The Sun Belt Championship Picture as of 11/3/09
The Sun Belt Conference championship is within reach for the Blue Raiders, but is also the case for two other teams as well.
The major problem for the Blue Raiders is the Troy University. Because of their loss to Troy earlier this season, the Trojans controls their own destiny. They can seal their second straight outright (and fourth straight overall) conference championship by winning their final three conference games. Those games are against Western Kentucky, Florida Atlantic, and Louisiana.
If Troy loses any of those games it would be against FAU. The only problem with that is Troy has a week between conference games to prepare for the Owls. That week, Troy travels to Fayetteville, Ark. to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks. I’m not suggesting that Troy would mail it in against Arkansas but if it gets out of hand by halftime, there would be no reason to jeopardize their chances at a conference title.
However, all of this talk of Troy losing a conference game will mean absolutely nothing if MT doesn’t win out. MT’s final four games are against Florida International, Louisiana, Arkansas State, and Louisiana-Monroe. The first three games are at home.
Louisiana-Monroe is the other team that has a chance at the conference title. They are tied with MT in second place and a Troy conference loss would put them in contention for the title. ULM’s final four games are against North Texas, Western Kentucky, Louisiana, and MTSU.
The game between MT and ULM, the final game for both teams this season could end up being huge for both teams.
This is the easiest explanation. If Troy wins out, they win the outright conference title. If they lose once and MT and ULM win until their matchup against each other, the winner will share the conference title with Troy. If Troy loses twice and MT and ULM win until that Nov. 28 game, the winner will be the outright conference champion.
If all three teams end up with two conference losses then…well we’ll cross that bridge if we ever get to that point.
