Until about a week ago, the Sun Belt looked like it belonged to Middle Tennessee State. Then it was discovered that star QB Dwight Dasher had taken a $1500 loan from a known gambler, lost it in a poker game, and failed to pay it back. He’s now been ruled ineligible by the NCAA and will be out at least 2-3 games depending on the success of MTSU’s appeals.
All is not lost for the Blue Raiders, as they have two experienced JuCo quarterbacks ready to go behind Dasher, and a talented backfield, so the suspension isn’t going to turn MTSU into Western Kentucky overnight, but it does close the gap back to the rest of the league. It does, however, diminish their chances for a big non-conference win.
Chasing down the Blue Raiders will be the Troy Trojans, who have shared or won the league outright each of the last three years, but face a big rebuilding project this year. Louisiana too will be a contender, with a lot of players returning from last year’s 6-6 club.
The last full week of the season came by with a bit of a whimper for the Sun Belt. The Louisianas both needed upsets to get up to 7-5 and into better bowl position, but both came up short and will almost certainly call their seasons over at this point. Middle Tennessee continues to be a big bright spot for the league, earning their 9th win, which gives them the best record in the at-large bowl pool by two games. Things aren’t all done yet, as there are a few games coming up this weekend, including Western Kentucky’s last chance to send their coach on his way with one win on Thursday night.
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Let’s see how the new Report Card format is going to work today with a batch of Sun Belt teams. Not as in-depth, but most of the same information is there, just faster…
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Another eventful Saturday across the college football landscape. The top 25 got blown apart, but we had fewer upsets overall on the non-BCS side. A handful of quick hits on the day that was, with more thoughtful recaps to come this week: Read Post
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.
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172-20. This is the combined score of the three Noon SEC vs. Sun Belt games that the SEC Network has shown the last three weeks. I have watched almost all of each game, rooting for the Belt teams, feeling the pain of their fans as the SEC defenses shut them down mercilessly. The good news is that the SEC Net is now turning to in-conference games, so we won’t be subjected to that kind of torture any more. Other good news is that the schools in question made a boatload of cash, so they can continue building, and the Sun Belt will sneak up on these teams more often.
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