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When the 2024 college football season begins, every team in the Football Bowl Subdivision will have a path to the national championship.
You may ask yourself, haven’t they always? The easy answer to that question is no. Teams in the “Group of Five,” sometimes referred to as the “Non-Autonomous” conferences, have not been included in championship conversations. From the old way of voting for a champion, to the four-team College Football Playoff, these teams have been left out, even when many of them have gone undefeated.
The new 12-team playoff provides the guarantee that at least one team from these conferences will get a chance to play for the title. That has Sun Belt Commissioner Keith Gill excited for the 2024 season.
“The Sun Belt has been a proponent of expansion from the beginning. The process to get to this point was long and arduous, but the outcomes were positive and certainly worth the hard work.”
Gill made that remark as he addressed the room to kick off Sun Belt Football Media Days 2024 at the Marriott Warehouse Arts District hotel in New Orleans.
The world of college football is changing rapidly, and the Sun Belt Conference recognizes that. The new 12-team format provides new opportunities, and Gill thinks that is where the focus of the league should be. While some have brought up the idea of a separate playoff for “non-autonomous” schools, he remained adamant that the Sun Belt is does not want to participate in those conversations.
“I want to be clear on our thoughts on those efforts… the Sun Belt is not interested.”
Another area where the Sun Belt Conference has been different than many other leagues is their regional alignment. The focus on regional rivalries and a regional footprint of the member institutions has not been by accident, and that was reiterated. The conference also continues to use divisions, and now represents the only FBS conference to do so. With the increased importance of the College Football Playoff, Gill did say that the league will reevaluate if divisions start to have a negative impact.
Regarding the continued growth of the league, the commissioner remained confident.
“The Sun Belt continues to rise, turn heads, and prove we are a star.”
As the 2024 season gets closer, it is clear that the Sun Belt has been on an upward trajectory. However, in an unstable environment of college athletics, it will continue to be important for the conference to use the momentum and propel itself forward this season and beyond.