Things get interesting in the Belt this week, with a matchup of conference favorites and some quality out of conference opponents lined up as well. There are teams that will take big steps forward towards the New Orleans Bowl bef0re Saturday is out.
Western Kentucky at Navy, 3:30 PM- WKU will need to be a different team than we’ve seen so far to beat Navy. Navy can be stopped, Pitt showed the way last week, but I doubt if WKU has what it will take to pull it off.
Louisiana Monroe at Florida Atlantic, 4 PM- Neither of these teams has played a game against a non-BCS school yet. In fact, neither team even put up much of a fight in their losses to the big boys. So while their wallets have been expanding, it’s tough to know what to expect out of this one.
Troy at Arkansas State, 4:30 PM- Troy stumbled out of the gate, but looked good against UAB, which puts them right back in the SBC title conversation. Meanwhile Arkansas State put up the 2nd highest point total anywhere in week 1, then got run out by Nebraska in week 2. After a bye week, they should be well prepared for this one.
Louisiana-Lafayette at Nebraska, 7 PM- I continue to think Nebraska has one of the lamest non-conference schedules I’ve ever seen. Fattening up on Sun Belt teams might help with bowl eligibility, but it sure didn’t get them ready to play against Virginia Tech last week.
Middle Tennessee State at North Texas, 7 PM- I was really high on North Texas after they beat Ball State, and I still think they should be a mid-pack or even better team in the Belt this year (that being said, we haven’t seen enough SBC teams face mid-major competition to really have a picture of future standings). Meanwhile MTSU is on a huge roll, beating Memphis and Maryland back to back. If the Mean Green can hang with Middle Tennessee, then we’ll know they’re legit, but I think MTSU will be tough to stop in this one.
Toledo at Florida International, 7 PM- I mentioned this in the MAC preview this morning, but FIU was hoping to make some noise this season. The week 1 bye and 2 BCS losses later, and we have no idea if they will. Toledo’s a pretty good MAC team, so a win here would give FIU some credibility, but I would count it as a substantial upset.