Sun Belt Mid-Season Power Rankings
Article By: With half the season in the books, we are ready to debut out Sun Belt Power Rankings to showcase an under the radar league that is going to put up some big-time highlights down the stretch. We've got a three-way battle brewing in the Sun Belt West that may come down to a game between two undefeated teams in Week 14. This is something for the national media to monitor as the season keeps unfolding as it would be tough to keep Game Day away from such a rare feat.
14. Coastal Carolina (1-3 overall, 0-0 SBCE) – Lonely, I am so lonely, I have nobody, to coach my team.
13. Georgia State (2-1 overall, 2-1 SBCE) – We barely knew you old Georgia State coach. The Panthers slide into this spot, despite the team’s record, due to being in-between coaches. There are already two wins in conference so the new coach, Grayson, can make a big jump up in the rankings during the next block if he were to keep the wins coming. This will be one to watch going forward.
12. Old Dominion (0-5 overall, 0-2 SBCE) – They play each game as the best dressed team in the SBC. There are no questions whose uniform game is most on point in the league. Unfortunately, look good, play good has not translated to the win column so far with the Monarch this season. They still have games left against Coastal, James Madison, Arkansas State and Georgia Southern that will give them opportunities to shake up the rankings a bit before the season ends.
11. James Madison (0-5 overall, 0-2 SBCE) - No one has faced a more difficult schedule to this point than James Madison. Coach mcx scheduled extremely aggressive OOC and lost all three games as expected. In conference, he has already played Louisiana Monroe and almost came away with a win there. He has the easiest schedule on paper going forward now that he is past the gauntlet so the opportunity to win more games is on the horizon. Can he pull together a complete game and get his team’s mindset back on track after the first half of the year is the biggest question going forward.
10. Arkansas State (1-4 overall, 0-2 SBCW) – Arkansas State’s schedule thus far has been the second most difficult at this point in the season behind James Madison. They’ve played two ranked teams and two of the top teams in the West Division. While they have lost all four, the road opens in front of them as well with games that will be more favorable. As with JMU, if they can get back on track and keep a positive vibe in the program, we can see them making noise in the West before the season ends. Coach Dak is always steady during his NDL tenure, so we expect the wins to start to stack in the win column as he rounds out the season.
9. Texas State (1-5 overall, 1-1 SBCW) – Texas Sate was impressive this block in putting up a battle against his son who leads Boston College. Our question however afterwards was the close game motivated by family rivalry or was it a sign of the tide turning for the Bobcats who were winless to that point? Their follow up game was their first conference win against Old Dominion, so we like what we have seen so far. If they can keep that momentum going into the next block, we can see them moving up the rankings even more.
8. Georgia Southern (2-6 overall, 1-3 SBCE) – The Eagles went 1-2 in their most recent Sun Belt games with losses to South Alabama and Marshall and a win against James Madison. They’re trending in the middle of the league by winning the games they should and losing those that they are the underdog in. There’s talent on this team but the schedule does them no favors going forward as they still have games against Troy and Appalachian State in the coming weeks. It will be tough to make a bowl game unless they can pull both those upsets off.
7. Southern Miss (2-2 overall, 0-1 SBCW) – Southern Miss has battled to the end against Louisiana and Charlotte in early games this season. Both of those teams have looked good this year, so it is a testament to the abilities of the Eagles. However, a blowout loss to Kent State lands them in this spot during our initial rankings. We need to see more consistency from the Eagles in league play before we can make an accurate assessment on where they sit in the rankings.
6. South Alabama (2-5 overall, 2-3 SBCW) – Another new coach to the SBC who has started out 2-2 out of the gate in the NDL. He’s beaten two teams ranked below him and two teams ranked above him, so this feels like a nice landing spot for the Jaguars so far. The next block features games against Illinois and Louisiana so there is the ability to make some noise and have people take notice of his skills.
5. Appalachian State (3-4 overall, 1-2 SBCE) – The Mountaineers have faced a difficult schedule thus far playing against undefeated UConn and ACC contender California OOC and Marshall and Louisiana in conference. While they failed to win any of those games, they were competitive in each. They also have beaten South Alabama head-to-head for their lone conference victory which is what led to them getting the fifth spot in our power ranking this block. They look poised to make a bowl game based off their schedule in the back half of the season.
4. Marshall (3-5 overall, 3-1 SBCE) – While they may come in fourth in this block’s ranking, they are currently in the driver seat for one of the two slots available in the Sun Belt Conference Championship game as they sit comfortably in first place in the SBC East division. If they can continue to win, they should match up against one of the teams in front of them for the Sun Belt title.
3. Troy (6-2 overall, 3-1 SBCW) – The Trojans stayed consistent as they have been all season long. Troy went 1-0 during this block with a close win over Arkansas State 34-28. They’ve got one conference loss to division mate Louisiana, so they are sitting in waiting mode to see if the Louisiana schools’ stumbles down the stretch.
2. Louisiana Monroe (4-0 overall, 4-0 SBCW) – We added a new coach at Louisiana this block and they hit the ground running by impressively by going 4-0 and beating two other top tier Sun Belt teams in both Marshall and Troy which was enough for them to earn this spot in our initial rankings. The schedule sets up nicely for them to be 11-0 heading into a week 14 showdown against Louisiana for the West title.
1. Louisiana (5-0 overall, 2-0 SBCW) – Louisiana is currently undefeated both in conference and overall and is the only team to beat current AAC front runner UAB. They won that game by 34 points early in the season to set the tone as the front runner for the Sun Belt. The road to the SBC Championship currently goes through Lafayette unless someone else proves otherwise.
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