Louisiana UnLimited: The Rise of the Sun Belt
While an entire country remembers – and hopefully never forgets – the tragedies of Sept. 11, 2001, the Sun Belt Conference may have had its moment of remembrance one date earlier.
No doubt, those in the conference and those who follow the league will mark Sept. 10 as a day to evoke memories of where the Sun Belt was, where it is now and where it could be headed in the future.
Was Saturday the greatest day in Sun Belt Conference history? Maybe.
When the league was founded on Aug. 4, 1976, that was pretty important. When former commissioner Wright Waters convinced enough parties in 1999 that football was essential to the league's survival and growth, that was a huge step. Karl Benson's courting of former FCS powerhouses during his commissionership and guiding the league toward athletic programs that were successful despite not being in major markets was a stroke of genius. Keith Gill's steerage through the recent league expansion during a time of conference reshuffling made the country take notice.
But for one period of less than 12 hours, never had the Sun shone brighter than it did on Saturday.
It's been almost two decades since a "Group of Five" league (maybe we should start using the "non-autonomy" label for those conferences) beat two Top 10-ranked foes on the same day. That happened Saturday, among three Sun Belt victories over "Power Five" conference members (and maybe "autonomy" is becoming a better moniker).
Not so many seasons ago, UL's 49-21 pummeling of Eastern Michigan that extended the nation's longest winning streak to 15 games would have been a league headline – one that trumpeted a conference-team's victory over a member of a "peer conference." On Saturday, that just added to a day in which the Sun Belt posted 10 wins over non-conference foes and went 6-1 against the combined forces of the SEC, Big 10, Conference USA, the Mid-American and the team that plays under the watchful eye of Touchdown Jesus.
Marshall's 26-21 victory at No. 8 Notre Dame in front of 77,652 shocked Fighting Irish fans was no fluke. The Thundering Herd, who lost to the Cajuns in last December's R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl before joining the Sun Belt this season, marched 94 yards in 11 plays for a fourth-quarter 26-15 lead and was the last of four Marshall scores in four red-zone attempts.
About an hour later, Appalachian State – the team UL topped 41-13 and 24-16 last season in winning the Sun Belt title – marched into Kyle Field along with 92,664 Aggies and marched out with a 17-14 victory that also wasn't a fluke. The Mountaineers held A&M to 186 offensive yards and allowed one offensive touchdown and only one drive of over 45 yards.
Later Saturday evening, Georgia Southern's retooled offense rolled up big numbers in knocking off Nebraska 45-42 in Lincoln. The former-triple-option Eagles had 409 passing yards in beating the Cornhuskers – admittedly not a Top 10 team but still an iconic name in college football.
Overall, Sun Belt teams went 10-4 on Saturday, with three of the losses coming to No. 3 Ohio State (Arkansas State, 45-12), to No. 15 Miami (Southern Miss, 30-7), both on the road, and to a 3-0 North Carolina squad (Georgia State, 35-28). The league was 3-1 against "peer conferences" and 4-0 by an average of more than 27 points over FCS opposition. The three wins over the "peer" leagues were all by double-digit margins – Texas State by 41-12 over C-USA member FIU, South Alabama's 38-24 win over Central Michigan and the Cajuns' romp over Eastern Michigan.
Pretty heady stuff. And coupled with last season's huge successes – including UL's final Top-15 ranking – many are taking notice. One national writer had a "break up the Sun Belt" headline Sunday hyping the league's success, and ESPN will be headed to Boone, N.C., this weekend to originate its iconic "College GameDay" show when App State and Troy formally open this season's Sun Belt Conference play.
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