Is A Sun Belt Football Championship Game Around the Corner?

The Sun Belt Conference could be a player when it comes to holding a conference championship game.

And, it could be sooner rather than later.

According to a story from Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com, legislation that would de-regulate the criteria for staging a championship game could be in place by 2016.

This would take away the requirement that a conference have at least twelve members in order to stage a league championship game.

While the story reported nationally will focus on the Big 12, the Sun Belt falls into that category as well.

Currently, the Sun Belt has eleven football playing schools. The league is playing eight conference games. And ever since Karl Benson has become the league's commissioner, he's talked about the advantages of getting to twelve schools so a championship game could be held.

Schools such as Liberty, James Madison and Eastern Kentucky have been mentioned as possible candidates, but last year at the spring meetings, none of those schools were attractive enough to the league's presidents to even bring a school up to a vote.

And, while rumors persist, there has been no concrete evidence or reports from any reliable source that would indicate anything is going to change this May when the spring meetings are held.

This legislation could make all of the message board fodder moot.

If the proposal is passed, as expected, the Sun Belt will have some options to consider.

1. LEAVE THINGS THE WAY THEY ARE--Continue with eleven schools. Continue to end the season after everyone plays eight conference games. Team with the best record is the champion. No one is going to get hurt by staying the same, but the biggest reason to have a title game was magnified this past season when Georgia Southern won the league title without having to play contenders Louisiana and Arkansas State. The Eagles will not play the two schools this year either.

2. HOLD FAST WITH MEMBERSHIP BUT HAVE A TITLE GAME--It could be as simple as taking the top two teams in the league and having them play one another for the title at the home of the regular season champion. Who cares if the two teams met during the regular season? Happens all the time in title games.

3. AT A TWELFTH--Not likely to happen, especially with the new legislation. The message sent last year was pretty clear: Adding for the sake of adding isn't what the CEO's want to do. Adding someone becomes less critical now. The issue of travel for non-football sports still needs to be addressed, but simply adding a twelfth member may not be the route to go unless it's non-football to get to twelve and have travel partners. The timing may not even be right for that.

4. ADD BY SUBTRACTING---For years, I've read on message boards "we need to get rid of so and so." And, those trolls exist on just about every conference message board in America. But this time it might be reasonable to look at it. Nothing against Idaho. Nothing at all. But everyone will agree it's a shoe that just doesn't fit. This might be the right time to give them proper notice to try and find another home. That would bring football membership to ten. New Mexico State could be added for all sports to make twelve for basketball, baseball, volleyball, etc. Yes. I'm beating the New Mexico State drum again. I maintain they'd be a good addition. It would mean some geographic discomfort (for lack of a better word) as far as travel partners would be concerned. But it would be workable.

Regardless of what the league decided to do as far as a championship game is concerned, this legislation is going to be good for the Sun Belt. The main reason is because the league only needs to add a member if they really, really, really bring something to the table besides the chance to have a football championship game.

Because it can now be done without addition.