https://sunbeltsports.org/news/2023/1/10...p-era.aspx

NEW ORLEANS — Following Bowl Season, the Sun Belt Conference continues to pace the FBS with a .614 bowl winning percentage since the dawn of the College Football Playoff (CFP) era in 2014.

The 2022 campaign—the conference’s first as a 14-team football league—was a banner year for the Sun Belt, which defeated four autonomy five programs, hosted ESPN’s College GameDay for the second time in conference history and produced a conference-record seven Bowl Season participants—tied for the most among non-autonomy conferences and trailing only the SEC, ACC, Big Ten and Big 12.

Three of the conference’s victories over autonomy five programs came on a statement Saturday in Week 2, when the Sun Belt became the first non-autonomy conference to knock off multiple Top 10-ranked opponents on the same day in nearly two decades (Sept. 20, 2003).

On the heels of these victories, the conference launched its Sun Belt Rising campaign, which featured in Times Square leading into College GameDay, Los Angeles during CFP week, each of the conference’s seven bowl markets during Bowl Season, and each of the conference’s 14 institutional markets during the 2022 campaign.

The conference was home to the last two unbeaten teams and the last one-loss team from a non-autonomy conference this season and was the lone non-autonomy conference to have multiple teams reach 10 wins during the regular season. No. 24 Troy (12-2) finished the year as 1-of-2 two-loss teams from non-autonomy conferences, alongside New Year’s Six representative No. 16 Tulane (12-2).

The Hercules Tires Sun Belt Football Championship Game—which Troy won 45-26 over Coastal Carolina to claim its conference record seventh Sun Belt title—was the lone conference championship game to feature a pair of teams with two-or-fewer losses this season. Sun Belt champion and No. 24-ranked Troy also proved victorious in the Duluth Trading Cure Bowl—the only bowl game to feature a pair of conference champions this season—defeating Conference USA champion and No. 25 UTSA, 18-12.

Southern Miss and Marshall joined Troy in earning bowl championships this season. The Golden Eagles defeated Rice, 38-24, in the LendingTree Bowl, while the Thundering Herd bested UConn, 28-14, in the Myrtle Beach Bowl. The win was the first bowl victory since 2016 for Southern Miss and since 2018 for Marshall.

Southern Miss sophomore running back Frank Gore Jr., Southern Miss senior linebacker Daylen Gill and Troy junior bandit Richard Jibunor were named to the AP All-Bowl Team for their Bowl Season performances. The Sun Belt paced all non-autonomy conference with three players on the postseason team.

In addition to its three bowl champions, the Sun Belt boasted multiple 10-win teams—No. 24 Troy (12-2) and South Alabama (10-3)—for the fifth-straight season and had a team listed in the final CFP rankings for the fourth-straight year.

Twenty-six Sun Belt student-athletes were recognized as All-Americans following the 2022 season, a 53 percent increase in representation over 2021. The group combined to earn 53 All-America honors, a 26 percent increase over the Sun Belt total following the 2021 campaign.

Since 2020, just 10 FBS programs have won more than 75 percent of their games. With two of those programs hailing from the Sun Belt—Coastal Carolina (31-7, .816) and Louisiana (29-9, .763)—the conference boasts as many teams with a .750 winning percentage over the three-year span as the SEC (2) and Big Ten (2) and more than any other conference.

That's pretty cool, even if I am kind of tired of the term non-autonomy after reading it.

(01-12-2023 05:56 PM)Pounce FTW Wrote:  That's pretty cool, even if I am kind of tired of the term non-autonomy after reading it.

yeah ... ranks right up there with 'that' word used to describe we beat them, they beat you, we beat you, bs... see, I've already forgotton 'that' word....













#transitory