The Sun Belt Conference doesn't yet know when, where or on what channel its fans can watch, but in 2018 it will join the nine other FBS conferences in staging a football championship game.
The announcement was made Wednesday via teleconference by Texas State President Denise Trauth and league Commissioner Karl Benson, who said that a unanimous vote this week of league presidents, chancellors and athletic directors allowed for it to finally announce a game that's long been considered. The possibility of the game has been discussed by conference members since Benson was hired in 2012 and showed a desire to expand to 12 football members, which was then required by the NCAA to stage a championship game.
After losing five schools to Conference USA over a two-year period, the Sun Belt never returned to 12 members long enough to seriously consider the game. But when the NCAA eliminated the need for 12 members to hold the game earlier this year, the door was opened for the Sun Belt, which will be an 11-team league in football this season and 12 next season when Coastal Carolina joins.
Benson noted Wednesday that it could hold a game this season, or in 2017 like the Big 12, but opted to wait until 2018, when Idaho and New Mexico State exit and Coastal Carolina will be postseason eligible.
"The fall of 2018 really is the new era, so to speak, for Sun Belt football," he said.
"There are still a lot of moving parts. We have two full years, but that doesn't mean that we won't start really putting together plans. ... We expect this inaugural game in 2018 will truly be a showcase-type of event."
Plenty of details still need to be worked out, the most basic being which teams will be awarded spots in the game.
Benson said the Sun Belt has two choices: Split into two five-team divisions and award each division champion a spot, or play a nine-game round robin schedule with the two top finishers playing a rematch.
"I don't think there's one that plays out [better] more often than not," Benson said. "Obviously, you want those two teams that have the great records and the good rankings to be put center stage."
The league didn't officially announce that the game will be played on a campus site, but Benson and Arkansas State Athletic Director Terry Mohajir both said that's the most likely option. Both said the league hasn't started vetting possible neutral sites.
No television agreement has been made, but Benson said ESPN owns the rights to league games and will have the first right of refusal. Other options include FS1, CBS Sports Network and the American Sports Network.
The absence of a television agreement is partly why the league decided to announce the game Wednesday, after the presidents and chancellors each voted for the game Monday at an Atlanta hotel. Now, Benson said, the league can begin to sell the game to networks.
"Absolutely we will have a strong television partner," Benson said, "whether it's ESPN or two or three of the others that are now in the market place."
Mohajir has always supported a possible title game if it provides a tangible benefit to the league, such as a revenue stream through a television contract or a direct path to a more lucrative bowl game. Neither of those are guarantees, but Mohajir still voted for it.
"Being unified as a conference is really important in my mind," he said. "I think it can be really exciting for our fan bases, the students that are competing."
Mohajir said he is "firmly" in support of a two-division format that keeps an eight-game conference schedule. ASU, Mohajir said, would have to break existing game contracts if a move to a nine-game conference schedule, which would reduce nonconference games to three each season, was made.
"Having the ability to play four nonconference games is, I think, a really important opportunity," Mohajir said.
Mohajir said Wednesday that negatives for the game still exist. For instance, a loss in the title game could knock a Sun Belt team out of contention for the spot given to the highest ranked Group of Five team to one of the six major New Year's Day bowls.
Mohajir said support for the game outweighed the negatives, as did the fact that every other FBS conference will stage a title game starting in 2017.
"I think it was probably inevitable at a certain time, I just didn't know if we were ready to pull the trigger yet, and we did," he said. "You definitely don't want to be, when everybody else is doing it, you don't want to be the one that's not doing it."
Sports on 06/09/2016