Inside Sun Belt Saturday: How the league beat two top-10 teams and won realignment

[Greenrex]

A college football Week 2 that was built around Alabama’s trip to Texas became Sun Belt Saturday by the end of the night, as Marshall and App State knocked off top-10 opponents on the road, the first time a non-power conference had done so since the MAC in 2003. Georgia Southern also beat Nebraska, racking up 642 yards of offense, the most ever allowed by Nebraska at home. This all came one week after Old Dominion beat Virginia Tech.

“We were fired up for the league, showing the quality of our football,” Gill said. “It shows you why we’re so excited about Playoff expansion, because when you line up, anything can happen.”

It was a milestone moment for a conference that has been on the upswing for the better part of five years. The league didn’t sponsor football until 2001. It saw five members leave for Conference USA in 2012 and 2013. It didn’t have a team ranked in the AP poll until 2016.

But things have changed quickly. The league’s decision to bring in successful current and former FCS programs under Gill and former commissioner Karl Benson has paid off — 13 of 14 teams are former FCS/I-AA programs. The league finished with two ranked teams in 2020 (Coastal Carolina and Louisiana) and has positioned itself to perhaps become the strongest Group of 5 football conference when the realignment dust settles. The league is full of teams with winning histories and fan bases that come to games. With new regional rivalries on the schedule, several schools set season ticket sales records. Top-10 upsets might not be the norm, but winning on bigger stages could be the future.

 

“In our mind, this is the premier Group of 5 conference,” Georgia Southern coach Clay Helton said. “The only way you can earn respect is to walk into those traditional national powers and walk out with victories.”

While the league celebrated as a whole, Saturday also showed there’s no one way to build a team and score the upset. Each of the Sun Belt’s three big wins Saturday came in three very different ways, reflecting the state of each program.

The full article from The Athletic:

https://theathletic.com/3588304/2022/09/13/sun-belt-appalachian-state-marshall-georgia-southern/?source=pulsenewsletter&campaign=5045301