According to ESPN's Brent McMurphy, the Sun Belt has their bowl situation figured out. Arkansas State to the New Orleans Bowl, Georgia Southern to the GoDaddy.com Bowl and Appalachian State to the Camelia Bowl.
The selections are not a huge surprise for anyone. The New Orleans Bowl has the first Sun Belt selection and having at least a share of the Sun Belt Conference Title, Arkansas State makes the most sense. The game kicks off from the Superdome at 9:00 pm ET versus a Conference USA opponent on Saturday, December 19th on ESPN.
The second Sun Belt choice is the GoDaddy.com Bowl. With the game being moved up to Wednesday, December 23rd, it decided to go with the closer of the second place schools in Georgia Southern. The game kicks off from Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama at 8:00 pm ET against a MAC opponent on ESPN.
The third Sun Belt choice is the Camelia Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama. That's where Appalachian falls against a MAC opponent. The game kicks off on Saturday, December 19th at 5:30 pm ET on ESPN.
The Sun Belt also has a fourth bowl tie-in with the inaugural Cure Bowl in Orlando versus an American Athletic Conference foe. Currently, no Sun Belt team is bowl eligible, but that could change. At 5-6, both South Alabama and Georgia State could fill in the spot if one wins and the other loses this weekend. The bad news for both is that they face Appalachian State and Georgia Southern, respectively, and will be big underdogs going in. The Cure Bowl is also on Saturday, December 19th at 7:00 pm ET on CBS Sports.
If both teams win and give the Sun Belt five bowl-eligible teams, that won't be a problem this season. Conference USA only has five bowl-eligible teams and seven slots to fill. One of those games in the inaugural Arizona Bowl Tuscon, which the Sun Belt has a secondary tie-in with. So it would seem likely that either South Alabama or Georgia State, should be win this Saturday, be headed to the desert for a 5:30 pm ET kickoff on Tuesday, December 29th, broadcast on the American Sports Network.
For Arkansas State, this would be the fifth bowl in a row, with the previous four all being the GoDaddy.com Bowl. For both Appalachian State and Georgia Southern, it will be their first bowl game as new FBS members in their first season of bowl eligibility.