NEW ORLEANS – The message from Sun Belt Commissioner Keith Gill's opening speech at the conference's football media day was simple – "The Sun Belt is rising."
In Gill's address to the media on Tuesday, he was quick to call the first year of the newly aligned Sun Belt, which added Southern Miss, James Madison, Marshall and Old Dominion a banner year.
After the last football season, Gill said that the conference had a 50% increase in representation of All American Teams, and sent a record number of seven teams to participate in bowl games.
In addition the conference had 35 million people watch Sun Belt football on television, which is almost a 100% increase.
"The Sun Belt had a banner year in 2022-2023," Gill said. "But our mission as a conference is to be relevant and rise and every sport responsible. Looking forward to 2023 our competitive success and momentum have positioned us for great expectations.
"While the success on the field has fueled the Sun Belt, regional rivalries are our foundation and are a critical part of our conference DNA and differentiates the Sun Belt from many other things."
BOWL TIE-INS
The Sun Belt is down one bowl game tie-in compared to a year ago after the conference added the Independence Bowl, which it added last November, as the bowl game's tie will be with the Big 12.
This year's bowl tie-ins will bring back the R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, Cure Bowl, Myrtle Beach Bowl, Camellia Bowl and 68 Ventures, which replaces the LendingTree Bowl in Mobile, Alabama.
Despite the loss of a bowl game, Gill stressed that the conference plans to add two or three more bowl tie-ins in the coming years.
"The Sun Belt continues to explore options to expand our number of bowl partners to accommodate our rising success and the growth of the conference," Gill said. "The Sun Belt will look to add two or three more primary bowl partners in the not-to-distant future and will continue to work with the NCAA to expand opportunities to engage with primary bowl partners before the end of the current bowl season."
Notably, the conference football championship game will be broadcast on either ABC or ESPN.
CALL FOR RESOLUTION
Gill called for a congressional resolution for Name, Image and Likeness laws.
"The various different state laws do not work effectively and have created a system that is not sustainable," Gill said.
Gill suggested for packages of consumer packages to protect student-athletes and families from "illegitimate, fraudulent and misleading offers."
"A federal law that blocks state legislatures from trying to outdo other states with laws that effectively reduce accountability and create more opportunities for abuse is really important," Gill said. "NIL should not be pay to play, and inducements and any federal bill should affirm the prohibition and recruiting inducement and booster take the role and the recruitment of student-athletes."
COLLEGE PLAYOFF FUTURE
Gill has stressed the excitement of the upcoming 12-team college football playoff.
As a result, the Southeastern Conference announced its intention to eliminate divisions in order to position more teams to receive at-large bids to the playoffs.
Gill said the Sun Belt conference, as of now, has no intention of following suit.
"I never say never," Gill said. "The foundation of the conference was really on regional rivalries, and so everything that we need to do is promote playing those regional rivalries.
"It was really important and efficient to do that. The vision is really to accentuate that and make sure that you're playing that are closer to the past and tradition kind history. I don't anticipate any changes to that. It's a foundation of who we are, but I will say we are open-minded, and if there is data or information that makes us think we should change whether it was access for the (playoff) we certainly would be open to that."
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