For some time now, the Sun Belt Conference has been discussing adding at least two more full-time members. The conference has added four new full-time members in the last two seasons; they added Georgia State and Texas State in 2013 and Georgia Southern and Appalachian State last season.
If the team can add more two more full-time members that play football, the conference will have a total of twelve, which would allow them to field a conference championship game.
The conference discussed looking into the FCS to add a few new members at the Sun Belt Media Days back in July.
According to a source that spoke with USA TODAY, the Sun Belt is looking to bring in two large FCS powers into the fray that is the Sun Belt Conference. The unnamed source said that the two schools would have enough votes to get in, if they chose to move up.
“They have enough votes,” the person said. “They have already visited the campuses.”
Idaho and New Mexico State are already football-only members, but adding two more teams would be beneficial to the other sports being played.
“Basketball scheduling would be much easier (with 12 teams),” the person said.
Coastal Carolina has come one strong in the FCS as of late. In the last four seasons, the team has won three Big South Championships and made appearances in at least the second round of the FCS Playoffs. Eastern Kentucky had much more success in the late 70’s and early 80’s. The team played in four straight Division I-AA National Championship games from 1979-1982 while winning one in both 1979 and 1982.
Both teams would be a big addition to the Sun Belt Conference and with the way the Georgia Southern Eagles dominated in 2014, there’s no reason why these two teams couldn’t do the same thing.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
