Idaho football dropped by Sun Belt Conference after 2017

The Sun Belt added the schools originally to become a 12-team league, but Western Kentucky left to go to Conference USA, leaving eleven football playing schools.

Beginning with the 2018 football season the Sun Belt Conference will be a 10-team football league, according to a news release.

The Sun Belt Conference’s membership consists of 11 football members – Appalachian State, Arkansas State, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Idaho, UL Lafayette, UL Monroe, New Mexico State, South Alabama, Texas State and Troy.

“We are continuing to diligently consider our future affiliation as an opportunity to find the stability and full participation we have not experience in the Sun Belt”, UI president Chuck Staben wrote.

With Idaho and New Mexico State, the Sun Belt has been ranked last among the Group of Five conferences in recent years, Benson said. “This decision, along with the full 12-team membership that goes into place for the 2016-17 season with the addition of Coastal Carolina University, will reduce travel demands and missed class time for all Sun Belt student-athletes – while also furthering the development of regional rivalries within the conference”.

The Sun Belt Conference announced Tuesday that it will move to a 10-team format for the 2018 football season.

The Sun Belt is one of two Football Bowl Subdivision conferences without a conference title game, the other being the Big 12.

“The sentiment had been evident for some time”, she said. “Or, to split the conference into two five-team divisions and either play eight or nine conference games”.

“One thing we have to remember is that football revenues generated in the Sun Belt are generally divided among the football members, so this was also an economic decision – 10 teams vs. 12 is a better financial model as well”.

“As has been publicly stated on many occasions by commissioner Fullerton, Idaho has a standing invitation to join the Big Sky Conference in football, and the invitation will continue”, Oglesby wrote to the Missoulian via email.

Of the two programs, New Mexico State seems to be in the better situation, thanks to Aggievision’s nationwide streaming service and proposals for expansion of facilities revealed in their PowerPoint to Sun Belt Members. “We will make a decision in the coming months”, Staben said. “The geographic footprint played a huge part in the decision and getting to a distinct number that maximizes the overall footprint has always been important to the Sun Belt”. He anticipates discussing the benefits and drawbacks with the league’s football coaches and athletic directors this spring. Before those teams joined the league in 2014, conferences were planning to receive $1 million in College Football Playoff revenue per school. The request was denied.