Sun Belt paces FBS with .649 bowl winning percentage in college football playoff era

Published 3:14 pm Monday, January 3, 2022

Coastal Carolina picked up its first-ever bowl victory by a 47-41 margin over MAC champion Northern Illinois in the Tailgreeter Cure Bowl.

Sun Belt East Division champion App State had its historic six-game bowl winning streak snapped by Conference USA East Division champion Western Kentucky, 59-38, in the RoofClaim.com Boca Raton Bowl.

No. 23 Louisiana won its third-straight bowl game, 36-21 over Marshall in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, to close out a program-record 13-win season. The Sun Belt champion Ragin’ Cajuns will carry a national-best 13-game winning streak into the 2022 campaign.

Georgia State won its second-straight bowl game by a 51-20 margin over Ball State in the TaxAct Camellia Bowl to secure a program-record eight-win season.

The Sun Belt boasts a 7-2 bowl record over the past two seasons and claims two of the top four teams in the FBS since the start of the 2020 campaign—Louisiana (23-2, .920) and Coastal Carolina (22-3, .880). The Ragin’ Cajuns and Chanticleers join Alabama (26-1, .963) and Cincinnati (22-2, .917) among the nation’s top four teams based on winning percentage.

App State (19-7, .731) also sits among the Top 15 programs, making the Sun Belt the lone Group of Five conference with three teams among the Top 15.

Over the past two years, the Sun Belt claims more teams among the Top 15—based on winning percentage—than the rest of the Group of Five combined.

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