The Really Big Week 2 Thing Was …
Sun Belt, Fun Belt …
Who’s on a better roll than the Sun Belt Conference?
When all of the expansion and realignment stuff started to kick in last year, the Sun Belt appeared to be destined for big problems.
After all, it was a young league on the big FBS stage, the programs weren’t necessarily nationally known, and it seemed like Conference USA, and maybe the American Athletic Conference, would fortify their respective positions by picking and choosing the best schools and football teams of the bunch.
And then a funny thing happened on the way to total irrelevance and possible WAC/Big East-like big stage extinction. The Sun Belt got proactive.
Hint, hint, Pac-12 – if you’re worried about your standing in the college sports business world, acquire properties, acquire properties, acquire properties.
What did the Sun Belt do? It managed to work a deal that brought over Marshall, Southern Miss, and Old Dominion from Conference USA to go along with James Madison.
Did they come over in 2024ish or so? No. The Sun Belt found a way to get them this year, and now the league has Marshall, who just went out and took down Notre Dame in South Bend. Old Dominion was the only Group of Five team to beat a Power Five program – Virginia Tech – in Week 0 or 1, and Southern Miss hasn’t been that bad in losses to Liberty and Miami.
Meanwhile, James Madison is playing for keeps with two wins over Middle Tennessee and Norfolk State by a combined score of 107-14 to kick off life in the FBS.
Oh yeah, and Coastal Carolina is 2-0 in a rebuilding year. All Appalachian State did was push North Carolina to the brink and embarrass Texas A&M in its own house.
South Alabama is a strong-looking 2-0, Louisiana has pushed to two wins, and Georgia Southern got paid $1.423 million to go amass the most yards ever allowed at home by a Nebraska team – 642 – forcing the end of the Scott Frost era.
The problem going forward will be the spotlight. There are enough good teams up top to keep the eventual champion – like a Marshall, or Coastal Carolina, or Appalachian State – from getting the New Year’s Six bowl slot.
Whatever. For the moment, the Sun Belt is fun, the SEC isn’t, and it’s only Week 2.
– CFP, Bowl Ties Winners & Losers
– Bama’s close call: Most Overrated Thing
– Michigan’s roll: Most Underrated Thing
– This is going to be weird: What It All Means, Week 2