https://www.espn.com/college-football/in...rojections

You have to have an ESPN+ account to read the full article, but here's where they placed Sun Belt teams on their top 130


#22 - Louisiana
#35 - App State
#37 - Coastal Carolina
#66 - Troy
#76 - Georgia State
#88 - Georgia Southern
#99 - Ark State
#109 - Texas State
#116 - South Alabama
#126 - ULM


I have a feeling the bottom three will be quite a bit higher at the end of the season.

Good news is they're putting 30% of the conference in the top 28 percentile.

(02-10-2021 11:52 AM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  https://www.espn.com/college-football/in...rojections

You have to have an ESPN+ account to read the full article, but here's where they placed Sun Belt teams on their top 130


#22 - Louisiana
#35 - App State
#37 - Coastal Carolina
#66 - Troy
#76 - Georgia State
#88 - Georgia Southern
#99 - Ark State
#109 - Texas State
#116 - South Alabama
#126 - ULM


I have a feeling the bottom three will be quite a bit higher at the end of the season.

Good news is they're putting 30% of the conference in the top 28 percentile.

Am I missing something with Troy? Why are they ranked so high?

Just to compare to the MWC:


#39 - Boise State
#70 - Nevada
#78 - Fresno State
#80 - Wyoming
#81 - SJSU
#84 - SDSU
#93 - Air Force
#96 - Colorado State
#105 - Hawaii
#121 - Utah State
#123 - UNLV
#124 - New Mexico


MWC Average Ranking: 91

SBC Average Ranking: 67.5

(02-10-2021 12:12 PM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  Just to compare to the MWC:


#39 - Boise State
#70 - Nevada
#78 - Fresno State
#80 - Wyoming
#81 - SJSU
#84 - SDSU
#93 - Air Force
#96 - Colorado State
#105 - Hawaii
#121 - Utah State
#123 - UNLV
#124 - New Mexico


MWC Average Ranking: 91

SBC Average Ranking: 67.5

Our top 1/3 is better. Our bottom 1/3 is better. SBC > MWC

Net change from final SP+ from 2020:



#22 - Louisiana +2
#35 - App State -11
#37 - Coastal Carolina -26
#66 - Troy +6
#76 - Georgia State +12
#88 - Georgia Southern -22
#99 - Ark State -2
#109 - Texas State -4
#116 - South Alabama -8
#126 - ULM -1

I'll take Connelly on a wager the conference SP+ rating won't drop that much.

What's funny is that Coastal is high on the returning production rank and still had the biggest drop (that's probably the result of stupidly including recruiting rankings in the projection).

(02-10-2021 11:52 AM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  https://www.espn.com/college-football/in...rojections

You have to have an ESPN+ account to read the full article, but here's where they placed Sun Belt teams on their top 130


#22 - Louisiana
#35 - App State
#37 - Coastal Carolina
#66 - Troy
#76 - Georgia State
#88 - Georgia Southern
#99 - Ark State
#109 - Texas State
#116 - South Alabama
#126 - ULM


I have a feeling the bottom three will be quite a bit higher at the end of the season.

Good news is they're putting 30% of the conference in the top 28 percentile.

Sun Belt has 3 of the top 4 non-P5's. with Cincinnati coming in the #1 spot.

(02-10-2021 11:56 AM)High Country Student Wrote:  

(02-10-2021 11:52 AM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  https://www.espn.com/college-football/in...rojections

You have to have an ESPN+ account to read the full article, but here's where they placed Sun Belt teams on their top 130


#22 - Louisiana
#35 - App State
#37 - Coastal Carolina
#66 - Troy
#76 - Georgia State
#88 - Georgia Southern
#99 - Ark State
#109 - Texas State
#116 - South Alabama
#126 - ULM


I have a feeling the bottom three will be quite a bit higher at the end of the season.

Good news is they're putting 30% of the conference in the top 28 percentile.

Am I missing something with Troy? Why are they ranked so high?

We have all but like 2 starters returning plus the data goes back 2-4 years and in 2017 we had 11-2 record and 2018 we finished 10-3 so that helps gives us a boost I'm sure. We also signed a good recruiting class.

(02-10-2021 12:12 PM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  Just to compare to the MWC:


#39 - Boise State
#70 - Nevada
#78 - Fresno State
#80 - Wyoming
#81 - SJSU
#84 - SDSU
#93 - Air Force
#96 - Colorado State
#105 - Hawaii
#121 - Utah State
#123 - UNLV
#124 - New Mexico


MWC Average Ranking: 91

SBC Average Ranking: 67.5

I love how we have 3 teams ranked above everyone's G5 sweetheart Boise State. #Power7

(02-10-2021 12:33 PM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote:  

(02-10-2021 11:56 AM)High Country Student Wrote:  Am I missing something with Troy? Why are they ranked so high?

We have all but like 2 starters returning plus the data goes back 2-4 years and in 2017 we had 11-2 record and 2018 we finished 10-3 so that helps gives us a boost I'm sure. We also signed a good recruiting class.

We actually return every starter but one.

The entire starting defense returns, plus the depth. Plus adding a CB from NC State and DL from Florida State.

The entire starting offense returns except WR Khalil McClain (he was only the 4th leading receiver in yards). The depth also returns, plus adding QB from Missouri and RB from Florida State.

Troy has the pieces to win the Sun Belt.

(02-10-2021 12:53 PM)CardinalBlackTrojan Wrote:  

(02-10-2021 12:33 PM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote:  

(02-10-2021 11:56 AM)High Country Student Wrote:  Am I missing something with Troy? Why are they ranked so high?

We have all but like 2 starters returning plus the data goes back 2-4 years and in 2017 we had 11-2 record and 2018 we finished 10-3 so that helps gives us a boost I'm sure. We also signed a good recruiting class.

We actually return every starter but one.

The entire starting defense returns, plus the depth. Plus adding defensive transfers from NC State and FSU.
I though Chip Lindsey was an awful coach and most of the Troy fans wanted him gone
The entire starting offense returns except WR Khalil McClain (he was only the 4th leading receiver in yards). The depth also returns, plus getting in transfers from Missouri and FSU.

Troy has the pieces to win the Sun Belt.

I will tell you guys that SP+ is a very good rankings system. Generally does well against the spread. That is hard to find in this world. Take it seriously as an objective indicator of relative strength. That said, these systems are limited in football because of how few games there are and having to depend on last year objectively, although decreasingly as the season goes along. Good at self correcting though. Very much worth keeping an eye on but not worth worshipping as gospel.

I didn't do the numbers earlier because I didn't think it would turn out this direction, but...

AAC average: 70.54%

SBC average: 67.5%


P6 y'all

https://twitter.com/NCAAFNation247/statu...9239564290

Sun Belt Strong

2021 is going to be an epic slugfest.

The SBC could suffer some as we beat up each other, OOC will be extremely important to set the stage prior to conference play.

Win OOC games. That goes for App too!

There are plenty of winnable OOC games next season, especially against the P5.

OOC wins are a absolute must for the Sun Belt in 2021. we need to be at 25-15 or better. with at least 5 P5 wins. That means we need everyone.

(03-09-2021 11:50 AM)balanced_view Wrote:  OOC wins are a absolute must for the Sun Belt in 2021. we need to be at 25-15 or better. with at least 5 P5 wins. That means we need everyone.

That's a pretty big stretch especially considering this year's slate of P5 matchups is tougher than the last 2 seasons.

The 3 big ones IMO are Kansas @ Coastal, GS @ Arkansas, and Troy @ USC. I'm guessing we get 1 or 2 of those and 0 or 1 of the rest.

Just having 3 straight seasons with multiple P5 wins would be great.