Sun Belt to stick with divisional play as other leagues consider change
The Sun Belt won’t be hopping on the newest wave of college football’s constantly evolving landscape.
On May 18, the NCAA relaxed restrictions on the requirements to play a conference championship game by eliminating the need to use divisions.
Shortly after, both the PAC-12 and the Mountain West dropped divisions and will instead feature the top two teams by conference win percentage in their respective league title games.
In February, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said the league was open to a “single division structure.” It’s also possible the Big 10 drops divisional play, as well.
In the face of growing momentum to switch up the schedule, the SBC has no plans to follow the trends... for now, at least.
Coming out of spring meetings, the conference, which just expanded from 10 teams to 14 teams, announced it was sticking to its “commitment to divisional scheduling in football.”
The reason why centers around the regionally focused environment the conference created in realignment.
“For us, we’re going to play the six schools on our side that are going to be within close proximity and it’s going to add to all the things we’ve talked about,” Southern Miss athletic director Jeremy McClain told the Sun Herald. “Fans traveling to the stadium throughout the league, the rivalry aspect. I think it makes sense for us to stay East-West. That may change someday, but I definitely think that’s a strength of ours and the way we’ve put the conference together. I think it’s the right thing to do.”
For schools like USM and fellow Conference USA escapees Old Dominion and Marshall, the move to the SBC was in no small part guided by the opportunity to compete within a more localized structure.
In the 2022 football schedule, the Golden Eagles will slash 1,854 round trip miles from what their C-USA schedule would have been.
“You go back to conversations we’ve had about the things that are important to us as a conference, especially when it came to regional rivalries,” McClain said. “So a lot of the discussion for us is about, ‘hey, this is how we built this thing.’ We feel like, at least for the near future, east-west divisions make the most sense.”
In the new-look SBC, USM will partner with South Alabama, Troy, Louisiana, Louisiana-Monroe, Arkansas State and Texas State in football’s West division.
Doing away with divisions would require the league office to determine which rivalries and regional matchups it created were worth protecting in a new scheduling format.
“If you make that adjustment, you’re setting yourself up for some real challenges,” McClain said. “Even though there may some conversations about east-west, are they evenly matched? This and that, recent success, I understand those arguments, too. But I think for the strength and the health of the league, I think it makes sense to keep those built-in rivalries in place.”
Southern Miss opens the football season at home on Sept. 3 against future C-USA member Liberty. The Golden Eagles’ first SBC game falls on Oct. 8 at Troy.
This story was originally published May 26, 2022 at 12:36 PM.
