Week 5 was mostly quiet across the Belt, with only three games and five teams in action.  Arkansas State put on the best show of the weekend, pushing Iowa to the brink on their turf, falling 24-21 in the Sun Belt’s best game this year against ranked opposition.  Florida Atlantic couldn’t get off the mark, falling to Wyoming in a competitive 30-28 defeat.  Back in conference play, Louisiana Monroe advances to 2-0 in the league by besting Florida International.

Tonight, a huge matchup between conference favorites takes center stage.  More on that game ahead.

Sun Belt Conference Standings

What We Learned This Week

Arkansas State might be the best 1-3 team in the non-BCS world, and they’re still a contender in the Belt.  But like most of their conference mates, a rough non-conference schedule leaves almost no room for error in getting to a bowl.  Without winning the league, these teams need to get to 7-5 to have a real chance at any at-large picks.

Florida Atlantic shouldn’t be winless for too long.  They came into the year as a conference favorite, and haven’t gotten nearly the start they wanted, but they’re looking better than they did early on, and have two consecutive two point losses.  They get a bye week before a 3 game conference stretch against North Texas, Lafayette, and Middle Tennessee.  I will be surprised if they fall to 0-7 after that run.

Louisiana Monroe has added themselves to the list of conference contenders with sweep of the Florida teams.  We’ll know more about them when they face Arkansas State in a national tv game a week from tonight.

Sun Belt Power Rankings

1. Middle Tennessee State
2. Troy
3. Arkansas State
4. Louisiana Monroe
5. North Texas
6. Louisiana Lafayette
7. Florida Atlantic
8. Florida International
9. Western Kentucky

Tuesday Night Spotlight

For the next two weeks, the Sun Belt sends what may be their four best teams out to play each other all alone on national television.  Tonight, we get the Blue Raiders of MTSU facing the Trojans from Troy.  I have recently (like 2 minutes ago while checking Troy’s site for this piece) learned that this game is The Battle for the Palladium. It’s actually a pretty cool rivalry, going back to 1936, but interrupted for a while until the two teams got back to a similar level in 1999.  It turns out that the Blue Raider thing can be a reference to Odysseus, the “raider of cities.”  The Palladium was a statue that fell from the sky, and as long as it was  housed in Troy, the city would be safe.  Odysseus, however, stole the statue at some point, leading to the fall of Troy in the Hellenic wars.*

*Look, this is a quick, simple version of what I found in a little bit of online research.  I suspect a Greek scholar would be shocked at my oversimplification, but I’m just trying to explain a football trophy here, ok?

Along with the smartest football trophy ever, this game is also pretty crucial in this year’s Sun Belt race.  Troy stumbled out of the gate, losing to a decent Bowling Green team on the road Opening Night, then getting shellacked by Florida in week 2.  Since then, they’ve knocked off UAB and Arkansas State to get back to 2-2 and start off 1-0 in conference.

Meanwhile, Middle Tennessee lost to Clemson in week 1, but has since rattled off victories against Memphis, Maryland, and North Texas to sit at a very comfortable 3-1/1-0.

On Troy’s side, the player to watch is DuJuan Harris, a 1000 yard rusher a year ago who is still looking to regain that form.  Last year against MTSU he ran for 148 and found the endzone 3 times.  On the Blue Raider side of the ball, QB Dwight Dasher is leading the Sun Belt in total offense, and will look to expand that tonight against Troy.

One last subplot to keep an eye on, MTSU’s offensive coordinator, Tony Franklin, has spent the last three seasons in the same role for Troy.

Tonight’s game will be played at Movie Gallery stadium in Troy, Alabama, a small town about an hour southeast of Montgomery.  The stadium holds 30,000 people, and has an AstroPlay surface.  Gametime is at 8 PM on ESPN2.