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ULM Joining the Sun Belt Conference
Indians to be a member in all sports by 2006-07 season
July 16th, 2004
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NEW ORLEANS – The University of Louisiana at Monroe has accepted an invitation of full membership into the Sun Belt Conference, Dr. Sidney McPhee, president of the Sun Belt Conference announced today. The Indians have been an affiliate member of the Sun Belt in football and women’s swimming & diving since 2001. ULM will join the league in all sports for the 2006-07 season.
"The chief executive officers and Executive Committee of the Sun Belt Conference are pleased to announce the addition of the University of Louisiana at Monroe", said McPhee. "Bringing in the whole ULM athletics family under the Sun Belt umbrella is the last piece to complete our expansion puzzle and bring more regional stability to the league."
Louisiana-Monroe is currently a member of the Southland Conference. ULM is a multipurpose, state-assisted institution of higher education which offers high quality academic and experiential opportunities to meet the academic, cultural, vocational, social, and personal needs of undergraduate, graduate and continuing education students. Today, ULM claims more than 40,000 graduates and an annual enrollment of approximately 10,000 students, including more than 900 graduate students.
ULM's campus is located in the eastern part of Monroe, a city whose metropolitan area population exceeds 100,000. Beautiful Bayou DeSiard flows through the 238 acre, tree-shaded site.
The Indians sponsor 17 sports, all of which will compete in the Sun Belt Conference. ULM sported a 55 percent graduation rate of its student-athletes in the NCAA’s 2003 report, a rate of 26 percent higher than the student body during the same period.
The Indian football program is a founding member of Sun Belt Conference football. ULM is the only football program in the league to blemish three-time champion North Texas’ nearly perfect conference record over the past three years. Malone Stadium was the site of the first official conference game among Sun Belt schools on Sept. 22, 2001.
Other ULM athletics highlights from the 2003-04 season:
Baseball was the Southland Conference Tournament runner-up; Women’s Basketball advanced to the semifinals of the Southland Conference Tournament; Softball was named one of the Top 50 all-time programs by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association in the fall of 2003; Women’s Swimming & Diving won its first-ever Sun Belt Conference individual championships - freshman Zita Zalia won the 100 and 200 butterfly events; Men’s Golf won the Southland Conference Tournament and advanced to the NCAA West Regional; Women’s soccer defender Vicki Lamb earned an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and will attend physical therapy school at Duke University; Freshman Tim Waldron represented ULM at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field championships in Austin, Texas in the men’s triple jump.
Monroe, La., is located on Interstate 20 just 100 miles east of Shreveport and 120 west of Jackson, Miss. Monroe is birthplace of Delta Airlines and the site of the first Coca-Cola bottling plant. Monroe is within 525 miles of nine Sun Belt members – Arkansas-Little Rock (181 miles); Arkansas State (283); Louisiana-Lafayette (186); Middle Tennessee (479); New Orleans (259); North Texas (284); South Alabama (310); Troy (405); and Western Kentucky (519).
THIS IS THE SUN BELT CONFERENCE
The Sun Belt Conference is entering its 29th year of existence. In the 2003-04 NCAA RPI ratings, the league ranked among the top 10 in women’s basketball and baseball.
Current full-time members of the Sun Belt Conference are the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Arkansas State University, the University of Denver, Florida International University, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Middle Tennessee State University, New Mexico State University (leaving in 2005), the University of New Orleans, the University of North Texas, the University of South Alabama, and Western Kentucky University. The University of Idaho and Utah State University are currently football-only members and will both be leaving after the 2004 football season. Troy University is joining the league in football in 2004 and all sports in 2005-06. Florida Atlantic University will be joining the league in men’s and women’s swimming & diving in the 2004-05 season with I-A football to follow in 2005. FAU is scheduled to be a full member by the 2006-07 season.
The Sun Belt began play as a Division I-A football conference in 2001, and its champion plays in the annual New Orleans Bowl at the Louisiana Superdome. This year’s game, the first of the 2004-05 bowl season, will be played Tuesday, Dec. 14, live on ESPN2, and will feature the Sun Belt champion against a representative from Conference USA. In just three short years, the new kid on the block among IA college football leagues has already won a bowl game, when North Texas defeated Conference USA co-champion Cincinnati, 24-19 in 2002.
The league also has long-term agreements with ESPN and ESPN Regional Television for coverage of Sun Belt football, and men’s and women’s basketball, through 2007-08. Included in the deal is increased national exposures of Sun Belt football teams on ESPN and ESPN2 beginning with the 2004 season. The Sun Belt Conference was the first conference to sign a long-term contract with ESPN in 1979, and has the longest running broadcast relationship with the network of any conference, 24 consecutive years. The league’s first nationally-televised football game on Nov. 25, 2003, featuring North Texas at New Mexico State on ESPN2, received an 0.86 rating, a competitive rating in the same time slot versus games featuring BCS conferences.
In men’s basketball, the Sun Belt Conference sent a team to the Final Four in its first-year of play (Charlotte in 1977) and became known as an innovator in its early stages by pioneering the shot clock and three-point field goal, standards which are followed throughout college basketball today.
Sun Belt members have also made tremendous strides in women’s basketball. The league made its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 1983 when former member Old Dominion advanced to the national semifinals against then-future member Louisiana Tech. ODU continued to set the tone by winning the National Championship in 1985. Since then as many as three teams have advanced to the NCAA Tournament each season with Western Kentucky and former member Louisiana Tech leading the way.
The Sun Belt Conference annually ranks among the nation’s top conferences in the country in baseball. In 16 straight seasons, the league has placed multiple teams in the NCAA Tournament — including four in 2000 and 2002. In 2000, Louisiana-Lafayette made it to the NCAA College World Series, where the Ragin’ Cajuns finished tied for third after claiming two wins.
The sport that is quickly garnering national attention for the league is softball. In just its fourth year of sponsorship, the league was represented in the Women’s College World Series in 2003 when Louisiana-Lafayette reached Oklahoma City. Even with just five schools competing in the sport, two reached the 2003 NCAA Tournament — UL Lafayette and Florida International. With the addition of FAU, ULM and Troy, softball will expand to eight.
Women’s soccer has also made great strides in four seasons with Denver advancing to the NCAA Tournament for three consecutive seasons.
In 2003, Middle Tennessee’s Mardy Scales won an NCAA championship in the men’s outdoor 100-meter dash, giving the league its second national track & field champion in four years. Former Sun Belt Conference Student Athlete of the Year David Kimani of South Alabama was a three-time national champion distance runner in the 1999-2000 season.
The Sun Belt Conference is also very involved with NCAA Championships, serving as the co-host of the 2002 NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championships and the 2003 NCAA Men’s Final Four in New Orleans. The Sun Belt has been headquartered in the New Orleans area since 1991, moving to its current downtown location in 2000.
Membership for 2006-07 (13 full members; 8 I-A football members)
Full Member
Arkansas-Little Rock (1991-present); Arkansas State (1991-present); Denver (1999-present); Florida Atlantic (swimming & diving in 2004; football in 2005; full member in 2006) ; Florida International (1998-present); Louisiana-Lafayette (1991-present); Louisiana-Monroe (fb since 2001; women’s swimming& diving since 2002; men’s swimming & diving in 2004; full member in 2006); Middle Tennessee (2000-present); New Orleans (1976-80; 1991-present); North Texas (2000-present); South Alabama (charter member; 1976-present); Troy (football in 2004; full member in 2005); Western Kentucky (1982-present)
Former Members (by 2006; years of membership)
Central Florida (1991-92); Georgia State (1976-81); *Idaho (Football, 2001-04); Jacksonville (1976-98); Lamar (1991-98); Louisiana Tech (1991-2001); New Mexico State (2000-05); UNC Charlotte (1976-91); Old Dominion (1982-1991); South Florida (1976-91); Texas-Pan American (1991-98); UAB (1979-91); *Utah State (Football, 2003-04); *Vanderbilt (Men’s soccer, 1995); Virginia Commonwealth (1979-91)
*=affiliate member
Championship Sports
Men’s Sports (first season; 9 sports)
Baseball (1978); Basketball (1976-77); Cross Country (1978); Football (2001); Golf (1977); Swimming & Diving (2004-05); Tennis (1977); Indoor Track & Field (1992); Outdoor Track & Field (1992)
Women’s Sports (first season; 10 sports)
Basketball (1983); Cross Country (1978); Golf (1990); Soccer (2000); Softball (2000); Swimming & Diving (2001); Tennis (1984); Indoor Track & Field (1992); Outdoor Track & Field (1992); Volleyball (1983)
Discontinued Sports
Men’s Soccer (1976-1996)
The Vic Bubas Cup (All Sports Award; formerly The Commissioner’s Cup)
1977 Jacksonville
1978 South Florida
1979 South Florida
1980 South Florida
1981 South Florida
1982 South Florida
1983 Old Dominion
1984 South Florida
1985 South Florida
1986 South Florida
1987 Western Kentucky
1988 South Alabama
1989 South Alabama
1990 South Florida
1991 South Alabama
1992 South Alabama
1993 South Alabama
1994 South Alabama
1995 Arkansas State
1996 South Alabama
1997 South Alabama
1998 Arkansas State
1999 South Alabama
2000 South Alabama
2001 Middle Tennessee
2002 Western Kentucky
2003 Western Kentucky
2004 Middle Tennessee
Carnegie Classification of Sun Belt members
(2000 rankings)
Doctoral/Research - Extensive: Denver, Florida International, North Texas
Doctoral/Research - Intensive: Arkansas-Little Rock, Florida Atlantic, Louisiana-Lafayette, Middle Tennessee, New Orleans, South Alabama
Master’s I: Arkansas State, Louisiana-Monroe, Troy, Western Kentucky
This is the University of Louisiana at Monroe
Quick Facts
Location: Monroe, La.
Founded: 1931
Enrollment: 8,563
Nickname: Indians
Colors: Maroon and Gold
President: Dr. James Cofer
Athletics Director: Bobby Staub
Football Stadium: Malone Stadium (30,427)
Basketball Arena: Fant-Ewing Coliseum (7,085)
Conference Sponsored Sports
Men – baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, swimming & diving, indoor and outdoor track & fieldWomen – basketball, cross country, soccer, swimming & diving, softball, tennis, indoor and outdoor track & field, volleyball
University Website -
http://www.ulm.edu
Athletics Website -
http://www.ulmathletics.com
What you may not know about Louisiana-Monroe...
• ULM is the site of the Louisiana Small Business Development Center, which presents nearly 80 separate training activities to over 1,300 participants each year.
• ULM’s bachelor’s program in pharmacy is the second-largest in the South and sixth-largest in the nation. The Louisiana Drug and Poison Information Center is located in ULM’s School of Pharmacy and takes over 85,000 calls per year.
• The Agricultural Aviation program was the first and is only one of two of its kind in the nation.
• ULM’s School of Construction was the first in the nation to become accredited.
• Some alumni you may have heard of... country music superstar Tim McGraw; ESPN and CBS college football studio host Tim Brando; Major League Baseball players Chuck Finley and Ben Sheets; and NFL quarterbacks Doug Pederson and Stan Humphries. Purdue University women’s basketball coach Kristi Curry is a ULM graduate.
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It finally happened: ULM is in for all sports
