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55-407: The Sun Belt Conference sponsors nine men's sports and 10 women's sports. This is a list of conference champions for each sport. All dates of membership reflect the calendar years of entry and departure. Since all past Sun Belt associate members participated only in fall sports, the year of departure is the calendar year after the final (planned) season of competition. The Vic Bubas Cup (formerly

110-632: A conference to sponsor football at the FBS level) for the 2013 season. Appalachian State University accepted an invitation on March 27, 2013 to join the Sun Belt effective July 1, 2014. Georgia Southern University accepted a similar Sun Belt invitation at the same time as Appalachian State. Appalachian State and Georgia Southern both joined for all sports from the Southern Conference on July 1, 2014. Both schools had been very successful within

165-496: A four-year public school to move upward in athletic classification, including FCS to FBS. The legislative committee that must review the move did not meet until November 5, after the state's gubernatorial election . The committee unanimously approved JMU's move from FCS to FBS, and the Sun Belt move was officially announced on November 6. The original Action Network report also stated that the two full non-football SBC members, Little Rock and UT Arlington, would no longer be members of

220-605: A member of the non-football West Coast Conference , effective in 2023. The American in turn responded on October 21 by adding six schools from Conference USA (C-USA), with 2023 as the most likely entry date. Following this move, rumors began to circulate that the Sun Belt was planning to take on another three members (the University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM), Marshall University , and former Sun Belt member Old Dominion University ) from C-USA, likely in response to that conference's remaining teams worried of

275-641: A men's soccer affiliate when that school joined the Big 12 Conference in 2023. In men's soccer, the conference is not a "mid-major" conference, but a "power" conference due to the quasi-alliance of the Big 12 and SEC schools, plus the presence of a recent national champion in Marshall. On June 6, the SBC presidents & chancellors approved adding two new women's sports, beach volleyball and swimming & diving, no later than

330-468: A private four-year university under the name Little Rock University in 1957. It returned to public status in 1969 when it merged with the University of Arkansas System under its present name. The former campus of Little Rock Junior College is now (2019) the campus of Philander Smith University . At 250 acres (100 ha), the UA Little Rock campus encompasses more than 56 buildings, including

385-561: A student-run newspaper, and fraternity and sorority life. The proximity of the UA Little Rock campus to downtown Little Rock enables students to take advantage of a wide array of recreational, entertainment, educational, internship, and employment opportunities that are not available anywhere else in Arkansas. UA Little Rock provides a variety of on-campus living options for students ranging from traditional resident rooms to multiple-bedroom apartments. The university has four residence halls on

440-411: A year earlier for all sports in the 2000-01 school year) and added FBS Independent University of Louisiana at Monroe and Big West member University of Idaho as football-only members. These new members gave the Sun Belt seven football playing members in their first season, as Arkansas State and Louisiana were already full members which sponsored football. Another Big West school, Utah State University ,

495-493: A year early, departing on July 1, 2013 with FIU and North Texas. Western Kentucky also accepted an invitation to join Conference USA on April 1, 2013, and departed from the Sun Belt on July 1, 2014. These moves depleted the Sun Belt and made the need to expand their membership more urgent than ever, as the Sun Belt was left with ten full members and only eight members that sponsor football (the minimum number required for

550-514: Is Old Dominion, which won one title in women's basketball and five in the non-SBC sport of field hockey during its first conference tenure from 1982 to 1991. Six other current members have won NCAA Division I team championships prior to joining the conference. Coastal Carolina won its only D-I national title on the day before it officially joined the SBC, while representing the Big South Conference. See also: List of NCAA schools with

605-689: Is played entirely in Pensacola, Florida . First- and second-round games are played at Hartsell Arena on the campus of Pensacola State College and the Pensacola Bay Center , with semifinals and finals at the Bay Center. Winners of the tournaments earn automatic bids to their respective NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament. All 14 full Sun Belt members play football in the conference. Idaho and New Mexico State competed as single-sport members before being dropped from Sun Belt football after

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660-537: The Mid-American Conference ). Additionally, it was announced that Kentucky , South Carolina , and West Virginia would join as men's soccer affiliate members beginning in fall 2022, giving the conference an inaugural soccer membership of 9. Kentucky and South Carolina were previously also affiliated with C-USA, while West Virginia was affiliated with the MAC. The SBC later announced it would add UCF as

715-798: The NCAA's Division III . In order to maintain athletic scholarships, UNO instead opted for entry into Division II . On April 20, 2011, UNO officially received transition approval from the NCAA Division II Membership Committee. (UNO later decided to remain in Division I, and joined the Southland Conference in 2013.) On April 9, 2012, Georgia State, one of the founding members of the Sun Belt Conference, announced that it would be returning to

770-566: The South Florida Bulls , who won 8 of the first 10 Vic Bubas Cups. After USF left the conference following their 9th Cup win after the 1990 season, South Alabama took over as the dominant force in the conference, winning 8 of the next 10 competitions. Between 2001 and 2014, the only teams to win the Cup were Middle Tennessee (with 9) and Western Kentucky (with 5). Middle Tennessee left the conference after 2013 and Western Kentucky did

825-744: The Sun Belt Championship game . Following the July 30, 2021 announcement of the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Oklahoma both moving from the Big 12 Conference to the Southeastern Conference , the world of college athletics faced the prospect of realignment once again. The Big 12 responded on September 10 by adding three schools from the American Athletic Conference (The American) and BYU , an FBS independent and otherwise

880-400: The University of Alabama at Birmingham , and Virginia Commonwealth University . New Orleans was forced out of the league in 1980 due to its small on-campus gymnasium that the conference did not deem suitable for conference competition. New Orleans competed as an independent before joining the newly formed American South Conference in 1987. After the 1990–91 basketball season, all members of

935-563: The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley ), New Orleans (re-joined), Lamar University , and the University of Central Florida . Although the American South was the larger conference, the merged league retained the Sun Belt name. In 1991, the league first began to explore the idea of sponsoring football. Central Florida left the league following the 1991–92 academic year due to a dispute over television rights, among other reasons. Lamar, Texas–Pan American, and Jacksonville departed at

990-641: The WAC forced that conference to drop football after the 2012 season. Idaho and New Mexico State were the only remaining WAC members that sponsored football, and competed as FBS independents for the 2013 season before competing in the Sun Belt in 2014. Idaho is located by far the farthest away from the other Sun Belt conference members, but it was rejected by the Mountain West Conference , leaving it with no other choice. On September 1, 2015, Coastal Carolina University accepted an invitation to join

1045-469: The 2013–14 academic year. At the press conference to announce Texas State's addition, Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson also hinted that more changes could be on the way for the conference. On May 25, 2012, the conference announced that the University of Texas at Arlington (a non-football member) had accepted an invitation to join the conference and would become a full member by 2013. On May 4, 2012, FIU and North Texas announced that they would be leaving

1100-426: The 2017 season. Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference was founded on August 4, 1976, with the University of New Orleans , the University of South Alabama , Georgia State University , Jacksonville University , the University of North Carolina at Charlotte , and the University of South Florida . Over the next ten years the conference would add Western Kentucky University , Old Dominion University ,

1155-531: The 2022 expansion, with the new dividing line being the Alabama–Georgia border. The winner of each division will meet in the Sun Belt Championship game. Since the 2018 NCAA Division I FBS season, the Sun Belt Conference has held a football championship game. As of the 2022–23 NCAA football bowl games , the Sun Belt Conference had tie-ins with the following bowl games: † The Camellia Bowl

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1210-435: The 2023–24 school year. They also announced that the conference would explore adding another women's sport, field hockey, at an undetermined future date. On January 18, 2023, the SBC officially announced that its beach volleyball league would launch that spring, with the four full members sponsoring the sport joined by Charleston , Mercer , UNC Wilmington , and Stephen F. Austin as affiliate members. On August 17, 2023,

1265-961: The Center for Nanotechnology Integrative Sciences, the Emerging Analytics Center, the Sequoyah Research Center, and the Ottenheimer Library Additionally, UA Little Rock houses special learning facilities that include a learning resource center, art galleries, KUAR public radio station, University Television, and a campus-wide wireless network. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". The university features more than 100 undergraduate degrees and 60 graduate degrees, including graduate certificates, master's degrees, and doctorates, through both traditional and online courses. Students attend classes in one of

1320-712: The Football Championship Subdivision, combining to win nine national championships since 1985. They upgraded to the Football Bowl Subdivision, and were eligible for Sun Belt conference championships in 2014, but were not postseason-eligible in football until 2015. The Sun Belt also granted football-only invites to Idaho and New Mexico State on March 28, 2013. Idaho and New Mexico State were both former Sun Belt members (Idaho for football only, New Mexico State for all sports) from 2001 to 2005. The large number of defections from

1375-484: The Jack Stephens Center. UA Little Rock offers the following sports: Two Little Rock teams that do not compete in the Sun Belt are the women's swimming and diving team ( Missouri Valley Conference ) and wrestling ( Pac-12 Conference ), neither of which the Sun Belt sponsors. Wrestling is the school's newest sport, starting in 2019, and is the first Division I program in Arkansas. Little Rock will move to

1430-689: The SBC officially announced the return of women's swimming and diving as a sponsored sport.  Full members (all sports)   Full members (non-football)   Associate members (football-only)   Associate members (other)  Other Conference Other Conference In addition to the five Sun Belt commissioners, three future league leaders served on the Sun Belt staff prior to becoming conference commissioners, including Doug Elgin (Missouri Valley), John Iamarino (Northeast, Southern), and Tom Burnett (Southland). On October 12, 2011, ESPN reported that Wright Waters would retire, effective July 1, 2012. On February 15, 2012, Karl Benson

1485-643: The Sun Belt Conference sponsors championship competition in nine men's and eleven women's NCAA sanctioned sports. The most recent change to sports sponsorship was the reinstatement of women's swimming & diving in 2023–24. When Marshall was formally introduced as an incoming Sun Belt member, SBC commissioner Keith Gill also announced that the conference would reinstate men's soccer once all new members joined. Men's soccer resumed play in 2022–23 with six full members joined by three associates. Beach volleyball started play with eight members, evenly divided between full members and associates. Member-by-member sponsorship of

1540-402: The Sun Belt Conference. Old Dominion left the SBC in 1991 and returned in 2022. The Sun Belt Conference has sponsored an annual baseball tournament to determine the conference winner and automatic NCAA Division I Tournament host since 1978. South Alabama has won the most championships, at 13. The Sun Belt also has imposed several seasons under divisional structure (1981-1994; 2016-2021). In 2022,

1595-645: The Sun Belt Conference. The university joined in all sports except for football starting July 1, 2016, with football joining in 2017. The conference announced on March 1, 2016, that the affiliation agreement with Idaho and New Mexico State would not be extended past the 2017 season. The conference announced that beginning in 2018, the conference (10 teams) would be divided into two divisions for football: East: Appalachian State , Coastal Carolina , Georgia Southern , Georgia State , and Troy ; West: Arkansas State , Louisiana , Louisiana–Monroe , South Alabama , and Texas State . The winner of each division will meet in

1650-468: The Sun Belt Cup) is the Sun Belt's all-sports championship trophy, named after the Sun Belt's first commissioner Vic Bubas . The reigning champion as of the 2024–25 season is Texas State, who won their third Bubas Cup in the 2023–24 season. South Alabama has won the most Bubas Cups with 16. As of 2023–24, the scoring system is as follows: The early years of the competition were largely dominated by

1705-446: The Sun Belt for Conference USA on July 1, 2013 as part of a Conference USA expansion effort involving four other schools. On November 29, 2012, Florida Atlantic and Middle Tennessee State announced that they would also leave the Sun Belt for Conference USA. The move for Florida Atlantic and MTSU was originally scheduled to take place in 2014; however, the two schools announced on January 28, 2013 that they would leave for Conference USA

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1760-543: The Sun Belt in July 2022. They claimed to have notified C-USA of their plans in December 2021, apparently seeking to negotiate a 2022 exit. C-USA had indicated in late January 2022 that it expected the three schools to remain in that league through the 2022–23 school year. Marshall escalated the situation by filing suit against C-USA in its local court in an attempt to force a 2022 move. On March 29, Conference USA agreed to let Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss move to

1815-506: The Sun Belt starting July 1, 2022. On April 6, with the entrance of three new men's soccer-sponsoring schools in James Madison, Marshall, and Old Dominion, the Sun Belt announced that men's soccer would be reinstated as a sponsored sport. The three aforementioned programs joined current Sun Belt members Coastal Carolina (previously affiliates with Conference USA) as well as Georgia State and Georgia Southern (previously affiliates with

1870-591: The Sun Belt, except Western Kentucky, South Alabama, and Jacksonville, departed for other conferences. The Sun Belt, including incoming member the University of Arkansas at Little Rock , then merged with the American South Conference , made up of Arkansas State University , Louisiana Tech University , the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette ), the University of Texas–Pan American (now merged into

1925-478: The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees voted to accept an invitation for Little Rock to join the Ohio Valley Conference , and UT Arlington, which had been a Western Athletic Conference member in the 2012–13 school year , announced its return to that conference on January 21, 2022. Shortly thereafter, Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss announced that they planned to leave C-USA for

1980-537: The conference after the 2022–23 school year. Initial plans were for James Madison to compete as a de facto Sun Belt affiliate in sports other than football and men's soccer during the 2022–23 season. However, those plans would eventually change, with JMU and the SBC jointly announcing on February 2, 2022 that JMU would become a full SBC member, including football, in 2022–23. By the end of January 2022, both non-football members would announce their departures for other conferences, effective that July. On December 8, 2021,

2035-426: The conference as a full member in 2013. As part of the move, the football program began a transition from FCS to FBS in the 2012 season; it played a full Sun Belt schedule as a "transitional" FBS member in 2013, and became a full FBS member, with bowl eligibility, in 2014. On May 2, 2012, Texas State University announced it would leave the WAC after just one year and join the Sun Belt in July 2013 to begin play for

2090-458: The conference as an all-sports full member when the Warhawks left their former home, the Southland Conference . Longtime Sun Belt member Western Kentucky joined the Sun Belt's football conference in 2009 after its board of regents voted to upgrade the school's football program to Division I FBS . On November 11, 2009, New Orleans announced it was investigating a move from Division I to

2145-427: The conference folding. These moves would help to establish the market areas for the Sun Belt and The American, which cover similar geographic footprints. The American would now have most of its members in metropolitan areas, while the Sun Belt would instead have its members in smaller college towns . On October 22, The Action Network reported that Southern Miss had been accepted as a new Sun Belt member, with 2023 as

2200-538: The conference winner since 1978. South Alabama has won the most championships, at 13. University of Arkansas at Little Rock The University of Arkansas at Little Rock ( UA Little Rock , UALR ) is a public research university in Little Rock, Arkansas . Established as Little Rock Junior College by the Little Rock School District in 1927, the institution became

2255-489: The conference's teams, and have been bracketed in a semi-stepladder format. The bottom four seeds play in the first round; seed 5 through 10 receive byes to the second round, and the top 4 seeds to the quarterfinals. All rounds are held in Pensacola, Florida at Pensacola Bay Center since 2022. Winners of the tournaments earn automatic bids to their respective NCAA Division I basketball tournament. The Sun Belt Conference has sponsored an annual baseball tournament to determine

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2310-505: The conference. Up until 2009, the conference only had a contract with one bowl, the New Orleans Bowl . Following the Sun Belt's improved football success and geographical membership changes, other bowls began to sign contracts with the Sun Belt Conference. As of October 2021 , the conference had seven bowl game tie-ins ( Cure , Boca Raton , LendingTree , New Orleans , Myrtle Beach , Frisco , and Camellia ) Throughout

2365-427: The day after Marshall named its next president, both the Sun Belt and Marshall issued tweets announcing that school's entry; a formal announcement followed the next day and an introductory press conference was held on November 1. As for James Madison, its board met on October 29 to discuss a potential Sun Belt invitation, but its timeline was also affected by a Virginia state law that requires legislative approval for

2420-634: The eastern side of the campus and the University Village Apartment Complex on the southern side of campus. Six learning communities focusing on criminal justice, arts and culture, majors and careers, future business innovators, nursing careers, and STEM are available to students. UA Little Rock's 14 athletic teams are known as the Little Rock Trojans, with all teams participating in the Ohio Valley Conference . Little Rock's main athletic offices are located in

2475-541: The end of the 1997–98 academic year. Florida International University joined the Sun Belt in 1998, and the University of Denver was added in 1999. Louisiana Tech departed after the 2000–01 academic year. The conference did not sponsor football until 2001, when the league added former Big West Conference members New Mexico State University and the University of North Texas and former Ohio Valley Conference member (an FBS Independent on football) Middle Tennessee State University as full members (all three of them joined

2530-490: The likely entry date. The report also stated that the Sun Belt would add three more members—the aforementioned Marshall and Old Dominion, plus James Madison University , a member of the FCS Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). Southern Miss and Old Dominion were respectively announced as incoming members on October 26 and 27. At the time, both were to join no later than 2023. On October 29,

2585-434: The most NCAA Division I championships , List of NCAA schools with the most Division I national championships , and NCAA Division I FBS Conferences For more information see Sun Belt Conference football . For the current season, see 2024 Sun Belt Conference football season . The Sun Belt first began sponsoring football in 2001. It originally consisted of seven football playing schools, three of which are still members of

2640-401: The nine men's SBC sports for the 2023–24 academic year. Member-by-member sponsorship of the 11 women's SBC sports for the 2024–25 academic year. "RS" is regular season, "T" is tournament. Championships from the previous academic year are flagged with the calendar year in which the most recent season or tournament ended. The only school to have won a national title while an SBC member

2695-442: The same the following year, which paved the way for South Alabama to retake control of the Cup for each of the next 4 seasons. The trophy itself has gone through four different designs. The first was a blue and white porcelain vase and all others have been a Waterford Crystal vase (each version becoming more elaborate than the version prior). The current design was introduced during the 2022–23 season. *– No longer members of

2750-521: The structure reverted back to standard structure (1978-1980; 1995-2015; 2022-present). The Sun Belt Conference has sponsored an annual softball tournament to determine the conference winner and automatic bid to the NCAA Division I softball tournament since 2000. Louisiana has won the most championships, at 17. Since 2020–21, the Sun Belt Conference men's and women's basketball tournaments, held in early March, has involved all conference members and

2805-739: The university's three new colleges and a law school: The student life at UA Little Rock is typical of public universities in the United States. It is characterized by student-run organizations and affiliation groups that support social, academic, athletic, and religious activities and interests. Some of the services offered by the UA Little Rock Office of Campus Life are intramural sports and fitness programs, diversity programs, leadership development, peer tutoring, student government association, student support programs including groups for non-traditional and first-generation students,

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2860-523: The years, the conference has experienced flux in membership changes, similar to many other FBS conferences. The conference announced that beginning in 2018, the conference (10 teams after the departure of Idaho and New Mexico State ) would be divided into two divisions for football: East: Appalachian State , Coastal Carolina , Georgia Southern , Georgia State , and Troy ; West: Arkansas State , Louisiana , Louisiana–Monroe , South Alabama , and Texas State . The divisional alignments changed again with

2915-495: Was added as a football-only member in 2003, then departed in 2005 with Idaho and New Mexico State for the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). In 2004, Troy University became a football-only member before joining for all sports in the 2005–06 academic year. In 2005, Florida Atlantic became a football-only member before joining for all sports in the 2006-07 academic year. In 2006, Louisiana–Monroe joined

2970-428: Was hired as the new commissioner of the Sun Belt, after having been the commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference for 17 years. Waters would later move his departure date to March 15, allowing Benson to take over at that time. Keith Gill was named the commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference on March 18, 2019. He is the first African American to lead any FBS conference. As of the current 2023–24 school year,

3025-474: Was later renamed the Salute to Veterans Bowl . Football rivalries involving Sun Belt teams include: For the upcoming season, see 2024–25 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball season . This list goes through the 2021–22 season. This list goes through the 2022–23 season. Since the 2022–23 season, the Sun Belt Conference men's and women's basketball tournaments, held in early March, have involved all 14 of

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