Sun Belt officials seek new members
League, UNT confident it will have eight full-time member in weeks ahead
09:04 AM CDT on Sunday, June 13, 2004
By Brett Vito / Staff Writer
The Sun Belt Conference is set to announce expansion plans in the coming weeks that will maintain the league’s status as a Division I-A football conference with eight-fulltime members.
"We are confident a new member will be in place in the next few weeks," Sun Belt commissioner Wright Waters said. "The question is not if we will add a member, but who it will be."
The Sun Belt’s expansion plans are expected to tighten the league’s Southeastern alignment that includes North Texas. UNT helped found the Sun Belt’s football league in 2001 and has committed to stay in the conference while it redefines its membership.
The Sun Belt is currently scheduled to have eight members with football programs in 2005, but Louisiana-Monroe is an affiliate member that does not count toward the NCAA minimum of eight fulltime members for a Division I-A league. Monroe’s football and women’s swimming teams are Sun Belt members, but the rest of the school’s teams compete in the Southland Conference.
If the Sun Belt does not add another fulltime member by 2005, it would have to apply for a waver to remain a Division I-A league.
Division I-A is the highest level of competition in college football.
"I think that there are a number of options for the Sun Belt," UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal said. "I feel good about where we are going with the league."
One of the candidates for the next round of expansion is La.-Monroe. Sun Belt and La.-Monroe officials acknowledged that they have talked over the last few weeks about the school becoming a full member of the Sun Belt.
"We have had discussions with the Sun Belt commissioner and various other members of the league about what might make sense for us in the long term," La.-Monroe athletic director Bruce Hanks said.
Hanks said that the Sun Belt has not yet extended an invitation for a full membership in the league to La.-Monroe and the school is comfortable with its relationship with the Southland Conference.
Louisiana Tech and Western Kentucky have also been mentioned as possible candidates for Sun Belt expansion. Officials from both schools have said they will not become the next full member of the league.
Western Kentucky is a member of the Sun Belt in all sports except for football and men’s soccer. The Hilltoppers’ football team plays in the Division I-AA Gateway Conference, while their men’s soccer team plays in the Missouri Valley Conference.
"We think about moving to Division I-A on an annual basis," WKU athletic director Dr. Camden Wood Selig said. "We are encouraged by the direction of the Sun Belt and the stability it appears to be headed toward, but we have felt all along that with the dramatic realignment taking place it would be in our best interest to stay put and stay patient."
Louisiana Tech left the Sun Belt Conference for the Western Athletic Conference after the 2001 school year and does not appear as if it will return, despite changes to the WAC that have left the school as an outpost in a West Coast based league.
WAC members SMU, Rice Tulsa and UTEP all committed to leave the league for Conference USA earlier this year. La. Tech was left behind despite campaigning for a bid to C-USA and will be the lone member of the WAC in the Central time zone in 2005.
UNT, UTEP and La. Tech all competed for the last open spot in C-USA.
"We have enjoyed our affiliation with the WAC in terms of bowl ties and the greater revenue share," La. Tech athletic director Jim Oakes said. "The change in geography in the league has not been to our benefit, but we are committed to the WAC."
The positions WKU and La. Tech have taken appear to bode well for La.-Monroe’s chances to become a full member of the Sun Belt.
The move is one Hanks said could benefit the school.
"There are certain marketing advantages to being in one conference as opposed to two," Hanks said. "You try to market your conference to fans."
If the Sun Belt adds Monroe as a fulltime member, it will further entrench the league in the Southeast following the departure of its Western members.
The WAC responded to the departure of Rice, Tulsa, SMU and UTEP to C-USA by grabbing Sun Belt members Utah State and New Mexico State. The WAC approached several other Sun Belt members before settling on adding Idaho as its ninth and final member.
The WAC’s decision to invite Idaho left the core of what the Sun Belt hopes will be a Southeastern football league intact. North Texas and Arkansas State will join Louisiana-Lafayette, Middle Tennessee and La.-Monroe as holdovers from the Sun Belt’s current football league.
Troy State, Florida Atlantic and Florida International will all become full members of the league in the next two years. Adding La.-Monroe as a fulltime member would solidify the league’s tight regional alignment.
"The whole purpose of realignment is to get a more regional look in conferences," Waters said.
Villarreal said the shift East in the Sun Belt would benefit UNT, which would rather travel East because of the earlier start times of games as compared to the West.
Monroe would not only help the regional alignment of the Sun Belt, it would bring a baseball program that has won three Southland Conference titles since 1999 and advanced to the championship game of the league tournament this season.
The Indians have not had near that amount of success in football. La.-Monroe joined Division I-A in 1994 and has yet to post a winning season. The Indians went 1-11 last year when UNT was the only team in the Sun Belt to finish with a winning record.
One of the main criticisms of the Sun Belt has been its lackluster record in non-conference football games. The league posted a 6-38 record in non-conference play last year. The addition of Monroe would not immediately help the league’s perception as a weak football conference headed by one solid team in UNT.
Monroe not only struggled on the field, it also ranked 113th among Division I-A teams in home football attendance in 2003 with an average of 11,298 fans a game.
UNT head football coach Darrell Dickey said he was impressed with the progress the Indians made toward becoming a winning team under first-year coach Charlie Weatherbie, despite the fact the Indians finished last in the Sun Belt standings. The Mean Green barely beat La.-Monroe, 28-26, last year.
La.-Monroe edged UNT 19-17 in 2001 and is the only Sun Belt team to beat the Mean Green in the league’s three-year history.
"I hope that they can make the commitment to join the conference," Dickey said. "They would fit in the league and would be a natural rival."
While UNT would have a chance to continue its natural rivalry with Monroe, it will see another regional foe leave the league in NMSU. UNT played a series of close games in football with the Aggies in Sun Belt play, including a 13-10 win by the Mean Green last year.
Villarreal said losing NMSU as a conference rival was one of the lone drawbacks to the recent rounds of realignment for UNT.
Another result of the turnover in Sun Belt membership for UNT is a lack of familiarity within the league for Mean Green fans. The league has had several teams come and go since 2001. Utah State committed to join the WAC the same season it became a member of the Sun Belt’s football league.
Utah State was scheduled to become a full member of the Sun Belt by 2006.
"Some leagues can point to rivalries that are 50 years old," Villarreal said. "We have to stay stable so that we can create those rivalries."
It appears that the Sun Belt will look to build that stability by adding La.-Monroe to its slate of fulltime members.
"Adding Monroe is certainly an answer," Waters said. "We will have to see if they are the best answer."
BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870.
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Sun Belt officials seek new members
