http://espn.go.com/college-football/bow ... bowls-1-38

Sunbelt teams are pretty much rock bottom on this list. Is there any possibility of the conference gaining better bowl tie-ins? I don't mean the top bowls I just wondered if there is a way we could squeeze out some of the upper middle tier bowls for a tie in. How does one gain/lose a tie-in?

This is the whole problem with the SBC. The Bowls and TV deals are the reason why the SBC has schools leaving constantly. Bowl tie ins are made when a new bowl is created and two conference's agree to sign on to places team in those games. The SBC does not have a current bowl game against any P5 conference. Thus there are no Big Bowl Games. Next year the SBC will ad the Cure Bowl in Orlando which will be against the American Conference (Biggest bowl that the SBC will have). But until the SBC gets a bowl against a P5 conference they wont have a Big Bowl Game.

The opponent tie-ins aren't great, but let's be honest: The common denominator in those bowl games is the Sun Belt itself. The league needs to get better to make those bowls more appealing to outside media.

Since everything seems to be driven by TV markets, and actual attendance at games doesn't appear to matter so much perhaps ASU should set up a Charlotte PO box and claim Charlotte TV as home.

DoubleA wrote:Since everything seems to be driven by TV markets, and actual attendance at games doesn't appear to matter so much perhaps ASU should set up a Charlotte PO box and claim Charlotte TV as home.

According to Nielson, Boone is already in the Charlotte TV market.

Call me a homer, but I believe the tide has started to turn for the SBC. This was a down year for the conference, and we knew that early in the season based on the performance of ULL and Arkansas State in the OOC games. Those programs took another black eye when two "move up" teams effectively dominated the conference this season. Short term, that might have hurt the public perception, but make no mistake...ULL and ASU will recover and respond. The level of competition is going to improve. App State and Georgia Southern just sent a wake up call, and I think the enter conference is going to trend upwards.

I don't think the SBC is at the bottom next year with App and GaSo in full swing and ULL and ASU improving. In three years, I think the landscape could look VERY different. Then again, I have no crystal ball.

Yosef84 wrote: I don't think the SBC is at the bottom next year with App and GaSo in full swing and ULL and ASU improving. In three years, I think the landscape could look VERY different. Then again, I have no crystal ball.

Darn tootin'. CUSA's tv contract coming up + our new bowl tie-ins will be factors as well. The Belt already has more bowl $ per school this year than CUSA since we have less members.

WHEN (not if) the Belt gets a team to a new years bowl in the next few seasons, the detractors will hush.