Benson: Sun Belt “on the rise” heading into 2018 football season

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NEW ORLEANS – Football season in Louisiana kicked off Monday morning at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

The Saints don’t report until Wednesday, LSU and Tulane start practicing about a week and a half later and the high schools start later next month. But the only football conference based in New Orleans – the Sun Belt, which features Louisiana schools in UL-Lafayette and UL-Monroe and sends its champion to the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl – held its annual Media Day.

The Sun Belt’s 18th season, which begins when UL-Monroe hosts Southeastern Louisiana on Aug. 30 – will be the first to feature divisional play and a conference championship game at the home of the division champion with the highest conference winning percentage. UL-Monroe was picked second and UL-Lafayette fourth in the West Division by the 10 Sun Belt Coaches. Arkansas State was picked to win the West, and Appalachian State, 2017 co-champion with Troy, was picked to win the East.

“The Sun Belt is on the rise,” Commissioner Karl Benson said in his state of the Sun Belt address, which focused on the league’s stabilization and growth since a remaking after five schools bolted for Conference USA in 2014.

Benson cited an “economic windfall” for the Sun Belt in the four years since the institution of the College Football Playoff as a prime factor in the league increasing its revenue sharing among its members by nearly 10 fold since 2014.

That summer the league adopted the slogan “Together We Rise” as it was making the transition from the departure of Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Middle Tennessee, North Texas and Western Kentucky to Conference USA. Those schools were gradually replaced by Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia State, Georgia Southern and Texas State.

“We have lived up to that slogan,” Benson said, citing that the Sun Belt has risen by “every indicator” – most notably attendance, revenue distribution and quality of facilities.

The latest indicator of the league’s growth is the establishment of the conference championship game as the Sun Belt became the last FBS league to adopt a title game.

The New Orleans Bowl Dec. 15 in the Dome can select the champion as it holds the first choice of conference teams.

That’s one of five bowl games with which the Sun Belt has a tie-in. The others are the Dollar General Bowl (Mobile, Ala.), the Raycom Camellia Bowl (Montgomery, Ala.), the AutoNation Cure Bowl (Orlando) and the NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl (Tucson, Ariz.).

Benson said the Sun Belt’s goal this year and every year is for its champion to secure the Group of Five slot in a New Year’s Six Bowl – either the Cotton, Fiesta or Peach.

He cited the Sun Belt’s streamlined scheduling template and its recent bowl success as factors making that a realistic goal. His model for league schools is to have non-conference schedules featuring one FBS opponent, two Group of Five opponents and one FCS opponent.

In the last four years, Sun Belt teams are 11-7 in bowl games, the highest winning percentage of any league.

The league coaches think UL-Monroe has better chance of reaching bowl this season than UL-Lafayette does. The Warhawks were 4-8 last season and lost just two players off the depth chart of an offense that scored more than 50 points four times.

“I thought we made good progress (on offense) last year,” third-year head coach Matt Viator told Crescent City Sports. “We have to continue to gain confidence on defense. We’ve got to turn the corner defensively, and I think we have the players to do that.”

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The Ragin’ Cajuns were 5-7 a year ago and fired head coach Mark Hudspeth after seven seasons. He was replaced by Billy Napier, who has been an assistant at Clemson, South Carolina State, Alabama, Colorado State and Arizona State.

“We have lots of unknowns,” Napier said. “We have to develop a personality, but we have a group of players that are hungry, driven and anxious to prove themselves.”

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Napier said that landing former SLU head coach Ron Roberts as his defensive coordinator was “one heck of a coup.”

UL-Monroe and UL-Lafayette each had one player selected to the preseason all-conference first team by the coaches and selected members of the media. The Warhawks were represented by senior Marcus Green, who was chosen as a wide receiver and the return specialist, and the Cajuns were represented by junior offensive lineman Kevin Dotson.