given zero respect before the games were played, so the 4 wins we've had help to move the needle upwards for us. Bowl matchups are so screwy these days that attempting to assign a ranking based on bowl wins is not realistic, but they certainly give an indicator.

That makes sense.

I think it matters because a vast majority of people think the Sun Belt is the FBS' doormat and that it's comprised of a bunch of wannabe schools with delusions of grandeur who should be back in the FCS where they belong. Every time one of our teams beats an AAC, MAC, MW or CUSA team, that helps get rid of that stigma and starts to help legitimize our conference as a G5 player. If only we could get the media to cover our games like they do the other four conferences..

[EastHallApp]

I am not one to start digging out all the stats but there are many on here who are. Here is my question. Is this really a gauge of how the conference stacks up? What were the records of the teams involved? Did we play the best teams in those other conferences? In other words was it a fair comparison? I hope so but I really don't know.

Think you are asking the right questions. Winning bowl games is a feather in the league's cap and probably gets disproportionate attention, but realistically it shouldn't outweigh the body of regular season work. Just gives us a nice data point and talking point.

[App74]

Watching the WF game last night and the announcers referenced a chart of conference bowl performance. Their chart had the Sun Belt second behind the ACC. That's good stuff any way you look at it.

BTW, the App-Toledo game was on ESPNU replay Monday, 12-26......additional exposure.