Sun Belt Conference should add two-four more programs in 2013
College football re-alignment is hitting the non-AQ
conferences again, more conference shake ups is happening and will happen in
the near future.
On this week sever schools have re-aligned with new
conferences from the Big East to the ACC and now two more schools have left the
Conference USA for the Big East. With all this shuffling in the conference
arena, the question that is on my mind is “What is the Sun Belt Conference
going to do?”
Conference USA just raided the WAC and took two programs
from the Sun Belt Conference this season for 2013. And the Sun Belt replaced
them with two programs Texas State and Georgia State. However it is a known
fact that C-USA wants to be a super conference with at least 14 teams and high
as 16 teams or more. And now that they
have lost Tulane and East Carolina to the Big East beginning in 2014, their
commissioner have made it known they have more options to choose from. Sorry to
say those options may be the Sun Belt Conference.
Conference USA may be headed back to the Sun Belt to get two more programs or they may go out and get two more great FCS programs that the Sun Belt has failed to add sooner rather than later in Georgia Southern and Appalachian State. C-USA also has Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee and UL-Lafayette on their radar. And don’t forget New Mexico State is sitting out there still an established FBS program.
So why would the Sun Belt Conference sit back and enjoy
the shuffling and snatching of Sun Belt Conference teams to C-USA? No doubt they will be looking to rob the Sun
Belt Conference once again. Commissioner
Karl Benson the new conference commissioner stated several times that he want
the SBC to stay a step ahead of C-USA. So does he really mean that or is it
just talk?
The Sun Belt Conference has a chance to be that great
powerful non-AQ conference out of the new group of five. Adding two great
programs to get to the solid 12 for a conference championship game would be
great for the Sun Belt Conference moving forward, especially with the new
playoff system coming into effect in 2014. This would help the conference in its
chances at that big bowl game and playoff and also generate more revenue for
the conference and its teams. What are
the SBC offering its members to stay or come aboard?
Will the Commissioner continue to talk the talk and those
that sit on the board continue to sit at the board table along with
Commissioner Karl Benson and watch or will they act and get the job done before
it’s too late?
Why wouldn’t the Sun Belt Conference aggressively seek to
add Southern Miss and UAB, and why would they not add Georgia Southern and
Appalachian State, or Lamar in Texas?
In all of this conference re-alignment talk, there is one
more big eye catcher that continues to bother me, and that is the Sun Belt
Conference has no exit fee in place for those programs that desire to leave. It
makes it so easy for other conferences like C-USA to come in and offer so many
sweet deals and greener paths to our members because it cost them anything to
leave the Sun Belt, so we just get robbed. That should be changed immediately.
But this is decision making season in the offseason of
college football, now that we all know what is going on and what can happen in
the near future. Our commissioner and board presidents need to make a decision
quickly on our next step for the Sun Belt Conference. Are we going to really
stay a step ahead of the C-USA or we going to continue to get robbed and lose
programs to C-USA and make them better, and watch other conferences grow? I
rather see our leaders act now and preserve our conference and make it the top of
the non-AQ conferences as they have been doing. Adding two more programs or
four would not hurt, but I believe would help the conference in all aspects.
If the best of the FCS get added by other conferences and
the SBC lose two more programs to C-USA, then who will be left to lift us back
up and help us get to where we want to be. Last minute deals are not always the
best deals. We don't need a repeat of the WAC in the Sun Belt Conference.
