South Alabama Joining the Sun Belt
The Sun Belt just got bigger.
Well, sort of.
In the year 2013, the University of South Alabama Jaguars will join the Sun Belt conference, expanding it to 10 teams.
Of course, USA doesn’t have a team yet…
They plan to start football in ’09, and making the full transition to Division 1-A (FBS nowadays) by ’13. This will also give the state of Alabama five 1A teams, making the recruiting even tighter in the state.
The biggest affect you will see from this move is on the two non-BCS schools, Troy and University of Alabama – Birmingham. If UAB wasn’t having enough trouble, they now have another big-time school to steal away all the 1 and 2-stars away from them.
Troy is an upstart program making a name for themselves in the Sun Belt as well, and has even produced a first round pick in the now-Dallas Cowboys defensive end Demarcus Ware.
Sadly, it may hurt them more than it helps USA. If they do managed to last more than two years, the program will need at least six or seven years before it challenges for a championship, even just in the lowly Sun Belt.
One thing they do have going for them is a good stadium for such a small program. The stadium in which they will be playing is the same where the Senior Bowl and GMAC Bowl is held every year, holding 40,000 fans.
Of course, this isn’t the first time USA has attempted to field a football team. In 2005, they even began selling tickets before canceling the season. However, this could finally be the season where the Jaguars finally start coming together.
The big news in football altogether : Petrino bails on Falcons and heads to Arkansas. Read here.
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