Interesting article from CBS SPORTS

[The Rock]

http://www.cbssports.com/college-footba ... f-crasher/

[Gonzo]

I don't know if the Belt will ever shake the PR monkey off its back. The other 4 G5 leagues get exponentially more respect and, aside from the AAC, it's inexplicable.

Good pub for the Apps though. Cheers to 12-0.

[APPdiesel]

College football pundits are all about the status quo, especially when you're talking about less visible conferences.

Let's shock them all and MAKE them respect us.

twitter.com/DieselOnRadio

[EastHallApp]

At the risk of stating the obvious, the Sun Belt needs to win more games against the other G5 leagues. SBC was 7-15 vs. the rest of G5 last year, 4-12 the year before. The league has done a decent job in bowl games, which is great for the teams who get trophies. But honestly it's probably more important in terms of perception to win more of those early-season games, as those are what shape the season-long narrative of whether a league is any good.

Of course having at least a little more success vs. P5s wouldn't hurt either.

[hotrod2001]

Someone with a CBS Sports account needs to let Tom know that App has played in plenty of packed houses over the last 10 years and we didn't need Miami to do it.

[HeffnerIV]

Someone with a CBS Sports account needs to let Tom know that App has played in plenty of packed houses over the last 10 years and we didn't need Miami to do it.

I think he was actually referring to Miami.

[firemoose]

Someone with a CBS Sports account needs to let Tom know that App has played in plenty of packed houses over the last 10 years and we didn't need Miami to do it.

I think he was actually referring to Miami.

Heff is right. He was referring to the fact that Miami plays in front of less than packed houses at home, to put it mildly.

[TheMoody1]

Someone with a CBS Sports account needs to let Tom know that App has played in plenty of packed houses over the last 10 years and we didn't need Miami to do it.

Miami needs App to do it.

[WVAPPeer]

As I have said previously, we could have finished 13-0 last season and still played in the same bowl as we did - Houston had more impressive victories and won their conference tourney - at 12-1, I absolutely believe it would have not made any difference - not our fault - the SunBelt bowl tie-ins leave much to desire --- Basically some of the mid-tier bowls would ideally have a choice of top G5 teams and not take #8 from the ACC or #9 from the Big 10 --- Of course, that is happening anytime soon ---

[Goapps15]

At the risk of stating the obvious, the Sun Belt needs to win more games against the other G5 leagues. SBC was 7-15 vs. the rest of G5 last year, 4-12 the year before. The league has done a decent job in bowl games, which is great for the teams who get trophies. But honestly it's probably more important in terms of perception to win more of those early-season games, as those are what shape the season-long narrative of whether a league is any good.

Of course having at least a little more success vs. P5s wouldn't hurt either.

EASTHALLAPP,

How many of those wins came from App and GSU? I feel like 6 of the 7 were us and the other was Georgia State at Ball State.

[EastHallApp]

At the risk of stating the obvious, the Sun Belt needs to win more games against the other G5 leagues. SBC was 7-15 vs. the rest of G5 last year, 4-12 the year before. The league has done a decent job in bowl games, which is great for the teams who get trophies. But honestly it's probably more important in terms of perception to win more of those early-season games, as those are what shape the season-long narrative of whether a league is any good.

Of course having at least a little more success vs. P5s wouldn't hurt either.

EASTHALLAPP,

How many of those wins came from App and GSU? I feel like 6 of the 7 were us and the other was Georgia State at Ball State.

From memory, three were us (ODU, Wyoming, Ohio) and I believe two were Southern (Western Michigan, Bowling Green). The other would have been USA over San Diego State, which in hindsight was the league's best regular season win.

[appfan83]

Okay, I have read this article several times. it reminded me of a saying that my dear ole dad said many times about a personal part of every ones body part and about the odors it omits and opinions about both being smelly. Its seems that most articles written in the pre-season is what they read in reports of players returning and looking at the schedule. There are too many variables to get an accurate picture of things to come in the season. So we as a fan base we need to be thankful that it was a favorable article but a kick it the teeth about the thoughts on the Sun Belts record of teams entirety.

[Goapps15]

At the risk of stating the obvious, the Sun Belt needs to win more games against the other G5 leagues. SBC was 7-15 vs. the rest of G5 last year, 4-12 the year before. The league has done a decent job in bowl games, which is great for the teams who get trophies. But honestly it's probably more important in terms of perception to win more of those early-season games, as those are what shape the season-long narrative of whether a league is any good.

Of course having at least a little more success vs. P5s wouldn't hurt either.

EASTHALLAPP,

How many of those wins came from App and GSU? I feel like 6 of the 7 were us and the other was Georgia State at Ball State.

From memory, three were us (ODU, Wyoming, Ohio) and I believe two were Southern (Western Michigan, Bowling Green). The other would have been USA over San Diego State, which in hindsight was the league's best regular season win.

Okay I forgot about USA at San Diego State win. Still pathetic that App and GSU are carrying the conference in OOC play. The rest of the league mainly stAte and ULL have to step up in non-conference play.

[AtlAppMan]

I thought the article was good. One of you opined that you thought folks were complaining about the negative on App. I did not see that but rather praise for App. The negative was that our upside from the perspective of national perception is limited due to the conference we play in. I think everybody on this board agrees with that point. His comments align with everything I am thinking. To be very clear, he is speaking purely on "possibilities" not necessarily "probabilities" in his analysis. I hope our goals continue to grow higher and higher but, no doubt, there will be years where we likely will not be in a position to speculate with such high aspirations. Why not enjoy the moment in the off season when your team just finished 11-2 and return a solid core for the upcoming season.

On SBC, we (now that we are SBC members) are a byproduct of past performance (last 20 yrs) together with the realignment game. Since the SBC started at/near the bottom of FBS it began with weaker teams. When the realignment music started, some of the better teams ( UCF, MTSU, WKU, LaTech, etc) bolted further diluting the quality football programs. The reality today is mostly real and partly perception. The only way we are going to move up in the pecking order is for the SBC to win consistently in OOC games.

To win against OOC you need the following from all teams in the conference:
1. Schedule reasonably (1 big P5 which you will lose, a couple winnable OOC that you must win, the other against a challenging G5 or P5 that if you are good you need to win occassionally)
2. Improve your team's level of play and be consistent

This needs to be followed by all the schools in the conference over a 5-10 yr period. That is the only way the SBC gets any respect and factually changes the pecking order.

[bcoach]

I thought the article was good. One of you opined that you thought folks were complaining about the negative on App. I did not see that but rather praise for App. The negative was that our upside from the perspective of national perception is limited due to the conference we play in. I think everybody on this board agrees with that point. His comments align with everything I am thinking. To be very clear, he is speaking purely on "possibilities" not necessarily "probabilities" in his analysis. I hope our goals continue to grow higher and higher but, no doubt, there will be years where we likely will not be in a position to speculate with such high aspirations. Why not enjoy the moment in the off season when your team just finished 11-2 and return a solid core for the upcoming season.

On SBC, we (now that we are SBC members) are a byproduct of past performance (last 20 yrs) together with the realignment game. Since the SBC started at/near the bottom of FBS it began with weaker teams. When the realignment music started, some of the better teams ( UCF, MTSU, WKU, LaTech, etc) bolted further diluting the quality football programs. The reality today is mostly real and partly perception. The only way we are going to move up in the pecking order is for the SBC to win consistently in OOC games.

To win against OOC you need the following from all teams in the conference:
1. Schedule reasonably (1 big P5 which you will lose, a couple winnable OOC that you must win, the other against a challenging G5 or P5 that if you are good you need to win occassionally)
2. Improve your team's level of play and be consistent

This needs to be followed by all the schools in the conference over a 5-10 yr period. That is the only way the SBC gets any respect and factually changes the pecking order.

Right on the money. It is not us it is the conference. How do you want them to look at a conference with the record OOC that the SB has. We are talking about a conference that is dominated by 3 teams and two of them are two years out of FCS. Sure we look great but the conference below the top three just are not very strong to say the least. We will be bringing on another FCS team soon so that does not show strength. The answer is above. We are more than pulling out weight so the rest of the conference needs to step up to the plate and deliver. Not going to happen soon. As the man said 5-10 years

[EastHallApp]

Yeah, as happy as I am for all the early success, from an outside perspective it doesn't look great for a league when two teams who were .500 in the SoCon the year before come in and dominate immediately.

[hapapp]

Well, we didn't dominate immediately...it took us a couple of games.

[ASUGoose]

As I have said previously, we could have finished 13-0 last season and still played in the same bowl as we did - Houston had more impressive victories and won their conference tourney - at 12-1, I absolutely believe it would have not made any difference - not our fault - the SunBelt bowl tie-ins leave much to desire --- Basically some of the mid-tier bowls would ideally have a choice of top G5 teams and not take #8 from the ACC or #9 from the Big 10 --- Of course, that is happening anytime soon ---

Disagree here - if we beat Clemson first game last year and run the table, we are in the NY6 bowl.

[WVAPPeer]

As I have said previously, we could have finished 13-0 last season and still played in the same bowl as we did - Houston had more impressive victories and won their conference tourney - at 12-1, I absolutely believe it would have not made any difference - not our fault - the SunBelt bowl tie-ins leave much to desire --- Basically some of the mid-tier bowls would ideally have a choice of top G5 teams and not take #8 from the ACC or #9 from the Big 10 --- Of course, that is happening anytime soon ---

Disagree here - if we beat Clemson first game last year and run the table, we are in the NY6 bowl.

If we beat Clemson the first game of the season they just kissed the championship game away - might not even be ranked in top 10-15 in week 2 ---

[EastHallApp]

As I have said previously, we could have finished 13-0 last season and still played in the same bowl as we did - Houston had more impressive victories and won their conference tourney - at 12-1, I absolutely believe it would have not made any difference - not our fault - the SunBelt bowl tie-ins leave much to desire --- Basically some of the mid-tier bowls would ideally have a choice of top G5 teams and not take #8 from the ACC or #9 from the Big 10 --- Of course, that is happening anytime soon ---

Disagree here - if we beat Clemson first game last year and run the table, we are in the NY6 bowl.

If we beat Clemson the first game of the season they just kissed the championship game away - might not even be ranked in top 10-15 in week 2 ---

Actually they were only around #10 when we played them, so they'd undoubtedly have dropped lower than that. But if we're assuming the rest of the season plays out the same way, then they'd have ended the season as 12-1 ACC champions with wins over Notre Dame, FSU and UNC. Probably still enough to make the playoff over 2-loss Stanford, and certainly a massive win for App and far beyond anyone Houston beat before the Peach Bowl.

At 12-0 we'd have deserved the Peach Bowl bid on merit. Only question is whether the CFP committee would have passed us over for financial reasons.