Sometimes it is not just the best teams that play in the title game. Who you play and where you play them can sometimes determine teams with the best record.
Today we look at the Sun Belt Conference. The Sun Belt plays a 8-game schedule so all teams have 4 home and 4 away games so there is no advantage there.
The next category to look at is conference records from last year. With no new teams in the league the numbers should match and, in the chart, below you see the numbers are 448-448 so the math is correct.
Now this method has its flaws. As an example, last year Marshall was the SBC champs and Southern Miss finished dead last at 0-8 in Sun Belt play. Due to Charlie Huff taking the job at Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles have more top players from that SBC champ on their team this year than Marshall kept! I feel Southern Miss is a tougher team than Marshall but judging it on last years records that would not be the case as records say Marshall is at the top of the league and Southern at the bottom. According to this method the team with the toughest schedule is Southern Miss with their opponents 37-27 in SBC play last year 57.8%. Next closest is James Madison at 36-28 56% with Georgia St at 35-29 54.7%. The teams that face the easiest schedule in this method are Georgia Southern and South Alabama who foes combined for 27-37 42.2% in Sun Belt play last year.
I have the chart color coded. Now, you may disagree with my ratings, but these are my Power Poll numbers which consider all nine sets of my power ratings. I have put the teams in three colors.
The top level of teams are the powers. I list those teams in RED for you do not want to play them. That top level category in no particular order are James Madison, Texas St, Louisiana and Georgia Southern.
The next level is in Blue and they are teams that look like bowl teams or bowl caliber teams for this year.
The bottom level is Green for teams that you want to draw. In my preliminary rankings right now the bottom 2 teams in the SBC are Georgia St and Marshall and those teams are in Green.
Marshall draws the toughest schedule facing all 4 of the leagues “powers” and they of course do not get to play themselves. This is a rebuilding Marshall team facing the leagues toughest schedule. Southern Miss, Arkansas St and JMU all face 3 of the leagues powers and Southern Miss and Ark St do not face either of the Green teams. Nine teams face two of the top teams in the league and the team with the best schedule is Georgia Southern which does draw JMU but avoids Louisiana and Texas St and draws both the Green teams.
Here is the chart and here is how I grade this year’s CONFERENCE schedules, keep in mind non-conference games are not included in this strength of schedule.
I know many of you order the magazine in advance so that you can be the FIRST in the country to receive one. The VIP’s have had access to the digital version of the magazine since June 9th and we mailed out all VIP’s their magazine on June 11th.
When you purchase the VIP deal you get the magazine before it hits the bookstores, you get the digital magazine for FREE, you get 4 weeks of my Inside the Pressbox newsletter for FREE, and you get my FCS magazine for FREE as well. That is over $200 worth of football info for just $39.95. That deal closed on May 30th as it is the only way to ensure all our VIP got taken care of on time.
The VIP digital bonus was even better than expected once again as all VIP members had access to the magazine three days after we sent it to the press and were reading it for close to a full week before it was even printed (3 weeks before it hit the newsstand). Also, we did not open access to the digital magazine to anyone but VIP members for a full week after that! All VIP members had a full week of EXCLUSIVE ACCESS to the digital version!
I have opened a Second Chance VIP. There are a couple of minor differences in the Second Chance VIP. Naturally right now people that sign up for the digital or buy a magazine through us online all get immediate access to the digital version so you will not have the EXCLUSIVE access that the VIP’s had but you will have immediate access to the digital magazine.
The pre-May 30th VIP’s signed up well in advance (some in December) so they got that $39.95 price. Your price is still a great one and just a little more at $45 but you get over $200 worth of stuff included! The early bird does get the worm.
The VIP DEAL gets you FOUR free issues of my Inside the Pressbox Newsletter which sells for $20 per issue. The newsletter gives you my personal analysis of every game for the weekend and supplies you with my computer’s forecast for each game projecting each team’s rush yards, pass yards and points. Your second chance comes with 4 Free College Issues (Week 0, 1, 2, 3) plus one bonus NFL week the exact same that the pre-May 30th VIP’s receive.
The VIP DEAL also will get you my 2025 Phil Steele FCS magazine (digital only) FREE and this is a $25 value! This year there are 126 games between FCS and FBS teams and you can become an instant expert on all 128 FCS teams getting the magazine in much the same format as the FBS magazine. You get two FULL pages on EVERY FCS team! Keep in mind most states have legalized gambling, and they post numbers on FCS vs FCS games, and you will have remarkable line value on these games being an expert while the majority of folks know very little about the FCS teams.
To get my second chance VIP Click here.
Last year I added a SUPER VIP deal. The price is just $25 more or basically the cost of one magazine mailed to you. In the SUPER VIP you get TWO magazines and also access to Phil Steele Plus ($99) for a FULL year thru the Super Bowl! If you are thinking of subscribing to Phil Steele Plus again for 2025, just get the SUPER VIP deal and save $30 plus get two magazines and all the other bonuses. To get the SUPER VIP membership CLICK HERE.
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