GSU: Southern to Sun Belt?

Georgia State’s move to the Sun Belt Conference will likely result in the school having its first meaningful rivalries in over a decade and continued conference realignment may give the Panthers an in-state conference foe.


Georgia State, who joins the Sun Belt as its football program makes the jump to the FBS level, already had ambitions of regional rivalries with South Alabama, who is 1-1 against State in football, and Troy, who was formerly a conference foe of the Panthers in the TAAC.

However, the AJC is reporting that Georgia Southern and Appalachian State may eventually join the Sun Belt as conference realignment continues.  The move would create an instate in-state rivalry for the Panthers with Georgia Southern, who would welcome such a relationship:

“[Tom] Kleinlein (Southern’s athletic director) called a rivalry with Georgia State in the Sun Belt “very appealing.” He noted the possibility of incorporating corporate sponsorship of an all-sports trophy that the universities could compete for annually.”

In all fairness, Georgia State and Georgia Southern have a rivalry -- mostly bickering over which school is the real ‘GSU’ on message boards (to settle the matter, where does this link take you and what is the URL?) -- and the schools’ baseball, softball and soccer programs regularly play each other, in addition to matchups in other sports.  The schools also had a bit of rivalry when they were both members of the TAAC in the '80 and early '90s.

As is well explained by the AJC’s Panthers beat reporter, Doug Roberson, the move would create stability in numbers for the conference.  Southern and Appalachian State would grow to the FBS level and join an established conference, while the Sun Belt would eagerly welcome two of the top FCS programs in the nation as they batten down the hatches in the turbulent word or realignment:

“Benson’s conference has eight football-playing members. It can remain at eight, but by doing so it remains exposed if it were to lose a school to another conference. The Sun Belt could use at least 10 to ease scheduling and at least 12 to stage a championship game. Benson hasn’t said which schools his conference is considering, but it has been speculatively tied to four: Georgia Southern and Appalachian State, along with Idaho and New Mexico State, who are independents. The earliest any team could join is 2014.”

This beautiful map of the 2013 Sun Belt Conference alignment is courtesy the Dothan Eagle Troy Blog.  *UPDATE:  The AJC's Doug Roberson let me know this map isn't entirely accurate -- but it still is perty.

Georgia State would likely welcome the addition of Georgia Southern and Appalachian State, but the inclusion of New Mexico State and Idaho certainly must cause some concern for the school.  In part, Georgia State’s reasoning for departing the CAA included reduced travel expenses -- and trips to beautiful Moscow, Idaho certainly didn’t factor into those decisions.  But for the conference, the possibility of a championship game must be appealing -- can you say TV rights?

Regarding Southern, the opportunity to create a meaningful in-state rivalry for the Panthers makes the move especially intriguing to Georgia State.  In the school’s final years of A-Sun play, the team lacked any sort of natural rival -- if any rival at all -- and the school failed to develop an adversary in the CAA.  The Panthers never performed well enough in CAA basketball to warrant a rivalry and the closest regional rivalry with UNC Wilmington felt forced at best.

The move to the Sun Belt already had potential for the Panthers to foster their first rivalries in over a decade.  The potential membership of Georgia Southern only increases the appeal of the Sun Belt for the Panthers.