2026 College Football Preview: Sun Belt

Photo by Robert Simmons from The Associated Press

We finish 2026 preview season with the only conference to still believe in geographic divisions.

Last season, the Sun Belt made their debut in the college football playoff, with James Madison taking the trip to Eugene, Oregon and facing the Ducks.

Now, with a new coach, they’ll try to repeat.

But who will be knocking at the door to knock them off?

Better Luck Next Year

Louisiana Monroe Warhawks

I was very, very happy with Bryant Vincent’s first year at ULM.

He took over a program that was 1000% dead in the water, and got them to 5 wins in his first year there.

Then, last season, ULM’s athletic director John Hartwell resigned right before the season began, and the school announced Bryant Vincent would be the interim AD.

So Bryant Vincent was not only coaching at one of the most difficult programs to succeed in, but was also temporarily running the athletic department.

That meant ULM went from 5-7 to 3-9.

And while the Warhawks return a lot of talent, and now have an actual athletic director (who is S.J. Tuohy. Yeah. S.J. Tuohy. The kid from The Blindside. He’s the ULM AD now), it remains to be seen whether the first year for Bryant Vincent, or the season from hell a year ago, was the true story for ULM.

Considering their history in the sport, my money is on the latter.

Southern Miss Golden Eagles

Southern Miss was a mess.

Then, Charles Huff came in, brought pretty much all of Marshall with him, and their win total went from 1 win to 7 wins.

Bad news! Huff is gone again, and took all of his players with him again.

Now, it’s time for Blake Anderson to start from scratch again, and Anderson, despite a good start to his coaching career at Arkansas State, failed to deliver at Utah State, and was fired for sexual misconduct.

No bueno.

Georgia State Panthers

Maybe this program is just beyond saving.

Dell McGee was hired late in 2024, knew Atlanta, and knew Georgia in general from his time as a coach with the Bulldogs.

They won 2 games in 2024, but I don’t blame him for that. It was a brand new hire. He needed a full cycle.

And in 2025, he got one, and the results were another 2-10 season.

Now, McGee hits the reset button again, with only 38% of players returning from last year.

The issue is, I’m not sure it matters.

This is a tough conference, it’s a hard place to win at, and McGee doesn’t look up for the job.

This feels dead in the water.

South Alabama Jaguars

I’m out on Major Applewhite.

I know it’s only going to be the third year for him, and they had to deal with a lot of portal turnover in their 4-8 season a year ago, but in his first year there, the Jags went 7-6 despite having Gio Lopez, Fluff Bothwell, and Lardarius Webb Jr., among others, on the roster.

All three of those players hit the portal and moved up, and they still only went 7-6.

And now, Applewhite has to start over again, returning 44% of their production.

Frankly, I’m not sure I trust him to get it right.

Bowl Game Bound

Arkansas State Red Wolves

The issue here is the quarterback.

Both starter Jaylen Raynor and backup Josh Flowers are gone, so Butch Jones had to go portal hunting to get his new QB.

But if he got it right, the foundation is there for a 6 win season, and Jones has gotten the Red Wolves right in his tenure there.

It’s been far from sexy in his time there, but it gets to bowls.

And for some programs, that’s enough.

Marshall Thundering Herd

As a West Virginia grad, the thing people want most in that state are those who truly understand what it means to be there.

Now, WVU fans might say Marshall is not the premier university in West Virginia (and they’re right, frankly), and head coach Tony Gibson spent the hefty majority of his career at WVU as an assistant, but Gibson does get it.

Gibson knows what it means to coach in the state, and it’s why he was able to take a Marshall team that lost basically everybody the year prior to a 5-7 season.

Now, with stability on the offense and another year of Gibson’s defensive system in place, the foundation is set for Marshall to get back to fighting for Sun Belt titles.

But let’s take some baby steps to get there first, and just focus on a bowl.

Georgia Southern Eagles

One thing you can rely on is Georgia Southern getting to a bowl.

Since they joined FBS, they have gone bowling in 8 of their 12 seasons, as well as every year under Clay Helton.

But most of those seasons end with only 6 wins, so it’s not exactly like they’re moving up in the world.

So it’s smart to expect a bowl again in Statesboro, but it should be better than that, shouldn’t it?

Appalachian State Mountaineers

Much like Georgia Southern, App State is a former FCS power that has found themselves in a small period of mediocrity, and nothing more, having won 6 or less games in three of their last four seasons.

Now, it’s up for second year coach Dowell Loggains to get them back on track, and he does so with a lot of turnover, bringing in transfer QBs Malachi Singleton and Henry Hasselbeck, as well as Keshawn Thomas and Cary Grant defensively.

If they get the QB right, and the defense improves, it may kickstart another great era of App State football.

Coastal Carolina Chanticleers

There’s two eras of CCU football in FBS.

There’s the Jamey Chadwell era, which was fantastic, and saw multiple 11 win seasons before Chadwell left for Liberty, and there was the Tim Beck era, which was filled with mediocrity and multiple 6 win seasons.

Now, Ryan Beard comes over after a successful stint as Missouri State’s head coach, and he brings over a good amount of his players that got the Bears to a bowl game last year.

Now, the Sun Belt is a harder conference than Conference USA, but the continuity of Beard and his players should mean that Coastal hits the ground running.

The only downside? Transferring over lots of offensive linemen, which Coastal did, doesn’t always work.

We’ll see.

Louisiana Tech Bulldogs

I wrote off Sonny Cumbie.

It was just a lifeless era of La Tech football, and there were no signs whatsoever that they were going to get out of it. It was time for a change.

And then, the Bulldogs won 8 games.

Now, in their first year in the Sun Belt, they return 62% of their production this year to help make the transition a lot easier.

Maybe Cumbie just builds programs the old fashioned way and takes a few years before you start seeing results.

Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns

Michael Desormeaux, taking over from Billy Napier, had success two years ago after a couple of mediocre seasons, and got to 10 wins.

And then, after his team was raided by the portal, he decided to go the Dabo Swinney route and not replace them with transfers himself.

It went poorly.

Now, they bring in only 5 transfers once again.

I mean, it might work?

But the data doesn’t fare well.

Dark Horses

Old Dominion Monarchs

The Monarchs won 10 last season, which is an excellent season, but they did lose a ton of production from last year to this year.

But the defense remains, and Rahne, formerly a QB coach at Penn State, knows what he needs to do to win at ODU after nailing it last year.

It’s going to rely on transfers (and a down year from their Sun Belt East Rival that we will get to in a bit), but if it works, they can fight for a title.

Troy Trojans

Is Troy the best team in the Sun Belt?

No.

Are they the second best team in the Sun Belt?

Honestly, probably not!

But remember what I said earlier?

The Sun Belt still has divisions, and Troy is likely the best team in the West, going 8-6 and making the Sun Belt title game last year.

Now, the Trojans return a ton of their offense, and all you need to do is get to the title game.

There, anything can happen.

After all, the Trojans almost spoiled JMU’s playoff party last year in the Sun Belt title game.

The Favorites

James Madison Dukes

Bob Chesney has gone to UCLA, but Billy Napier steps in to replace him.

And you can say what you want about Billy Napier’s tenure at Florida, but during his time as the head coach of Louisiana, he was outstanding.

Even though JMU lost a ton in the portal with Chesney leaving, Napier brought in 41 transfers to replace them, including multiple P4 guys like Noel Portnjagin from Florida and Davi Belfort from UCF.

JMU doesn’t strike me as a playoff team this year, but I don’t think that matters.

They’re still the best team in the Sun Belt.