Underdog Dynasty Sun Belt 2017 Preseason Predictions

Come Sunday, the Sun Belt Media Days will begin in New Orleans so it’s time to give out our predictions. We organized a panel of our Sun Belt writers and collect votes for league standings and awards for coach and best offensive and defensive players.

Today the Sun Belt released picks from the coaches and our picks below definitely differ. For voting, we used a points system based on what pick each individual writer gave to each team. Here we go!

Sun Belt Standings

1.) Appalahcian State (57)

1.) Troy (57)

3.) Arkansas State (51)

4.) UL-Lafayette (36)

5.) Idaho (34)

6.) Georgia State (31)

6.) Georgia Southern (31)

6.) South Alabama (31)

9.) New Mexico State (27)

10.) ULM (18)

11.) Coastal Carolina (10)

12.) Texas State (9)

Awards

Coach of the Year: Neal Brown (Troy)

Offensive Player of the Year: Jalin Moore (Appalachian State)

Defensive Player of the Year: Ja’Von Rolland-Jones (Arkansas State)

Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images

Thoughts

• We had a very close race. App State and Troy come out as our co-champs and it’s fairly possible this could come to a reality with these two not playing each other this year. Based on the votes, it seems that the only other team near their level will be Arkansas State.
• It’s going to be a crazy race for fourth. From spots four-to-nine, all of these teams are within single digits of each other. I believe you could make the argument that any of these teams could finish anywhere in these slots.
• We’re projecting a close battle for last as Coastal Carolina and Texas State came within one vote of each other. It’ll be Coastal’s first year in the FBS while Texas State continues the rebuild under Everett Withers. Will we see another winless conference year from one of these two?