Finals are not until this Friday. The first half of summer grades may be posted but second half and full summer classes are not complete.
Printable View
Finals are not until this Friday. The first half of summer grades may be posted but second half and full summer classes are not complete.
OK, THE REASON I ASKED IS B/C A FOOTBALL PLAYER SAID THAT THEY WOULD OUT TODAY IF A FEW CERTAIN PEOPLE WERE ELIGIBLE.Quote:
Originally Posted by jdebaillon
I think I saw on CBS Sportsline where we were picked to win the SunBelt.
as they did...Quote:
Originally Posted by makomaker
Let's prove them correct so they can stick someone else in the "Bottom 20" for a change.Quote:
Originally Posted by makomaker
5 teams in the bottom 19 is OK for now.
Remember last season when ALL 8 teams "earned" that distinction. Now Troy in Middle turned some heads. My question is WHERE is North Texas? The Belt needs to keep going and keep winning and OUR time will come.
The situation with the Cajuns is that we open with a must win against NC A&T and dominate. We roll over Eastern Michigan with some revenge and pull a stunner AT Houston. Then we slip by FAU on national TV(I still can't believe the lack of offense in that game) and start losing to teams we shouldn't lose to. That Middle Tennesee game was REALLY hard to digest.
"Nine times out of 10, there's going to be a slot for a seven-win team," Waters said. "There's 32 bowl games this year and maybe 33 or 34 soon, so run the numbers and it comes up pretty good."
Quote:
<blockquote> <p align=justify>
NEW ORLEANS - Sun Belt Conference football teams recorded the second-most out-of-conference wins (11) and second-most wins (6) against non-league Division I-A teams in history last year.
But there's an even bigger measure of the league's growth in football. That measure comes in the area that's most rewarding for the players and coaches.
Twice in three years, the Sun Belt has put two teams into bowl games, with Troy and Middle Tennessee both playing in the postseason in addition to the league's regular slot in the New Orleans Bowl.
And the coaches from those two squads readily admit that wouldn't have happened had it not been for the Sun Belt.
"No question we wouldn't have been in last year without the league," said Middle coach Rick Stockstill, whose squad lost to Central Michigan 31-14 in the Motor City Bowl in Detroit. "The bowls have so many tie-ins with conferences, and if you're an independent other than Notre Dame, you're not going to get in."
<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070724/SPORTS/707240318/1006" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>
Dan McDonald
The Daily Advertiser
(337) 289-6318
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com
<!--
"Winning out two years ago got us in," said Troy coach Larry Blakeney, whose team reached the Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose at the end of the 2004 season. "But being in the conference got us in, too. We were the first to get in as the second team, and we're proud of that."
The Sun Belt has only one automatic tie-in, with the league champion headed to New Orleans. But over the last four years every league team that has reached seven wins has played in a postseason bowl. Here, at this year's Sun Belt Football Media Day and in the shadows of Louisiana's only land-based non-Indian casino, seven remains the lucky number.
Under current NCAA bowl regulations, if any of the nation's conferences fail to fulfill numeric obligations to bowl partners and bowls have to go outside their lock-ins to find bowl-eligible teams, bowls have to take all of the 7-5 teams before any selections of 6-6 squads.
For teams like UL and its Sun Belt brethren, seven wins is a tangible goal.
"You want to win the league first," said Ragin' Cajun coach Rickey Bustle, "but you want that seventh win. The people in the league do a great job of pushing our teams, but there's no guarantee. Getting that seventh win separates a lot of people."
Bustle thinks his team can do that this season, against a schedule that includes two SEC teams in South Carolina and Tennessee and its other non-league games against Ohio, McNeese and Central Florida.
"It's a schedule you can make some noise against, for lack of a better word," he said. "I think our non-conference schedule is a very fair challenge. If we can win some of those, it'll build us some momentum."
If UL could sweep the non-SEC portion of its out-of-conference schedule, a 4-3 Sun Belt record would create a near-lock for some bowl. Sun Belt commissioner Wright Waters figures that would be enough, and even moreso in the next two years when prospective bowl games in Salt Lake City and Baltimore could come on line.
"Nine times out of 10, there's going to be a slot for a seven-win team," Waters said. "There's 32 bowl games this year and maybe 33 or 34 soon, so run the numbers and it comes up pretty good."
Stockstill, who said Monday he'd never been to a bad bowl, said that the difference in the Sun Belt and the more-established teams is the difference between six and seven wins.
"For teams in the SEC and ACC, major conferences, other than the teams that have a chance to win it, they're all gunning for six wins to get bowl eligible," he said. "Vanderbilt would love to get to six wins. We in the Sun Belt can't just get six wins. That's not going to get us in. We have to win seven to be that wild-card team."
Waters is hoping that the Sun Belt can garner a second bowl tie in the near future, mostly for the sake of geography.
"It's a priority for the conference office in years ahead," he said. "That wild-card spot could be in Boise, and that wouldn't be good for building fan support. It's a multi-dimensional issue since it's a million-dollar investment for the league, and we've got to build our fan base before we're going to be able to contract with someone. But it's something we have to move ahead on."
The Cajuns will appear twice on the league's ESPN Plus package that is available to cable networks and which will air locally over Cox Sports (cable channel 37). UL's Saturday home games against North Texas on Oct. 6 and Florida Atlantic on Oct. 20 will be part of the regional network's eight-game package.
Quote:
<blockquote> <p align=justify>
NEW ORLEANS - The Sun Belt Conference will have a record four games televised nationally in prime-time slots during the 2007 season. None will involve UL, though the Ragin' Cajuns will make a pair of regional appearances in two conference home games.
The league's television package was announced Monday during Media Day activities.
The conference will make up half of ESPN's first telecast of the season, that on Thursday, Aug. 30 when UL Monroe travels to Tulsa for a 6 p.m. ESPN2 contest. Sun Belt teams will also appear in ESPN2 games on Thursday, Sept. 6 when Middle Tennessee visits Louisville, on Friday, Sept. 14 when Troy hosts Oklahoma State, and on Tuesday, Nov. 20, when Troy hosts Middle Tennessee.
The league winner will grab another national appearance in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl on Dec. 21.
<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070724/SPORTS/707240319/1006" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>
Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com
<!--
The Cajuns will appear twice on the league's ESPN Plus package that is available to cable networks and which will air locally over Cox Sports (cable channel 37). UL's Saturday home games against North Texas on Oct. 6 and Florida Atlantic on Oct. 20 will be part of the regional network's eight-game package.
The ESPN Plus package will hit approximately 20 million homes through Cox and CSS.
WESTERN ON HAND: Representatives from Western Kentucky were in attendance Monday, with head coach David Elson and former sports information director Paul Just taking part in Media Day activities.
WKU is currently in transition from Division I-AA to I-A and will become the ninth Sun Belt football member, becoming eligible for the title and a bowl berth in 2009. The Hilltoppers will become the 120th Division I-A member.
WKU, the 2002 Division I-AA national champion, plays three league teams this year and has six tentatively scheduled for 2008 before its full-fledged membership kicks in. In fact, Western plays all of the Sun Belt teams except for the two Louisiana teams during the 2008 season.
MORE VICK: UL coach Rickey Bustle can't avoid questions about the Atlanta Falcons' Michael Vick.
His former quarterback at Virginia Tech was indicted last week for involvement in dogfighting. Vick's legal situation threatens his status for the 2007 season, and that became more complicated Monday night when NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told him to stay out of training camp while the league reviews the charges.
"I hate it for his mom," said Bustle, who coached Vick during his time as offensive coordinator with the Hokies. "She's a great lady and did a great job raising those kids.
"We've talked about it here, and we're always talking about it in coaching meetings, about making the right decisions and choosing the right people to be around. That's where I'm disappointed in Mike."
Bustle said that he will definitely use Vick's situation to hammer home a code of conduct for his team when they assemble for the start of fall drills next week.
"I tell our guys you learn from mistakes," he said. "The thing is you have to make the ones that we can punish you for, and not the ones where you get involved with the law."
-->