UDD Sun Belt Writers Discuss The Pre-Season Poll

The Underdog Dynasty Sun Belt writers put together a pre-season poll in conjunction with Media Day. As is tradition every-time UDD writers do something together, discussion took place.

Will: Some of these results are hilarious. Texas State was picked anywhere from 1st to 7th, and meanwhile everyone's sitting there picking South Alabama like 5th through 7th and then BOOM TK with a 10th place vote.

Nic: Haters gon hate

TK:  I went by what I feel will happen this year, not a retread of last year.

Nic: Ok, is there any modification of scoring for blatant homerism? Joe picked Georgia State to finish f*&%ing sixth. There is no way GaSt beats Troy, ULM, and then wins in Las Cruces. I think the real reason you aren't modifying his score it's because he voted Texas State first.

Will: What can i say? Dude's a modern day genius. I should nuke Hondros's poll for thinking Texas State will finish behind both USA and ULM despite getting both at home.

Nic: Hey, he knows about Franchione, historically speaking.  I just badly want Georgia state to be bad, for all the poor decisions they've made in starting a football team.

Chris: 66-0 says much.

Will: See that was A&M though and they deserve to be crushed for acting like a fake army.

Chris: So Idaho will go 0-12 right?

Will: Yeah but i don't see it with Georgia State. they had some close losses and an underrated offense, but so did New Mexico State.

Will:  Idaho? Bill Connelly seems to think they're a 3-4 win team. Their schedule is goddamn brutal

Chris: That's high.

Will:  I mean they should beat Wofford, maybe Ohio, maybe ULM, maybe Texas State if Fran really craps the bed. There's also winnable roadies at Las Cruces and Troy. By the way, our poll is almost identical to the coaches poll. Switch around stAte, app, and ULL and georgia state & NMSU and it's the same. Hivemind.

Nic:  I think New Mexico state and Georgia state are the same team, but NMSU is further along in the process. Which doesn't really say much about either team, other than that NMSU probably wins 54-34 at home.

Will: I think Georgia State has better talent at QB and WR but NMSU is gonna throw like a thousand times a game and they have Larry Rose to back them up, so i agree with Nic. NMSU has a decent o-line too.

TK: Miles' third year at Indiana State went from 1-10 to 6-5, so I can see the reasoning behind a turnaround for Georgia State. They'll score points, but their best defender is the goal line.

Nic:  Right, they'll be better, but they're still going to lose a bunch of shootouts.

TK: And I swear picking GaSo fourth wasn't because of the coaches poll. It's just how it ended up.

Nic: mmmmmmhmm

Will: I can see some reasons for being skeptical about southern, i.e. having to replace a lot of their o-line.

TK: I feel GaSo's offensive line will be their Achilles heel and they'll try to pass more. Going to ULM after going to Idaho is a big trap game and the homer in me says they're not winning in Boone.

Will: Yeah. i can see them dropping a game in Boone and a potential road upset or maybe losing to Texas State at home (less likely). They have to replace some receivers too but eh in Fritz's system you can probably plug 'em in.

TK: With imbalanced scheduling, it's hard to predict order of finish. Some schedules are more equal than others.

Will: As in both Georgia Southern and App State got ridiculously easy schedules.

Nic: I think GaSo EITHER loses to App or goes undefeated again.

TK: Well App went 3-1 on the road against what was thought to be the toughest road schedule in the Belt last year.

Will: That's not a shot at app, they did well, that's a shot at the sun belt for unbalanced schedules that suck. Like, whose idea was it to give anyone a year where they duck both of the two best historical programs in the conference?

Nic: DAMN YOU KARL BENSON!

TK: "Two best historical programs in the conference" The conference is only 14 years old.

Will: Well in terms of who is left. ULL and Arkansas State were the two teams with established programs, relatively speaking, so they let Georgia Southern duck 'em both and give them effing Idaho and New Mexico State instead

TK: And next year, A-State gets to avoid App State, that is, if it's still an 11-team conference.

Will: I mean scheduling gets complicated but it could all be solved by one easy solution. championship game. Then last year we get to see southern go up against ULL and consume all the popcorn while Hud has a coronary on the field regardless of result

TK: I would order one meteor for that game.