Sun Belt Conference
Established	1976
Association	NCAA
Division	Division I FBS
Members	12 (11 in 2012, 12 in 2013)
Sports fielded	19 (men's: 9; women's: 10)
Region	Southern United States
Headquarters	New Orleans, Louisiana
Commissioner	Karl Benson (since 2012)
Website	sunbeltsports.org
Locations

The Sun Belt Conference is a college athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Its football teams participate in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the higher of two levels of Division I football competition (formerly known as Division I-A). The Sun Belt has member institutions distributed primarily across the southern United States. It has 12 universities and colleges.

Membership[link]

Current members[link]

Departing members in pink.

• Denver will join the Western Athletic Conference on July 1, 2012. North Texas and FIU will join Conference USA on July 1, 2013.
• South Alabama will become a football member in July 2012. It will not be eligible for the conference title, or for postseason play, until it completes its FBS transition in 2013.

Future members[link]

• Georgia State will become an all-sports member, including football, in 2013. However, as a transitional FBS school, it will not be eligible for the conference title, or for postseason play, until 2014.

Former members[link]

Membership timeline[link]

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  bar:3  color:FullxF from:1976 till:1991 text:South Florida (1976–1991)

  bar:4  color:FullxF from:1976 till:1998 text:Jacksonville (1976–1998)

  bar:5  color:FullxF from:1976 till:1980 text:New Orleans (1976–1980)

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  bar:6  color:FullxF from:1976 till:2012 text:South Alabama (1976–present)

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  bar:13 color:FullxF from:1991 till:1998 text:Lamar (1991–1998)

  bar:14 color:FullxF from:1991 till:1998 text:Texas–Pan American (1991–1998)

  bar:15 color:FullxF from:1991 till:2001 text:Louisiana Tech (1991–2001)

  bar:16 color:FullxF from:1991 till:end text:Arkansas State (1991–present)

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  bar:17 color:FullxF from:1991 till:end text:Louisiana–Lafayette (1991–present)

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  bar:18 color:FullxF from:1998 till:2001 text:Florida International (1998–2013)

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  bar:19 color:FullxF from:1999 till:2012 text:Denver (1999–2012)

  bar:20 color:Full from:2001 till:2005 text:New Mexico State (2001–2005)

  bar:21 color:Full from:2001 till:end text:Middle Tennessee State (2001–present)

  bar:22 color:Full from:2001 till:2013 text:North Texas (2001–2013)

  bar:23 color:AssocF from:2001 till:end text:Louisiana–Monroe (football only, 2001–2006; full, 2006–present)

         color:Full from:2006 till:end

  bar:24 color:AssocF from:2001 till:2005 text:Idaho (football only, 2001–2005)

  bar:25 color:AssocF from:2003 till:2005 text:Utah State (football only, 2003–2005)

  bar:26 color:Full from:2005 till:end text:Troy (2005–present)

  bar:27 color:Full from:2005 till:end text:Florida Atlantic (2005–present)

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Full members (non-football) Full members Associate members (football only)

History[link]

Locations of Sun Belt Conference member institutions after July 1st 2013.

The Sun Belt Conference was founded on August 4, 1976 with New Orleans, South Alabama, Georgia State, Jacksonville, UNC Charlotte and South Florida. Over the next ten years the conference would add Western Kentucky, Old Dominion, Alabama–Birmingham (UAB), and Virginia Commonwealth. Also, New Orleans was forced out of the league in 1980 due to its small on-campus gymnasium that the Conference did not deem suitable for Conference competition. UNO competed as an independent before joining the newly-formed American South Conference in 1987.

After the 1990–91 basketball season, all members of the Sun Belt except Western Kentucky, South Alabama, Jacksonville, and incoming member Arkansas–Little Rock departed for other conferences. The Sun Belt then merged with the American South Conference, made up of Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Southwestern Louisiana (now Louisiana–Lafayette), Texas-Pan American, New Orleans, Lamar, and Central Florida. UCF left the league following the 1991-92 academic year. Lamar, Texas-Pan American and Jacksonville departed at the end of the 1997-98 academic year. Florida International (FIU) joined in 1998, and Denver was added in 1999. Louisiana Tech departed after the 2000-01 academic year.

The conference did not sponsor football until 2001, when the league added former Big West Conference members New Mexico State and North Texas and then-independent Middle Tennessee State as full members and added independent Louisiana–Monroe (ULM) and Big West member Idaho as "football only" members. Another Big West school, Utah State, was added as a "football only" member in 2003, then departed in 2005 with Idaho and New Mexico State for the WAC.

In 2004, Troy became a "football only" member until 2005 when they joined the conference in all sports. In 2006, Louisiana–Monroe joined the conference as a member in all sports when it left the Southland Conference, and Florida Atlantic joined the conference in all sports.

On November 11, 2009, New Orleans announced they were investigating a move from Division I to the NCAA's Division III. In order to maintain athletic scholarships, UNO instead opted for entry into Division II. On April 20, 2011, UNO officially received transition approval from NCAA Division II Membership Committee.^[6]

Florida Atlantic joined the league as a member in all sports on July 1, 2005. Western Kentucky joined the Sun Belt Conference for football in 2009 after its Board of Regents voted to upgrade the school's football program to Division I FBS.^[7]

On April 9, 2012, Georgia State, one of the founding members of the Sun Belt Conference, announced that it would be returning to the conference as a full member in 2013. As part of the move, the football program will begin a transition from FCS to FBS in the 2012 season; it will play a full Sun Belt schedule as a "transitional" FBS member in 2013, and become a full FBS member, with bowl eligibility, in 2014.^[8] On May 2, 2012, Texas State announced it would leave the WAC after just one year and join the Sun Belt in July 2013 to begin play for the 2013-14 academic year. At the press conference to announce Texas State's addition, Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson also hinted that more changes could be on the way for the conference.^[9] On May 25, 2012, the conference announced that the Texas-Arlington had accepted an invitation to join the conference and would become a full member by 2013.

Commissioners[link]

• Vic Bubas (1976–1990)
• Jim Lessig (1990–1991)
• Craig Thompson (1991–1998)
• Wright Waters (1999–2012)
• Karl Benson (2012–present)

In addition to the five Sun Belt commissioners, three future league leaders served on the Sun Belt staff prior to becoming conference commissioners, including Doug Elgin (Missouri Valley), John Iamarino (Northeast, Southern) and Tom Burnett (Southland).

On October 12, 2011, ESPN reported that Wright Waters would retire, effective July 1, 2012.^[10] On February 15, 2012, Karl Benson was hired as the new commissioner of the Sun Belt, after having been the commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference for 17 years. Waters would later move his departure date to March 15, allowing Benson to take over at that time.^[8]

Sports[link]

The Sun Belt sponsors championships in nine men's and ten women's sports.

Football[link]

For the current season, see 2011 Sun Belt Conference football season

^[11]

Sun Belt champions

Bowl games

The Sun Belt has secondary tie-ins to serve as an alternate in the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl or Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl if the primary contracted participants cannot participate.^[12]

Rivalries

Football rivalries involving Sun Belt teams include:

Basketball[link]

Baseball[link]

The Sun Belt Conference has sponsored an annual baseball tournament to determine the conference winner since 1978. South Alabama has won the most championships, at 11.

• Teams in bold represent current conference members.

Championships[link]

NCAA champions[link]

The following current Sun Belt teams have won NCAA Division I team championships:

Facilities[link]

Notes:

• Arkansas–Little Rock normally plays its home basketball games on campus but occasionally plays at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock.
• Although the Georgia Dome has a football capacity of 71,228, Georgia State normally uses a configuration with a capacity of only 28,155.
• Louisiana–Lafayette women's basketball team primarily plays at Earl K. Long Gymnasium. Doubleheaders with the men's basketball team are played at the Cajundome.
• Troy is currently constructing the New Troy University arena, which is scheduled to open during Fall 2012.
• Western Kentucky occasionally plays home games at LP Field in Nashville to accommodate larger crowds.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website

The Sun Belt

Regional statistics
Composition	Alabama Arizona California Florida Georgia Louisiana Mississippi Nevada New Mexico North Carolina South Carolina Texas
Demonym	Sun Belter
Population  - Total  - Density	109,073,023 (2008 est.)[1]
Largest city	Los Angeles (pop. 3,792,621)
Largest Metropolitan Area	Greater Los Angeles (pop. 18,880,000 as of 2009 estimate)

The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the South and Southwest (the geographic southern United States). Another rough boundary of the region is the area south of the 36th parallel, north latitude. It is the largest region which the U.S government does not recognize officially (in its postal regions and census).^{[citation needed]} The main defining feature of the Sun Belt is its warm-temperate climate with extended summers and brief, relatively mild winters; Florida, the Gulf Coast, and southern Texas, however, have a true subtropical climate.

The Belt has seen substantial population growth in recent decades (1960s to recent) fueled by milder winters; a surge in retiring baby boomers who migrate domestically; and the influx of immigrants, both legal and illegal. This population boom has been less substantial in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama compared with their western and eastern neighbor states. Also, over the past several decades, air conditioning has made it easier for people to deal with the heat in portions of the region during the summertime. Water shortages are becoming a common problem in the region.^[2][3]

Definition[link]

The Belt comprises the southern tier of the United States and is usually considered to include the states of Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, roughly half of California (up to Greater Sacramento), and at least parts of Arkansas, North Carolina, and southern Nevada; more expansively, Colorado, Oklahoma, Virginia and Utah (and all of California and Nevada) are sometimes considered as Sun Belt states.^[4][5]

Author and political analyst Kevin Phillips claims to have coined the term "to describe the oil, military, aerospace and retirement country stretching from Florida to California" in his 1969 book The Emerging Republican Majority.^[6]

The term "Sun Belt" became synonymous with the southern third of the nation in the early 1970s. There was a shift in this period from the previously economically and politically important northeast to the south and west. Events such as the huge migration of immigrant workers from Mexico, warmer climate, and a boom in the agriculture industry allowed for the southern third of the U.S.A. to grow economically. The climate spurred not only agricultural growth, but also saw many retirees move into retirement communities in the region, especially in Florida and Arizona.

Industries such as aerospace, defense and oil boomed in the Sun Belt as companies took advantage of the low involvement of labor unions in the south (due to more recent industrialization; 1930's through 1950's) and enjoyed the proximity to many U.S. military installations who were the major consumers of their products. The oil industry helped propel southern states such as Texas and Louisiana forward, and tourism grew in Florida and southern California as well. In more recent decades high tech and new economy industries have been major drivers of growth in California, Florida and some other parts of the Sun Belt. Texas and California rank among the top five states in the nation with the most number of Fortune 500 companies, with New York, Illinois, and Pennsylvania rounding out the top five.

Since 1970, the Belt states have gained 25 electoral votes. Since Lyndon B. Johnson's election in 1964, every elected United States President, with the exception of Barack Obama from Illinois, has been from the Sun Belt. (Gerald Ford, who was from Michigan, became president following Richard Nixon's resignation, but was not elected as president, and lost to Georgia's Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election.)

Projections[link]

As of 2005 the U.S. Census Bureau projected that approximately 88% of the U.S. population growth between 2000 and 2030 will occur in the Sun Belt.^[7] California, Texas, and Florida are each expected to add more than 12 million people during that time which will make these by far the most populous states in the nation. Arizona, North Carolina, and Metropolitan Atlanta are also expected to make major population gains. Nevada, Arizona, Florida, and Texas are expected to be the fastest growing states.

Events leading up to and including the 2008-2009 recession have led many to question whether growth projections for the Sun Belt have been overstated.^[8] The economic bubble that led to the recession appears, to many observers, to have been more acute in the Sun Belt than many other parts of the country. Additionally the traditional lure of cheaper labor markets in the belt compared to many of the older industrial centers has been eroded by the overseas outsourcing trend of the recent decade.

One of the greatest threats facing the Belt in the coming decades is water shortages.^[9] Communities in California are making plans to build potentially multiple desalination plants to supply fresh water and avert near-term crises.^[10] Texas, Georgia and Florida also face increasingly serious shortages because of their rapidly expanding populations.^[11]

Environment[link]

The environment in the Belt is extremely valuable, not only to local and state governments, but to the Federal Government. Eight of the ten states have extremely high biodiversity (ranging from 3,800 to over 6700 species, not including marine life).^[12] The Sun Belt also has the highest number of distinct ecosystems: chaparral, deciduous, desert, grasslands, and tropical rainforest. From the marshes on Florida's mainland to its extensive coral reefs, this state leads in the region and the entire U.S. for its supreme diversity in animal and plant species.

American Crocodile, an endangered species

Some of the most endangered species live within the Belt^[13][14] and include:

• Black-Footed Ferret
• Ocelot
• North Atlantic Right Whale
• California Condor
• Leatherback Sea Turtle
• Florida Panther
• Hammerhead Shark
• American Crocodile

It has been said^{[by whom?]} that with strict enforcement through many environmental laws, some species that are endangered in the Sun Belt will regain a better title,^{[clarification needed What is a title?]} such as the American Alligator.^[15]

Major cities within the Sun Belt[link]

Largest metropolitan areas^[16]

Name	Population (million)	GMP (US$ billion)
Greater Los Angeles	18.88 (2009 est.)	$697.9
San Francisco Bay Area	7.15 (2010)	$298.3
Dallas – Fort Worth Metroplex	6.8 (2009 est.)	$379.9
Greater Houston	5.96 (2009 est.)	$403.2
Metro Atlanta	5.83 (2009 est.)	$269.8
Greater Miami	5.54 (2009 est.)	$261.3
Phoenix Metro	4.36 (2009 est.)	$187.4
San Diego metropolitan area	3.05 (2009 est.)	$169.3
International regions
San Diego–Tijuana	5.0 (2009 est.)	$176
El Paso–Juárez	2.5 (2005 est.)

The four largest metropolitan areas are the Greater Los Angeles Area, San Francisco Bay Area, Dallas – Fort Worth Metroplex, and Greater Houston. The Greater Los Angeles Area is by far the largest Metropolitan area with almost 18.7 million inhabitants as of 2009. The eight largest metropolitan areas are found in the states of California, Texas, Georgia, Florida, and Arizona.^[16] Additionally the cross-border metrolitan areas of San Diego - Tijuana and El Paso - Juárez lie partially within this belt. Seven of the ten largest cities (proper) in the U.S. are located in the Sun Belt: Los Angeles (2nd), Houston (4th), Phoenix (5th), San Antonio (7th), San Diego (8th), Dallas (9th), and San Jose (10th).

Major cities

State	City
California	Bakersfield, Fresno, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco
Nevada	Las Vegas
Arizona	Phoenix, Tucson, Flagstaff
New Mexico	Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Rio Rancho, Santa Fe
Texas	Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Ft. Worth, Houston, San Antonio
Louisiana	Baton Rouge, New Orleans
Alabama	Birmingham-Hoover, Mobile, Montgomery
Mississippi	Jackson
Georgia	Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, Savannah
Tennessee	Chattanooga, Clarksville, Knoxville, Memphis, Nashville
Florida	Ft. Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Tampa, West Palm Beach
North Carolina	Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, Winston-Salem, Durham, Wilmington, Jacksonville
South Carolina	Charleston, Columbia, Greenville

See also[link]

United States portal

• Corn Belt
• Economy of the United States
• Rust Belt

References[link]

General[link]

• B. L. Weinstein and R. E. Firestine, Regional Growth and Decline in the United States: The Rise of the Sunbelt and the Decline of the Northeast (1978)

• Hollander, Justin B. (forthcoming, 2011). Sunburnt Cities: The Great Recession, Depopulation, and Urban Planning in the American Sunbelt. London/New York: Routledge.

Coordinates: 32°N 100°W / 32°N 100°W / 32; -100