Sun Belt Conference

The Sun Belt Conference is a college athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA’s Division I since 1976. The Sun Belt is a far-flung conference, with member institutions distributed primarily across the southern latitudes of the United States in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.

Football was not sponsored by the Sun Belt Conference until 2001, when seven new members (Arkansas State, Idaho, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Middle Tennessee State, New Mexico State, and North Texas) aligned with the conference to play a Division I-A football schedule. Utah State became a football-playing member in 2003.

Not only is the Sun Belt the newest of the Division I-A football conferences, it is also arguably the weakest, having won just 15 (14 percent) of 105 non-conference games against Division I-A opponents and 7 (37 percent) of 19 games against Division I-AA opponents during the 2001-2003 regular seasons. It has one bowl tie-in, the New Orleans Bowl, which currently pits the Sun Belt champion against an agreed-upon school from Conference USA.

Table of contents

1 Current members (and year of membership, where known) 2 Sports 3 External link

Current members (and year of membership, where known)

(^ denotes football-playing member)

• Arkansas State University (2001)^
• Florida International University [basketball-only member (see notes)]
• Middle Tennessee State University (2001)^
• New Mexico State University (2001)^ [leaving for the WAC in 2005]
• University of Arkansas, Little Rock [basketball-only member]
• University of Denver [basketball-only member]
• University of Idaho (2001)^ [football-only member (see notes}]
• University of Louisiana, Lafayette (2001)^
• University of Louisiana, Monroe (2001)^ [football-only member]
• University of New Orleans [basketball-only member]
• University of North Texas (2001)^
• University of South Alabama [basketball-only member]
• Utah State University (2001)^ [leaving for the WAC in 2005]
• Western Kentucky University [non-football member]

Troy State University will join the Sun Belt in 2004.

Florida Atlantic University will join the Sun Belt for football in 2004, with its other sports to follow later.

The University of Idaho will compete in the Sun Belt in all sports starting in 2005.

Florida International University is transitioning its football team from Division I-AA to Division I-A, and expects to play in the Sun Belt when it completes the transition in 2006.

Sports

The Sun Belt Conference sponsors intercollegiate competition in men’s baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s football, men’s and women’s golf, women’s soccer, women’s softball, 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.

External link

• Sun Belt Conference