SBC will hold at 11 and perhaps expand to 12 after 2014 (I think). SBC is working to establish a third bowl in Little Rock, which has strong support within the Little Rock community.

With CUSA up to 14 teams and bowl eligible teams in MAC available, no doubt SBC ends up with a couple more bowls in addition to GoDaddy and New Orleans.

SBC is perhaps the most important conference of the NonBCS group as the SBC provides stability for all other four NonBCS conferences at they get raided. SBC provides (1) A conference platform for its current members to succeed, (2) An opening for those school moving up to IA from IAA, and (3) stability for the other 4 NonBCS conferences. With new technologies and broadcast platforms emerging, no doubt SBC will move more into the public eye into the future. For the time being, SBC, like CUSA, needs to establish its identity in the general sports market.

It is my understanding that Idaho and NMSU are football only....with Arkansas-Little Rock and University of Texas-Arlington taking their place for Olympic sports. The divisions below are for football. NMSU and Idaho are in the WAC for Olympic sports.

SBC/WESTERN DIVISION:
Louisiana 8-4
Arkansas State 7-5
ULM 6-6
Texas State 6-6
New Mexico State 2-10 (Football only)
Idaho 1-11 (Football only)

SBC/EASTERN DIVISION:
Georgia Southern 7-4
Troy 6-6
South Alabama 6-6
Georgia State 0-12
Appalachian State 3-9
James Madison???

You lost me after the "The Sun Belt is looking to establish a bowl in Little Rock which has great support in the Little Rock Community"

One. We have three bowls. We wanted Little Rock as a fourth. Two. The city of Little Rock does not want a bowl game. The city has a strange tradition of turning down things that could help them. They were the originally planned site of Fed Ex, but the city said no thanks. Little Rock will never establish a bowl because the community simply doesn't care enough about sports outside of the Razorbacks to make an impact.

SBC is not run very well. We've got a lot going for us, but we blew a few chances to really make a name for ourselves in the past few years because our commissioner at the time was an idiot. We're improving, but our ultimate goal is to not provide stability for other leagues. We'd rather steal teams from those other leagues. Its just our conference office seems to like what we provide now.

I love the irony that the conference called the "sunbelt" did not have enough bowls for all its bowl eligible teams.

This would be a great opportunity for the sunbelt to sponser its own bowl in one of its own stadiums. Just call it the sunbelt bowl and invite the 2 best teams that did not get invited to any other bowl, and have them play in one of the teams home stadiums in mid Decemeber.

I agree..never thought of the Sunbelt importance for stability as the "tooth-cutter" conference for FCS move-ups (although CUSA did everything it could to try and unseat that distinction) and homeless children (Idaho and NMSU). True though. I guess that would be the logic behind CUSA not raiding the Sunbelt in the last round. It seems that the Sunbelt could arrange a bowl with the MAC that also had bowl eligible teams left out.

(12-09-2013 03:02 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  You lost me after the "The Sun Belt is looking to establish a bowl in Little Rock which has great support in the Little Rock Community"

One. We have three bowls. We wanted Little Rock as a fourth. Two. The city of Little Rock does not want a bowl game. The city has a strange tradition of turning down things that could help them. They were the originally planned site of Fed Ex, but the city said no thanks. Little Rock will never establish a bowl because the community simply doesn't care enough about sports outside of the Razorbacks to make an impact.

SBC is not run very well. We've got a lot going for us, but we blew a few chances to really make a name for ourselves in the past few years because our commissioner at the time was an idiot. We're improving, but our ultimate goal is to not provide stability for other leagues. We'd rather steal teams from those other leagues. Its just our conference office seems to like what we provide now.

Why not a fourth SBC bowl?

To put a twist to it, why not play the SBC Conference Championship after Christmas in Little Rock? This would give SBC an after Xmas "bowl" if you will, and open up slots for five SBC teams following conference play. I have always contended that, for the NonBCS conferences, a Conference Championship game played after Xmas is more meaningful than any other bowl that could be arranged. And it would be after Xmas, which most NonBCS bowls are not.

Given the hunger for sports programming, yes, SBC does have a lot of going its way.

Little Rock Bowl

(12-09-2013 04:10 PM)Tallgrass Wrote:  

(12-09-2013 03:02 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  You lost me after the "The Sun Belt is looking to establish a bowl in Little Rock which has great support in the Little Rock Community"

One. We have three bowls. We wanted Little Rock as a fourth. Two. The city of Little Rock does not want a bowl game. The city has a strange tradition of turning down things that could help them. They were the originally planned site of Fed Ex, but the city said no thanks. Little Rock will never establish a bowl because the community simply doesn't care enough about sports outside of the Razorbacks to make an impact.

SBC is not run very well. We've got a lot going for us, but we blew a few chances to really make a name for ourselves in the past few years because our commissioner at the time was an idiot. We're improving, but our ultimate goal is to not provide stability for other leagues. We'd rather steal teams from those other leagues. Its just our conference office seems to like what we provide now.

Why not a fourth SBC bowl?

Little Rock Bowl

That article is 6 months old. The Bowl fell apart sometime later.

(12-09-2013 04:12 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(12-09-2013 04:10 PM)Tallgrass Wrote:  

(12-09-2013 03:02 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  You lost me after the "The Sun Belt is looking to establish a bowl in Little Rock which has great support in the Little Rock Community"

One. We have three bowls. We wanted Little Rock as a fourth. Two. The city of Little Rock does not want a bowl game. The city has a strange tradition of turning down things that could help them. They were the originally planned site of Fed Ex, but the city said no thanks. Little Rock will never establish a bowl because the community simply doesn't care enough about sports outside of the Razorbacks to make an impact.

Perhaps that happened because of all the other bowl developments...and SBC is not up to 12 teams yet. It appears the Hawaii Bowl is going to become a PAC/MWC bowl....and so SBC has an opportunity to set up a bowl vs AAC and CUSA as well as MAC.

SBC is not run very well. We've got a lot going for us, but we blew a few chances to really make a name for ourselves in the past few years because our commissioner at the time was an idiot. We're improving, but our ultimate goal is to not provide stability for other leagues. We'd rather steal teams from those other leagues. Its just our conference office seems to like what we provide now.

Why not a fourth SBC bowl?

Little Rock Bowl

That article is 6 months old. The Bowl fell apart sometime later.

As others have mentioned, we have the Camellia Bowl in Montgomery, AL coming online next year for Bowl #3 and we we will be part of the Bahama bowl along with AAC and CUSA.

Another western bowl would be nice. Dallas-Fort Woth has the Cotton, Heart of Dallas, and Armed Forces. Houston just has the Texas Bowl and San Antonio has the Alamo. Maybe a new game in one of those cities or in Austin-San Marcos could work.

As for the league, expansion is a problem because we stretch across multiple regions. If you believe them SBC board, the Western Schools wanted New Mexico State as a full member. The Eastern schools didn't want to travel out there. Instead they want to push for a Virginia school like James Madison.

The teeth-cutting conference may be apt but it doesn't buy us any favor with Bowl committees as this year proved.

(12-09-2013 06:08 PM)chrisattsu Wrote:  As others have mentioned, we have the Camellia Bowl in Montgomery, AL coming online next year for Bowl #3 and we we will be part of the Bahama bowl along with AAC and CUSA.

Another western bowl would be nice. Dallas-Fort Woth has the Cotton, Heart of Dallas, and Armed Forces. Houston just has the Texas Bowl and San Antonio has the Alamo. Maybe a new game in one of those cities or in Austin-San Marcos could work.

As for the league, expansion is a problem because we stretch across multiple regions. If you believe them SBC board, the Western Schools wanted New Mexico State as a full member. The Eastern schools didn't want to travel out there. Instead they want to push for a Virginia school like James Madison.

The teeth-cutting conference may be apt but it doesn't buy us any favor with Bowl committees as this year proved.

I actually think that could work. Twenty minutes from Austin and 45 minutes from San Antonio---there's no reason a G-5 bowl in a very nice Texas State facility woudn't work just fine.

There are 11 FBS programs in the state---I'm sure there's room for one more bowl in the state. This year 7 Texas schools are going bowling ( Rice, Texas, Houston, N Tx, Baylor, A&M, and Tech) and 2 other programs were bowl qualified--but had no invite (UTSA/transitional and Texas State). In other words, nine of 11 Texas FBS programs finished the season bowl qualified.

Agreed. 33, 000 would be a nice size facility, the weather is usually pretty good, and the draw of Austin could bring in out of towners

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(12-09-2013 07:51 PM)chrisattsu Wrote:  Agreed. 33, 000 would be a nice size facility, the weather is usually pretty good, and the draw of Austin could bring in out of towners

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This is a great idea, with the New Camellia Bowl and Bahamas Bowl and Boca Raton Bowls in the East a Texas Bowl would make perfect sense. The Sun Belt could host and like the Bahamas or Boca Raton Bowls the MAC, CUSA, American and MW could rotate through the second spot.