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Sun Belt Conference
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Sun Belt Conference | |
|---|---|
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| Data | |
| Classification | NCAA Division I FBS |
| Established | 1976 |
| Members | 13 |
| Sports fielded | 19 (9 men's, 10 women's) |
| Region | Southern United States |
| States | 8 - Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas |
| Headquarters | New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Locations | |
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The Sun Belt Conference is a college athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Its football teams participate in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the higher of two levels of Division I football competition (formerly known as Division I-A). The Sun Belt has member institutions distributed primarily across the southern United States.
After the 1990-91 basketball season, all members of the Sun Belt except Western Kentucky, South Alabama, Jacksonville, and incoming member Arkansas-Little Rock departed for other conferences. The Sun Belt then merged with the American South Conference, made up of Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Southwestern Louisiana (now University of Louisiana at Lafayette), Texas-Pan American, New Orleans, Lamar, and Central Florida.
The conference did not sponsor football until 2001, when the league added New Mexico State, North Texas and Middle Tennessee State as full members and added Louisiana-Monroe and Idaho as "football only" members. Utah State was added as a "football only" member in 2003, then departed in 2005 with Idaho and New Mexico State for the WAC.
ULM joined the league as a member in all sports on July 1, 2006. Western Kentucky will join the Sun Belt Conference for football in 2009 after its Board of Regents voted to upgrade the school's football program to Division I FBS.[1]
It has one bowl tie-in, the New Orleans Bowl, which currently pits the Sun Belt champion against an agreed-upon school from Conference USA.
The conference office has been headquartered in downtown New Orleans since 2000, after moving from suburban Metairie, Louisiana where it had been based since 1991. Prior to moving to the “Big Easy” the league was based in Tampa, Florida from 1977-1991. The original conference office was located in Charlotte, North Carolina from 1976-77.
Contents |
- Vic Bubas 1976-1990
- Jim Lessig 1990-1991
- Craig Thompson 1991-1998
- Wright Waters 1999-present
| School | Football stadium | Capacity | Basketball arena | Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arkansas Little-Rock | Non-football school | N/A | Jack Stephens Center | 5,600 |
| Arkansas State | Indian Stadium | 33,410 | Convocation Center | 10,563 |
| Denver | Non-football school | N/A | Magness Arena | 7,200 |
| Florida Atlantic | Lockhart Stadium* | 20,450 | FAU Arena | 5,000 |
| Florida International | FIU Stadium** | 23,500 | Pharmed Arena | 6,000 |
| Louisiana-Lafayette | Cajun Field | 31,000 | Cajundome | 11,550 |
| Louisiana-Monroe | Malone Stadium | 30,427 | Fant-Ewing Coliseum | 7,085 |
| Middle Tennessee | Johnny "Red" Floyd Stadium | 31,000 | Murphy Center | 11,520 |
| New Orleans | Non-football school | N/A | Human Performance Center | 1,200 |
| North Texas | Fouts Field | 30,500 | UNT Coliseum | 10,040 |
| South Alabama | Ladd-Peebles Stadium*** | 40,646 | Mitchell Center | 10,000 |
| Troy | Movie Gallery Stadium | 30,000 | Trojan Arena | 4,000 |
| Western Kentucky | Houchens Industries - L. T. Smith Stadium**** | 17,500 | E.A. Diddle Arena | 8,300 |
Notes:
- Arkansas-Little Rock normally plays its home games on campus, but occasionally plays at Alltel Arena.
- New Orleans' normal home, Lakefront Arena, is unavailable due to damage from Hurricane Katrina.
- *At least one home game a year is played at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens (home of the NFL Miami Dolphins and NCAA Miami Hurricanes). FAU is constructing an on campus 30,000 seat stadium to open for their 2010 season.
- **Florida International University's FIU Stadium is currently undergoing expansions for an increased seating capacity to 45,000. The expansion is to be done in two separate phases, phase one to be finished for the Fall 2008 season and phase two by Fall 2010. The school also used the Miami Orange Bowl as its home stadium for the 2007 season.
- ***South Alabama will began a football team in 2009.
- ****Through the 2006 season, Western Kentucky was not a football member of the Sun Belt Conference, as it competed at the Division I FCS (formerly Division I-AA) level in the Gateway Football Conference. The football team is moving up to Division I FBS in 2007 and will join the conference in 2009; by that time, Smith Stadium's capacity will be expanded to around 22,000 seats.
| Season | Champion | Conference Record |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Middle Tennessee | 5-1 |
| North Texas* | 5-1 | |
| 2002 | North Texas | 6-0 |
| 2003 | North Texas | 7-0 |
| 2004 | North Texas | 7-0 |
| 2005 | Arkansas State** | 5-2 |
| Louisiana-Lafayette | 5-2 | |
| Louisiana-Monroe | 5-2 | |
| 2006 | Middle Tennessee | 6-1 |
| Troy*** | 6-1 | |
| 2007 | Troy | 6-1 |
| Florida Atlantic**** | 6-1 |
* North Texas won the conference's automatic bowl bid because it won the head-to-head game against Middle Tennessee. Also, North Texas had a losing overall record in 2001 and was not technically bowl-eligible, but the NCAA granted the team an exemption because it had won the conference. This is similar to what is granted to a basketball or baseball team which has a losing overall record but wins its conference tournament.
** Arkansas State won the conference's automatic bowl bid through a three-way tiebreaker.
*** Troy won the conference's automatic bowl bid through a tiebreaker by virtue of its head-to-head victory against Middle Tennessee, and Middle Tennessee earned a bid to the Motor City Bowl in Detroit.
**** Florida Atlantic won the conference's automatic bowl bid through a tiebreaker by virtue of its head-to-head victory against Troy.
| Rivalry | Sport | Significant Game | Trophy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida Atlantic - Florida International | All | Shula Bowl (football) | The Shula Award |
| UALR - Arkansas State | All | ||
| Louisiana-Lafayette - Louisiana-Monroe | All | Battle on the Bayou (football) | |
| Middle Tennessee - Troy | Football | Battle for the Palladium | The Palladium |
| Middle Tennessee - Western Kentucky | Basketball |
| Rivalry | Sport | Significant Game | Trophy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Kentucky - Western Kentucky | Football | Battle of the Bluegrass | |
| Florida International - University of Miami | All | ||
| Arkansas State - University of Memphis | All | ||
| North Texas - SMU | Football | Safeway Bowl |
The Sun Belt Conference sponsors intercollegiate competition in men’s baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s football, men’s and women’s golf, women’s soccer, women’s softball, women’s swimming and diving, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s indoor track and field, men’s and women’s outdoor track and field, and women’s volleyball. While the conference does not sponsor men's soccer, four schools do have teams, with Denver competing in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, Florida Atlantic in the Atlantic Soccer Conference, Florida International in Conference USA, and Western Kentucky in the Missouri Valley Conference.
- ^ WKU Regents Approve Move To Division 1-A Football. Western Kentucky University (2006-11-02). Retrieved on 2006-11-03.
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| Atlantic Coast Conference * · Big 12 Conference * · Big East Conference * · Big Ten Conference * · Conference USA · Mid-American Conference · Mountain West Conference · Pacific-10 Conference * · Southeastern Conference * · Sun Belt Conference · Western Athletic Conference · Independents |
| * Conference champion receives an automatic BCS bid |
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| Football | Arkansas State Indians • Florida Atlantic Owls • Florida International Golden Panthers • Louisiana–Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns • Louisiana–Monroe Warhawks • Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders & Lady Raiders • North Texas Mean Green • Troy Trojans |
| Non-football | Arkansas–Little Rock Trojans • Denver Pioneers • New Orleans Privateers & Lady Privateers • South Alabama Jaguars • Western Kentucky† Hilltoppers & Lady Toppers |
| † - Will join the conference for football in 2009 | |