The Sun Belt Conference has been one of the more accepting teams when it comes to bringing teams from the FCS into their conference. They currently only sit eleven conferences that play football entering into the 2015 athletic year and they have currently shelved talks of expanding until next offseason.
According to College Football Talk, Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson is not sold on the idea of having a conference championship game with only eleven member schools. The NCAA also has a rule that a conference must have twelve member schools to field a conference championship game, but Benson feels that even if that rule is done away with like rumored, their conference is no position to have a conference championship game.
The topic of a football conference championship game has been the biggest incentive for teams to join the conference. With Navy joining the AAC in June, the Sun Belt and Big 12 are the only two conferences without a conference championship game for the 2015 season.
Geography issues have also caused some distension when it comes to expansion. New Mexico State and Idaho are both currently football-only members after the WAC collapsed two seasons ago. Benson has talked with New Mexico State about becoming a full time member, but those talks have not produced anything worthwhile.
The Sun Belt has done something not many other conferences have done in the past. They have accepted five teams from the ranks of the FCS. Georgia State, Texas State, and South Alabama have all been members for two years while Appalachian State and Georgia Southern, who won the conference last season but did not play in a bowl game per NCAA regulations, moved up from the Southern Conference last season.
I personally believe that a conference championship game would benefit the Sun Belt greatly and would give fans something extra to look forward to at the end of the season.
My personal favorite pick? Go after another Southern Conference team and reignite the Furman/Georgia Southern rivalry. Wofford would also be a great pickup for the Sun Belt as the Terriers have been dangerous in all three major sports in the last five years.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to DCMayo, Appalachian State
