By Christian Goeckel
SouthernPigskin.com

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The Sun Belt showed its full power on Saturday

The first two weeks of the college football season have put the Sun Belt front and center.

For so long, the conferences fame has hung its hat on App States 2007 upset over Michigan. While the win is one of the greatest moments in the history of the sport, App State was a member of the Southern Conference when it happened.

Thats all out the window now as the Sun Belt picked up three of the biggest wins in its history on Saturday.

Marshall. Excuse mexa6 MARSHALL walked into South Bend and took down the mighty Irish in Marcus Freemans first home game as head coach. The Thundering Herd, led by senior back Khalan Laborn, out rushed No. 8 Notre Dame by a 219-130 mark.

An hour later, in an even bigger venue (by size), App State stunned No. 6 Texas A&M, 17-14, in front of 92,000 Aggies fans. This was the second week in a row the Mountaineers took a P5 team to the brink, as they fell to North Carolina 63-61 in Week 1. Once again, it was the Sun Belt team taking the physicality to the bigger school, as they doubled-up the Aggies on the ground, 181-89.

Then, in the perfect nightcap, Georgia Southern stunned Nebraska in Lincoln. The 45-42 was the perfect start to Clay Heltons tenure in Statesboro. The Eagles, now completely beyond their flexbone days, scorched the Huskers to the tune of 642 total yards (409 passing, 233 rushing). Buffalo-transfer Kyle Vantrease had 409 yards through the air, but it was the 5 rushing touchdowns from Southern that put the Eagles over the top.

While Saturday was a euphoric experience for Sun Belt fans, it could become a common occurrence. The conference has a lot of things going for it:

• Fertile recruiting grounds
• 12-team College Football Playoff
• A new contract with ESPN that goes through the 2030-31 academic year
• The Transfer Portal

Fertile recruiting grounds should explain itself. A 12-team playoff will give the schools another recruiting pitch and a huge opportunity at the national level. The contract with ESPN guarantees that anyone with an internet connection can consume the conference. Ah, and the Transfer Portal. That may be the biggest key. Look at two of the wins on Saturday. App State was led by quarterback Chase Brice (Clemson/Duke), and Georgia Southern was helmed by quarterback Kyle Vantrease (Buffalo). If players find themselves unhappy with their circumstances at their current institution, the Sun Belt has all of a sudden become a very attractive landing spot.

Expansion is the name of the game in college football. Every conference seems to be in a dead sprint to create the cbestd version of itself. The Sun Belt is no different, but while some conferences have seemingly lost their geographic scope the Sun Belt has maintained a relative regionalism to its expansion.

Instead of spanning from Rutgers to Los Angeles, the Sun Belt simply reached into the Virginias from North Carolina, and filled in the gap by adding Mississippi between their schools in Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas.

Now, in the midst of all the major changes and in college football, you could easily miss whats happening in the conference. Sure, you know App States pretty good, and Louisiana’s coach went to Florida, but thats about it, right?

Wrong.

The conference, lovingly known as the cFun Beltd by its followers, is a legitimate force in the sport. The teams are anything but cfund to the opponents that often schedule them as ceasy winsd. College football writers & pundits raise an eyebrow when they see P5 schools reach out and schedule these teams.

The Sun Belt is an excellent football conference. Weve known this. The first two weeks of the season have proven it.