DRC full article on SBC championship tournaments

[OldTimer]

UNT to host future Sun Belt championships

08:49 AM CDT on Thursday, June 1, 2006

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

North Texas won’t have long to wait to host a Sun Belt Conference championship at two of its new facilities.

The league awarded UNT three conference postseason events to take place in 2008 and 2009 on Wednesday. The Mean Green will host the Sun Belt soccer tournament and track meet in 2008 before hosting the softball tournament in 2009.

The schedule of Sun Belt Championships for the next few years was just one of several announcements the league made following its annual meeting in Destin, Fla., last week.

UNT’s Rick Villarreal was named the chair of the league’s athletic directors when the executive committee for the 2006-07 season was approved.

UNT has built several new venues during Villarreal’s tenure, most of which are now scheduled to host a conference championship event. The Mean Green were already scheduled to host the Sun Belt volleyball tournament this fall.

UNT purchased the Liberty Christian School campus and has converted its facilities into homes for several of its women’s sports teams. The Mean Green volleyball team has moved into a gym on the old Liberty property, while the school’s old football field has been converted into a soccer venue.

UNT is also converting the school’s old baseball field into a softball park.

UNT has hosted the Sun Belt track meet at Fouts Field on multiple occasions and will see the event return to Denton in two years.

Sun Belt to examine men’s basketball

One challenge Sun Belt coaches and officials agreed the league must tackle is the status of its men’s basketball league.

No member of the league has won an NCAA Tournament game since Western Kentucky beat Michigan in 1995. The Sun Belt has also sent just one team to the tournament in each season since WKU and Louisiana-Lafayette were both bounced in the first round in 1994.

The Sun Belt has sent one women’s team to the tournament in each of the last five years and seen that team advance at least one round three times.

The Sun Belt’s men’s league improved from 20th to 12th as a conference in the RPI rankings from 2001 to 2005 before dropping back to 18th in 2006.

The league said it would examine all aspects of its programs, including recruiting, scheduling and coaching.

Divisions keep East-West names

The Sun Belt stuck with the traditional East and West names for its divisions that will be realigned for the 2006-07 season.

UNT will play in the West with Arkansas-Little Rock, Arkansas State, Denver, Louisiana-Lafayette New Orleans and Louisiana-Monroe. The East Division will include Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Middle Tennessee, South Alabama, Troy and Western Kentucky.

FAU and ULM will become all-sports members on July 1. Both are already members of the Sun Belt’s football league.

The Sun Belt held a contest to name the divisions.

UNT is already in the West Division, which will include newcomers ASU and UALR of the East Division in addition to ULM. Current West Division members South Alabama and Troy are moving to the East Division.

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com.