What’s the best Group of Five football conference? It’s a subjective topic with the consensus pick changing over the years. We’ve seen bursts of excellence from CUSA, MAC, the Mountain West and the American, with their top performers rewarded with poll recognition and (per the recent format) NY6 Bowls.

The Sun Belt has not yet enjoyed these rewards, despite its inarguable ascent. It’s become common social content to rank the Sun Belt as “the best of the G5,” which is flattering. Commissioner Keith Gill has worked his ass off to achieve this end. Sun Belt member programs have rolled with realignment, NIL, and portal rules. Teams have improved recruiting, invested money, and attracted top tier coaching.

Yet its reputation as “the Fun Belt” may be losing hearts and minds when the nitty gets gritty.

Polling has become a problem for the Sun Belt, and it starts with the preseason, whose polls poison all but the most blue-blooded of programs before the season even starts. Let’s take one poll for example – Phil Steele’s 2024 Power Poll, which I select because there are few organizations I respect for college football analysis more than I do Steele’s.

According to Steele, the usual Power 4 orgy appears on his Top 25. A Group of Five team doesn’t surface until Boise State (the traditional go-to Group of Five program for all pollsters) pops up at 39. Next is Memphis at 45, Liberty at 52, UTSA at 56 and South Florida at 60. It’s not until we have nearly reached the poll’s halfway mark when we see Sun Belt representation – Appalachian State at 64 (and, somewhat a surprise, Louisiana at 66). That’s three AAC, a CUSA (!) and a Mountain West program ranked ahead of the Sun Belt’s best.

Why? I’m not going to spend time besmirching the programs ranked ahead of the Sun Belt. I won’t even point out that Liberty, for the second season in the row, plays the easiest schedule in all of FBS football. I won’t remind you that South Florida went 6-6 last year, or that Boise State’s 8 wins last season wasn’t particularly special either. I can’t explain why the Sun Belt doesn’t receive the respect in polls that it’s owed, except that perhaps there yet lingers the idea that the Mountain West and AAC are somehow, overall, tougher conferences.

This seemed to be the case last season, when Troy and James Madison both finished 7-1 in conference and still failed to crack the College Football Playoff final 25 (weak scheduled Liberty and ACC bound SMU were the only G5s that did). In fact, there seemed to be zero enthusiasm outside of the Sun Belt to push Troy – the eventual Sun Belt champion – into the poll. The hive-thinking seemed to be “Liberty is undefeated, so stick them somewhere near the bottom and let’s go ahead and assume that SMU is worthy because their going to be P4 next year.” It is noteworthy to note that the Mustangs are #21 in Steele’s 2024 poll.

The stigma of “Fun Belt” and its reputation for creative playmaking compensating for undersized, under-skilled players is a hard thing to shake. The Sun Belt has gotten significantly bigger, stronger and faster, but ESPN commentators still promote every game like its going to be a no-defense, 100-point shootout. Oh, those wacky Sun Belt teams! What trick play will they unleash upon us next?

If you think I’m overblowing the effect a playful moniker can have on a conference, take a look at MACtion. So cute that they play on Tuesday nights! Doesn’t matter how many teams Toledo stomped into the tundra. Look out for the Thursday evening flea flicker!

Meanwhile, observe with awe how effective “Power 6” was for the American. We laughed at it, of course, but Mike Aresco branded it so damn hard and shamelessly that national pundits began to repeat it without a second thought. As a result, a whopping seven of the last ten Group of Five NY6 (plus Playoff) programs have hailed from the AAC. They were a “power” conference, after all.

Listen, I’m a co-host of a podcast called “FunBelt Podcast” so yeah, I’m 100% part of what is a portion of the problem. Renaming the pod isn’t a solution, though. What would be helpful is that pollsters refrain from posting polls until at least the fifth week. It’s preposterous that Miami, who I have randomly picked for this example, has to fail out of the poll while everybody else outside of the Top 25 have to claw themselves up.

Furthermore, it would be super great if the College Football Playoff Committee would watch teams that don’t just belong to the Big 10 and SEC. Liberty and its FCS level competition had zero business being ranked, let alone playing against Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl. Not that I have anything against Liberty, the school of no morals.

IMAGE: AI Monstrosity