Sun Belt Bowl Selections Announced

Sunday, December 2, 2018
Sun Belt Communications Contact – John McElwain (mc******@su***********.org)

Sun Belt Bowl Selections Announced
NEW ORLEANS – After a thrilling win by Appalachian State over Louisiana in the conference’s inaugural Football Championship game, the league announced postseason bowl destinations for five teams.

As winners of the Championship Game, App State (9-2, 7-1 Sun Belt) received the conference’s automatic bid to the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. The Mountaineers will be making their first trip to New Orleans when they face Middle Tennessee (8-5, 7-1 C-USA).

League runner-up Louisiana (7-6, 5-3 Sun Belt) will head to Orlando for the AutoNation Cure Bowl where they will face Tulane (6-6, 5-3 American). The Cajuns will be making their sixth bowl appearance.

Troy, making its third consecutive bowl game, will play in the Dollar General Bowl against Buffalo (10-3, 7-1 MAC). It will be the third appearance for the Trojans (9-3, 7-1 Sun Belt) in the game annually played in Mobile, Ala.

Georgia Southern, making their second bowl appearance since joining the Football Bowl Subdivision, will play in the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl. The Eagles (9-3, 6-2 Sun Belt) will play Eastern Michigan (7-5, 5-3 MAC).

As previously announced, Arkansas State (8-4, 5-3 Sun Belt) will be making a trip to Tucson for the NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl. The Red Wolves will be making a conference record ninth bowl game when they face Nevada (7-5, 5-3 MWC).

Bowl Pairings and Game Information

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
Appalachian State vs. Middle Tennessee
Saturday, December 15
New Orleans, La. – 8 p.m. CT (ESPN)

AutoNation Cure Bowl
Louisiana vs. Tulane
Saturday, December 15
Orlando, Fla. – 12:30 p.m. CT (CBS Sports Network)

Dollar General Bowl
Troy vs. Buffalo
Saturday, December 22
Mobile, Ala. – 6 p.m. CT (ESPN)

Raycom Media Camellia Bowl
Georgia Southern vs. Eastern Michigan
Saturday, December 15
Montgomery, Ala. – 4:30 p.m. CT (ESPN)

NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl
Arkansas State vs. Nevada
Saturday, December 29
Tucson, Ariz. – 12:15 p.m. CT (CBS Sports Network)

Stay tuned to www.sunbeltsports.org and the Sun Belt’s official social media accounts for more information throughout the bowl season.

About the Sun Belt Conference
Entering the second decade of the new millennium, the Sun Belt Conference continues to challenge itself, and its competitors, in all aspects of intercollegiate athletics. Not content with being simply the youngest football conference in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the conference has shown that it can rise each and every season that comes along. And since the birth of the league as an FBS member in 2001, the evidence is clear that the conference is indeed rising above competitors and peer conferences.

The Sun Belt finished second in bowl winning percentage among all 10 FBS conferences the last two seasons. Reaching back to the 2014 season, no conference has a better total bowl winning percentage (.611) than the Sun Belt. All that success comes as the 2018 season will see the conference split into East and West divisions for the first time and stage its first-ever championship game at the end of the regular season on December 1, 2018.

Appalachian State, Arkansas State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Louisiana, ULM, South Alabama, Texas State and Troy give the league 10 football members. Little Rock and UTA compete as Sun Belt members in sports other than football.