May 10
8:50 AM ET

Here are the five non-BCS teams with the best chance to make some noise this season, and possibly work themselves into the BCS conversation (listed alphabetically).


Arkansas State Red Wolves

Gus Malzahn might have wound up as the coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks last month if he hadn't just settled into his digs in Jonesboro. Regardless of the location, he finally has his own program; now, let's see what he can do with it.

You will need Insider Access to see the rest of the teams, but this one should be of interest to SBC fans.

http://insider.espn.go.com/college-footb...s-2012-ncf

Is it me just me, but has a huge pile of "pressure" been placed on Gus to produce this season?

I don't think any more pressure by the fan base than by the coaching staff themselves. However, if stAte doesn't win 7 games to keep things rolling in the right direction - much momentum and energy around the program could be lost.

FWIW - in no way to I consider stAte a BCS buster this year - but if that kind of hype gets more student athletes to look at stAte - we'll just have to fake it till we make it!

Nice! Good stuff for ASU and the SBC...

Arkansas fans are convinced they are going to be stuck with Gus. Part of me is almost hoping we win only 7 games next year so he's not as interesting to bigger schools. We cant afford another 1 and done coach.

Arkansas State has the combination of a number of key returning starters and a schedule that makes being a BCS buster possible. They'd need to catch Oregon napping and upset Nebraska on the road to get there. But after last year's 10-3 season, it seems possible while still unlikely.

I'd really like to see one of our teams ranked next season.

I'm kind of hoping to see a couple of teams that CUSA doesn't want step up next year. Which would make us the better place to be perceptionwise. And to see our call ups do better than theirs!

(05-11-2012 04:54 AM)AlaIllTex Wrote:  Arkansas State has the combination of a number of key returning starters and a schedule that makes being a BCS buster possible. They'd need to catch Oregon napping and upset Nebraska on the road to get there. But after last year's 10-3 season, it seems possible while still unlikely.

I'd really like to see one of our teams ranked next season.

I'm kind of hoping to see a couple of teams that CUSA doesn't want step up next year. Which would make us the better place to be perceptionwise. And to see our call ups do better than theirs!

I also see this as unlikely, but what I do see is AWESOME publicity for stAte and SBC football . . we have all worked hard to make SBC football worthy of positive national attention and now we are getting that attention. Let SBC football enjoy its time in the sun !!

Go stAte . . Go SBC !!

Teams losing 8 defensive starters tend to not bust the BCS. We travel to Oregon and Nebraska. In conference we travel to FIU, Louisiana, North Texas, and Troy. That group of four will likely contain the #1 and #2 teams in the Sun Belt.