NCAA Projections: Sun Belt Conference

The beginning of college football season is less than a month away. Beginning today, I will project and predict results for each of the 11 Football Bowl Subdivision conferences, plus independents.

Today, we begin with the Sun Belt Conference. The Sun Belt is traditionally the weakest of the FBS conferences. The conference chooses to play with the big boys, offering up to 85 scholarships, and playing multiple money games on the road at schools such as Florida and Georgia in order to pay for them. The schools would all rather play for a trip to the New Orleans Bowl in mid-December than for the Football Championship Series (1-AA) national championship. Occasionally, these teams are competitive with major programs in their scheduled mismatches.

The Sun Belt is the domain of the Men of Troy, Alabama. Troy looks to dominate the conference this year. The Trojans are defending conference champions, and are coming off an impressive win over Rice in last year's New Orleans Bowl. I project Troy as the only team in this conference to finish with an overall winning record. I also predict for the Trojans to execute a Friday night ambush of Oklahoma State in September, as the Cowboys visit Troy, Alabama.

The only other team in this conference from which I expect noise is Florida Atlantic. The Owls, coached by former Miami, Louisville and Oklahoma coach Howard Schnellenberger, play a murderer's row of a non-conference schedule, with trips to Florida, Oklahoma State, and Kentucky, and home games against Minnesota and South Florida. They won't get creamed in all of those games, and will bounce back to handle their Sun Belt foes, with the exception of Troy.

The rest of the conference will be way behind the frontrunners.

Predictions for the Sun Belt Conference:

Troy 9-3 7-0
Florida Atlantic 6-6 6-1
Louisiana-Monroe 5-7 4-3
Arkansas State 4-8 3-4
Middle Tennessee 4-8 3-4
North Texas 4-8 3-4
Louisiana-Lafayette 2-10 1-6
Florida International 1-11 1-6