2018 Sun Belt Football News and Notes:
Week 1 Release (PDF) | Standings | Composite Schedule | Week 1 Teleconference
AROUND #SUNBELTFB
2018 Football Championship Game and Season
The Sun Belt Conference will conduct its inaugural Football Championship Game on December 1, 2018 and the game will air on ABC, ESPN, or ESPN2. The game will feature the winners of the Sun Belt’s two divisions and will take place at the home site of the Divisional Champion with the best overall conference winning percentage.
The Sun Belt’s new divisional structure:
East Division:
Appalachian State
Coastal Carolina
Georgia Southern
Georgia State
Troy
West Division:
Arkansas State
Louisiana
ULM
South Alabama
Texas State
Sun Belt Conference Bowl Success
During the last two seasons, the Sun Belt tied its record for wins in the postseason with four wins in both 2016 and 2017. The Sun Belt finished second in bowl winning percentage among all 10 FBS conferences in each of those years while also finishing fourth in 2015. Reaching back to the 2014 season, no conference has a better total bowl winning percentage (.611) than the Sun Belt Conference. Further, the Sun Belt has won more games during that four year period (11) than its peers: the American Athletic Conference (10) and the Mid-American Conference (6). That fact is staggering when considering the Sun Belt has reached its win mark despite those conferences having more opportunities to win games (AAC – 27, MAC – 23, Sun Belt – 17).
Sun Belt Conference Bowl Partners
The 2018 season will conclude with the Sun Belt being guaranteed a minimum of five spots in postseason bowl games. The Sun Belt maintains partnerships with the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, the Dollar General Bowl, the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl, the AutoNation Cure Bowl, and the NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl. Additionally, the College Football Playoff guarantees that a spot among the premier bowl games in college football will be given to the highest-ranked champion from the “Group of Five" conferences: the Sun Belt Conference, American Athletic Conference, Mountain West Conference, Mid-American Conference and Conference USA.
Sun Belt and ESPN Reach Long-Term Agreement
This past March, the league announced a continuation of its relationship with ESPN that is the most significant and extensive multimedia rights agreement in conference history. This new agreement includes enhancements in the current agreement, which runs through 2019-20, most notably an increase of men’s and women’s basketball games on ESPN platforms. The number of men’s basketball contests available will jump to a minimum of 100 games in 2018-19 and 150 games in the 2019-20 season. Beginning with 2020-21, the Sun Belt’s agreement includes the following on an ESPN platform: A minimum of 500 events per year, all football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball games, a minimum of 10 football games per year on a combination of ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, all live coverage of regular-season competition across all sports each year, all live coverage of conference championship events each year.
Sun Belt Officiating Program
The Sun Belt Conference officiating program will use a collaborative replay system for the second consecutive year. The system allows officials in a central location to review replays and assist officials at each game. The Sun Belt is one of only five FBS conferences to use collaborative replay and the only ‘Group of Five’ conference to use the system. Others with collaborative replay - ACC, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC.
Sun Belt Athletes Are Student-Athletes
During the recent 2017-18 academic year, Sun Belt member institutions awarded over $50 million in scholarships to more than 3,100 student-athletes, while also providing life experiences such as team building, domestic and foreign travel, community service, mentoring and recognition through honors and awards. The commitment to education recently led to over 2,000 Sun Belt Conference student-athletes being named to the 2017-18 Commissioner’s List and Academic Honor Roll. The list is comprised of 1,036 student-athletes on the Commissioner’s List (3.5 grade point average or better) and 987 student-athletes on the Academic Honor Roll (GPA between 3.0 and 3.49).
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Thursday, August 30
Kennesaw State at Georgia State, 6:00 p.m. (ESPN+)
Southeastern Louisiana at ULM, 7:00 p.m. (ESPN+)
Saturday, September 1
Coastal Carolina at South Carolina, 11:00 a.m. (SEC Network)
Texas State at Rutgers, 11:00 a.m. (BTN)
Appalachian State at Penn State, 2:30 p.m. (BTN)
#22 Boise State at Troy, 5:00 p.m. (ESPNews)
South Carolina State at Georgia Southern, 5:00 p.m. (ESPN+)
Grambling at Louisiana, 6:00 p.m. (ESPN3)
Louisiana Tech at South Alabama, 6:00 p.m. (ESPN+)
Southeastern Missouri at Arkansas State, 6:00 p.m. (ESPN+)
Saturday, September 8
Georgia State at North Carolina State, 1:30 p.m. (Fox Regional)
Arkansas State at Alabama, 2:30 p.m. (ESPN2)
UMass at Georgia Southern, 5:00 p.m. (ESPN+)
Appalachian State at Charlotte, 5:00 p.m. (ESPN+)
Texas Southern at Texas State, 6:00 p.m. (ESPN3)
Florida A&M at Troy, 6:00 p.m. (ESPN+)
UAB at Coastal Carolina, 6:00 p.m. (ESPN+)
ULM at Southern Miss, 6:00 p.m. (ESPN3)
South Alabama at Oklahoma State, 7:00 p.m. (Fox Sports Net)
All Times are Central and Subject to Change
* - Sun Belt Conference contest
#SUNBELTFB TEAM NEWS AND NOTES
Appalachian State
Overall vs. Penn State: First Meeting
Over the last 45 games, App State’s 36-9 record is tied for fifth place nationally, topped only in the FBS by Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Wisconsin.
App State’s Scott Satterfield is one of only nine FBS head coaches with at least 30 wins since the start of the 2015 season.
App State, which opens the season at No. 9 Penn State on Sept. 1, has an all-time record of 1-1 against Big Ten opponents. As an FCS program, the Mountaineers upset No. 5 Michigan by a 34-32 score on Sept. 1, 2007 in the first game ever televised by the Big Ten Network. The Mountaineers opened their first season as an FBS member with a loss at Michigan on Aug. 30, 2014.
Since beginning Sun Belt Conference play in 2014, Appalachian State’s 27-5 league record ranks first, as the Mountaineers have won 27 of their last 30 league games.
Back-to-back Sun Belt Conference rushing champion Jalin Moore’s 3,170 career rushing yards are second-most among returning FBS players (Myles Gaskin of Washington has 4,055) and seventh-most in Appalachian State history. He’s one of six FBS players entering 2018 with back-to-back seasons of 1,000 rushing yards.
Arkansas State
Overall vs. Southeast Missouri: Second Meeting - A-State leads, 2-0
Last Meeting: Sept. 13, 2003 (W, 21-3) - Jonesboro, Ark.
Arkansas State enters its fifth year under head coach Blake Anderson, who has led the Red Wolves to a 31-20 record, four bowl-game appearances and two Sun Belt Conference championships
A-State is the only FBS program in the nation to win five conference championships over the last seven seasons.
A-State was picked to win the Sun Belt Conference for the first time in the history of the league’s preseason coaches’ poll.
The Red Wolves’ 59 victories over the last seven years is tied for the 25th most in the nation among FBS programs.
A-State will open its 2018 season at home for the fourth time over the last six years. The Red Wolves will look to snap a three-game skid in season openers dating back to the 2015 season.
Arkansas State will begin the season playing Southeast Missouri State, marking the eighth consecutive year the Red Wolves have played an FCS member.
Coastal Carolina
Overall vs. South Carolina: Second Meeting - SC leads, 1-0
Last Meeting: Nov. 23, 2013 (L, 10-70) - Columbia, S.C.
After taking a year sabbatical for an illness, Head Coach Joe Moglia is back on the sideline this year.
The 2018 season marks the first season that Coastal will be eligible to play in a bowl game.
Coastal returns 16 starters this season - eight on offense, four on defense and four specialists.
Marvin Sanders will make his debut as the Chanticleers defensive coordinator when CCU steps on the field to open the season at South Carolina.
The Chanticleers returns five players who started every game last season at the same position; RG - Trey Carter; RT - Ethan Howard; WR - Malcolm Williams; CB - Anthony Chesley; and Safety - Fitz Wattley.
Georgia Southern
Overall vs. South Carolina State: Eighth Meeting - GS leads, 7-0
Last Meeting: Nov. 27, 2010 (W, 41-16) - Statesboro, Ga.
Only four of the previous seven meetings against SCSU have been in Paulson Stadium. The first game in the series came in 1985 and was played at Orangeburg’s Dawson Stadium with the Eagles winning 43-30. That game was the final regular season game in Georgia Southern’s 1985 season, a season in which the Eagles went on to win their first of six NCAA Division I-AA national championships.
The Eagles are 4-0 against the Bulldogs at Paulson Stadium.
GS is 35-2 all-time against Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) schools with the only two losses coming against Florida A&M. GS has won 15 straight games against MEAC opponents.
New cornerbacks coach Cory Peoples coached for one season at SCSU, coming in 2016. This is the first of three games against teams from the Palmetto State this season (Clemson, Coastal Carolina).
GS has won 20 straight games at home against non-conference opponents (including vacated wins and FCS Playoff games) dating back to a Nov. 18, 2006 overtime loss to end the season against Central Arkansas.
Georgia State
Overall vs. Kennesaw State: First Meeting
Georgia State opens its ninth season of football by hosting Atlanta-area neighbor Kennesaw State in a Thursday night game at Georgia State Stadium.
The Panthers look to build on the momentum of their successful 2017 season, when head coach Shawn Elliott took over the program and led the Panthers to their first winning season at the FBS level with a 7-5 record, capped by their first bowl game victory, a 27-17 win over Western Kentucky in the AutoNation Cure Bowl.
The 2018 Panthers feature one of the nation’s most prolific receivers in junior Penny Hart, a Preseason All-American who led the Sun Belt Conference in 2017 with a school-record 74 receptions for 1,121 yards and eight touchdowns. Hart ranks first among all active FBS receivers in career receiving yards (2,281), second in TD receptions (17) and fifth in receptions (153).
The Owls, an FCS quarterfinalist in 2017, are ranked No. 5 in the FCS preseason poll. Kennesaw State is also a new program that began playing in 2015.
The distance between Georgia State Stadium and KSU’s Fifth Third Bank Stadium is just 25 miles.
Louisiana
Overall vs. Grambling: First Meeting
This is first-year head coach Billy Napier’s first game as head coach for Louisiana (27th head coach in Louisiana history) and his first game as a head coach in his career. He is one of seven other head coaches among FBS programs coaching their first career games as a head coach.
Louisiana’s game against Grambling is the first game ever played between the two schools, and it means that Louisiana will now have played every school in the state of Louisiana that has a Division I football program.
The Cajuns have won nine out of their last 10 home openers going back to 2008.
Coach Napier and his staff hit the ground running when they got here, and they did a great job of finding talent in a short period of time. 37 out of the 110 (34%) players who entered training camp for the Cajuns were new additions made by the Louisiana coaching staff.
ULM
Overall vs. Southeastern Louisiana: Eighth Meeting - SELA leads, 6-2
Last Meeting: Sept. 25, 2010 (W, 21-20) - Monroe, La.
Eight starters are back from an offense that averaged 33.9 points and 458.0 yards per game last season. And the most important piece, dual-threat quarterback Caleb Evans, enters his second season as starter with a high ceiling. As a sophomore, Evans rushed for 573 yards and a conference-best 13 TDs and passed for 2,868 yards and 17 TDs, and he’s surrounded by a strong supporting cast. Evans will work behind four returning starters on a line that protected him well last season. He will throw to a talented receiving corps, led by All-America all-purpose performer Marcus Green (54 catches, 812 yards, five TDs) and R.J. Turner (38 catches, 693 yards).
Green is ULM’s most explosive weapon, and nearly half of his school-record 2,008 all-purpose yards came in the return game. He tied for first in the FBS with four kick return TDs and ranked fourth with a 32.4-yard average. Craig Ford is a steady placekicker, making 70 percent (28-of-40) of his career field goal attempts. Mark Deaves, a 25-year-old Australian, takes over as punter.
South Alabama
Overall vs. Louisiana Tech: Second Meeting - La. Tech leads, 1-0
Last Meeting: Sept. 30, 2017 (L, 16-34) - Ruston, La.
For the first time in 10 seasons — a stretch that includes 102 games — Jaguar football will be coached by someone other than Joey Jones after Steve Campbell was hired to lead the program on Dec. 7.
Campbell’s 159-53 mark as a head coach includes going 33-15 over the last four years at Central Arkansas, where he guided the Bears to back-to-back NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoff appearances. He has led two programs to national championships — Delta (Miss.) State in 2000 at the NCAA Division II level and Mississippi Gulf Coast C.C. to the 2007 National Junior College Athletic Association crown.
Campbell and Jaguar coordinators Kenny Edenfield and Greg Stewart were teammates on Troy’s 1987 NCAA Division II national championship squad.
The Jaguars are 6-3 in their opening game of the season since the program’s inception in 2009, which includes a 4-2 record when kicking off the campaign in Mobile. This marks the first time the Jags will begin the season at home against a current NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision opponent.
Texas State
Overall vs. Rutgers: First Meeting
Texas State begins its seventh season in the NCAA Division I FBS ranks and sixth year as a member of the Sun Belt Conference in 2018.
Texas State and Rutgers will meet for the first time. This is the third time the Bobcats have played a team from the Big Ten. Texas State played at Minnesota in 2002 and at Illinois in 2014.
This season marks the third time in the last four years that Texas State opens a season with a road game. The Bobcats played at No. 10-ranked Florida State in 2015 and at Ohio in 2016.
Texas State enters the Rutgers game with a 63-45-3 record in season-opening games after winning four of its previous six openers. Texas State enters the Rutgers game seeking its third straight victory in season openers and sixth season-opening victory in the FBS ranks. Texas State began that stretch with road wins at Houston in 2012 and Southern Miss in 2013, against Arkansas-Pine Bluff in 2014, at Ohio in 2016 and against Houston Baptist in 2017.
Texas State is one of nine schools where a player is playing for his head coach father. Head coach Everett Withers is coaching his son, Pierce, this season. Other schools include UAB, Clemson (two players), Colorado, Indiana, Middle Tennessee, Old Dominion, TCU and Tulsa.
Troy
Overall vs. Boise State: Second Meeting - Boise St. leads, 1-0
Last Meeting: Sept. 2, 2017 (L, 13-24) - Boise, Idaho
Troy’s offense ranked 11th nationally with negative yardage on just 7.2 percent (63/872) of its plays last season.
Troy’s defense ranked with negative yardage on 14.0 percent (128/917).
Troy’s 21 combined wins over the last two seasons are the most by a Troy team over two seasons in Troy’s FBS era. The 21 wins are the eighth most in the country the last two seasons.
Neal Brown was named the Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year and Marcus Jones was named the Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year.
Troy’s six Sun Belt Conference championships are tied for the most in the league -- Arkansas State also has six, but the Red Wolves joined the league three years ahead of Troy.
Neal Brown coached offenses -- OC at Troy, Texas Tech and Kentucky & HC at Troy -- have never been shutout, a span of 126 games.