Sun Belt Conference

Sun Belt Conference
Established: 1976
NCAA	Division I FBS
Members	13
Sports fielded	19 (men's: 9; women's: 10)
Region	Southern United States
Headquarters	New Orleans, Louisiana
Commissioner	Wright Waters (since 1999)
Website	http://www.sunbeltsports.org/
Locations

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. It has 13 universities and colleges.

History

The Sun Belt Conference was founded on August 4, 1976 with New Orleans, South Alabama, Georgia State, Jacksonville, North Carolina-Charlotte and South Florida. Over the next ten years the conference would add Western Kentucky, Old Dominion, UAB, and Virginia Commonwealth. Also, New Orleans was forced out of the league in 1980 due to its small on-campus gymnasium that the Conference did not deem suitable for Conference competition. UNO competed as an independent before joining the newly-formed American South Conference in 1987.

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 Louisiana-Lafayette), Texas-Pan American, New Orleans, Lamar, and Central Florida. UCF left the league following the 1991-92 academic year. Lamar, Texas-Pan American and Jacksonville departed at the end of the 1997-98 academic year. Florida International joined in 1998, and Denver was added in 1999. Louisiana Tech departed after the 2000-01 academic year.

The conference did not sponsor football until 2001, when the league added former Big West Conference members New Mexico State and North Texas and then-independent Middle Tennessee State as full members and added independent Louisiana-Monroe (ULM) and Big West member Idaho as "football only" members. Another Big West school, Utah State, was added as a "football only" member in 2003, then departed in 2005 with Idaho and New Mexico State for the WAC.

In 2005, Troy joined the conference. In 2006, Louisiana-Monroe joined the conference as a member in all sports, and Florida Atlantic joined the conference.

Membership history timeline

Future

Florida International joined the league for football, and ULM and Florida Atlantic joined the league as a member in all sports on July 1, 2005. Western Kentucky joined 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] South Alabama will begin fielding a football team in 2009, with the intention of moving up to full FBS status by 2013.

As of November 11, 2009, UNO has announced they are investigating a move from Division I to the NCAA's Division III, with a decision expected in early 2010.

Organization

The Sun Belt 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.

Commissioners

• Vic Bubas (1976–1990)
• Jim Lessig (1990–1991)
• Craig Thompson (1991–1998)
• Wright Waters (1999–present)

In addition to the four Sun Belt commissioners, three future league leaders served on the Sun Belt staff prior to becoming conference commissioners, including Doug Elgin (Missouri Valley), John Iamarino (Northeast, Southern) and Tom Burnett (Southland).

Current members

Locations of current Sun Belt Conference full member institutions.

Conference facilities

Notes:

• Arkansas-Little Rock normally plays its home games on campus, but occasionally plays at Alltel Arena.
• *At least one home game a year is played at LandShark Stadium in Miami Gardens (home of the NFL Miami Dolphins and NCAA Miami Hurricanes). FAU is constructing an on campus 30,000 seat stadium (FAU 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 begin a football team in 2009, with its first year of Sun Belt play in 2013.

Sports

Football

Champions by year:

* 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.

New Orleans Chancellor Ryan has put the UNO Privateers Football "club " team on the table to eventually gain varsity level (NCAA) status.

Bowl affiliates

Basketball

See also:

• List of Sun Belt Conference Men's Basketball Tournament Locations

Baseball

The Sun Belt Conference has sponsored an annual baseball tournament to determine the conference winner since 1978. South Alabama has (by far) won the most championships, at 11.

Other Sports

Besides football, basketball, and baseball, the Sun Belt Conference sponsors intercollegiate competition in men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s golf, women’s soccer, women’s softball, men's and 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. Denver, the only Sun Belt member school with a varsity ice hockey program, is also a member of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.

Rivalries

Intraconference rivalries

Interconference rivalries

Former Members

• Georgia State - 1976-1981 (now in the CAA)
• Jacksonville - 1976-1998 (now in the Atlantic Sun Conference)
• Charlotte - 1976-1991 (now in the A-10)
• South Florida - 1976-1991 (now in the Big East)
• UAB - 1979-1991 (now in Conference USA)
• Virginia Commonwealth - 1979-1991 (now in the CAA)
• Old Dominion - 1982-1991 (now in the CAA)
• UCF - 1991-1992 (now in Conference USA)
• Lamar - 1991-1998 (now in the Southland Conference)
• Texas-Pan American - 1991-1998
• Louisiana Tech - 1991-2001 (now in the WAC)
• New Mexico State - 2001-2005 (now in the WAC)
• Idaho (football only) - 2001-2005 (now in the WAC)
• Utah State (football only) - 2003-2005 (Now in the WAC)

Affiliate Members

Missouri State, Southern Illinois, University of Evansville, Eastern Michigan University, Ball State University, the University at Buffalo and Miami University began competing in the Mid-American Conference in men's swimming and diving, in 2008 up to 2015.

See also

• Sun Belt Conference Baseball Tournament

External links

• Sun Belt Conference

Notes and references