Three Things We Learned From The Sun Belt Week 7

The seventh week of the Sun Belt went mostly the way folks were expecting. App State handled UL-Lafayette, Georgia Southern played hard but fell to Georgia Tech, Idaho’s offense was too much for New Mexico State and UL-Monroe used a big first half to beat Texas State. The surprises came during the games themselves as the bowl-eligible picture became a little clearer, the defending champs showed some life and a potential challenger answered a tricky challenge.

The Sun Belt Could Have Six Bowl-Eligible Teams

After only having four bowl-eligible teams last season, the Sun Belt could go to the other end of the spectrum, having more teams than bowl tie-ins. You figure that 5-1 Troy and 4-2 Appalachian State will make it, then you got 4-3 Idaho who could easily finish with six wins. Georgia Southern is 3-3 with some tough games (App State, Ole Miss, Troy), but should have favored in three of them.

South Alabama is 3-3, but if they get a bowl waiver for scheduling Presbyterian after LSU cancelled on them, then they just have to win two Sun Belt games (and beat Presby) to get six wins At 2-4 is Arkansas State who we’ll cover more further down, but has a decent shot at six wins.

That would have the Sun Belt at six bowl eligible teams with only five bowl tie-ins. If you take the six teams discussed, the odd-team out would likely be Idaho. With 80 bowl spots to fill in FBS, there might be an open slot here or there. The bowl eligibility picture will be clearer in November, but right now, it’s trending toward more six-win teams that bowl spots.

Arkansas State Might Be Turning It Around

We should have seen this coming. It happened last year and we should have known better. Arkansas State is winning again.

Granted, starting 0-4 and losing to an FCS team is a perfectly reasonable excuse to panic, but the Red Wolves went 1-3 in OOC last season then went 8-0 in the Sun Belt.

Part of it might be that South Alabama can’t win in the Sun Belt while beating two ranked teams in OOC, but credit to A-State, especially on defense, for pulling out a gritty, defensive 17-7 win over the Jaguars.

Really, as long as the injury or suspension bug doesn’t strike, the only game that Arkansas State won’t be favored in the rest of the way is November 19th at Troy. But with no App State or Idaho on the schedule and the likes of ULM, Texas State, New Mexico State, Georgia State and more coming up, 7-5 is a real possibility.

Troy Has The Toughness To Win The League

 

The onside kick Neal Brown called for versus Georgia State was the call that won the game for Troy on Saturday. After not scoring a touchdown all game, the Trojans responded to the successful gamble with three straight touchdowns to score an emotional 31-21 win over the Panthers.

It wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done and for Troy, it showed the heart of a team that could win the Sun Belt. The next three conference games will determine if the Trojans can do it, but they look ready for the challenge.

Up next on Thursday is a trip to South Alabama in the Battle for the Belt. It could be a coming out party for Troy in front of a national audience.