The Sun Belt looks different this year, and not just new additions in the portal. Texas State packed up for the new Pac-12, and Conference USA begrudgingly let Louisiana Tech out and into the Sun Belt, a move that finally puts the Bulldogs in the same conference as fellow Louisiana schools, Louisiana and Louisiana Monroe. That gives the conference 14 teams again, seven per division, and a lot of new hallway small talk at league meetings. But realignment isn’t even the biggest story. 

 

The bigger story is quarterbacks, or the lack of proven ones. Old LSU/Texas A&M/North Carolina journeyman Max Johnson landed at Georgia Southern for a stunning seventh year of eligibility. Malachi Singleton, who started his career at Arkansas, is now competing for the job at App State. Trey Owens left Texas for a shot at QB1 in Jonesboro with Arkansas State. Practically every team in this conference is breaking in a new coordinator. Nobody is loaded. Everybody has a hole somewhere. Here’s the full ranking, East then West with a projected conference record for 2026. 

 

 

 

 

SUN BELT EAST:

7. Georgia State (0-8)

 

Georgia State was a one of the worst FBS teams last season. 137th in defense, 120th in offense, and head coach Dell McGee is now working through his third full roster reset in three years. Almost the entire roster changed over the winter, but a few things stand out. 

 

Dual-threat quarterback Cameran Brown strung together a strong four game stretch late in the year, and the Panthers landed a handful of productive transfers from the FCS and Division II ranks who profile as immediate contributors. It’s a low bar, but avoiding another double-digit-loss season and being in more competitive games would count as real progress here. 

 

 

 

 

6. Coastal Carolina (1-7)

 

Coastal Carolina somehow regressed for five straight seasons after going 11-1 in 2020, and firing Tim Beck even after a third straight bowl trip tells you how far the standard had slipped. New head coach Ryan Beard is essentially importing the identity that got Missouri State to their first FBS bowl game, bringing over roughly a dozen former Bears, including a three-way quarterback competition between Missouri State’s Deuce Bailey, Arkansas transfer Trevor Jackson, and a juco addition.  

 

Only one offensive starter returns, but the defensive line got a real boost of size through the portal. There’s genuine defensive upside here even if the offense is a total unknown. 

 

 

 

 

5. App State (3-5)

 

App State’s stretch of easy excellence from the 2010s feels like a distant memory. Head coach Dowell Loggains is in year two after the program’s worst season since joining the FBS, and this is a total reset. Forty players transferred out, thirty six transferred in, and only two returning players started more than seven games a year ago. 

 

 The offense will run through new coordinator Mike Anthony and a quarterback battle between Purdue transfer Malachi Singleton (who began his career at Arkansas), and UCLA transfer Henry Hasselbeck. Singleton has shown his efficiency in limited chances and gives Loggains a legitimate dual-threat option. The secondary is essentially brand new, but a defensive line that combined for eight sacks a year ago returns intact, giving this defense a foundation to build from. 

 

 

 

 

4. Marshall (5-3)

 

Marshall’s 2025 was uglier on paper than it felt on the field. A 5 win season after Charles Huff left for Southern Miss and took much of the roster with him. But the Thundering Herd actually enter 2026 with more continuity than most of the league. Quarterback Carlos Del Rio-Wilson is back after accounting for nearly 2,800 yards of total offense, and he gets three of last year’s top four receivers returning, making Marshall one of the more proven offenses in the Sun Belt.  

 

The defense, though, is the real question. They were 119th in the country last season, and of the 21 defenders with real snaps a year ago, only seven are back. New defensive coordinator Brad Lambert has a track record of improving defenses, but he’s doing it almost from scratch. 

 

 

 

 

3. James Madison (6-2)

 

James Madison just went 12-2 and won a Sun Belt title, but Bob Chesney left for UCLA and now Billy Napier takes over a roster that lost almost everyone. Only four players who logged real snaps last season are back. Napier’s transfer haul leans hard into massive offensive linemen and a stockpile of small school sophomores and juniors, with a wide-open quarterback competition between Memphis transfer Arrington Maiden, Richmond transfer Camden Coleman, and returning sophomore JC Evans.  

 

The defense, which ranked among the nation’s best in total yards and run defense for four straight years, also must be almost entirely rebuilt around linebacker Gannon Weathersby and defensive tackle Mychal McMullin. JMU still has the brand name and arguably the best transfer class in the Sun Belt. But this is a true reset year, not a guaranteed threepeat at the top of the East. 

 

 

 

 

2. Georgia Southern (7-1)

 

Clay Helton remains the man in charge in Statesboro, with Ryan Aplin running the offense as coordinator. The headline addition is quarterback Max Johnson, who is playing an almost unheard of seventh college season after stops at LSU, Texas A&M, and North Carolina. Georgia Southern returns zero offensive starters and lost eight defensive starters, but the program did excellent work in the transfer portal to patch both sides, adding pieces like receiver Kam Mikell from Colorado.  

 

A brand-new offensive line and a defensive line that struggled badly last year are the two biggest question marks, but this staff has a strong recent track record of getting the most out of new faces, and it ranks among the Sun Belt’s most improved rosters this offseason. 

 

 

 

 

1. Old Dominion (8-0)

 

Old Dominion enters 2026 as the pick to finally get over the hump. Ricky Rahne may have coached the best G6 season in the country last year, turning ODU from 5-7 into a 10-3 team that crushed Virginia Tech and hung with eventual national champions in Indiana. The Monarchs return a genuinely excellent defense, with coordinator Blake Seiler back alongside ten returning defenders who played meaningful snaps, including standout sophomores at tackle and linebacker.  

 

The offense is the bigger unknown, quarterback Colton Joseph and nearly the entire skill corps are gone, but shifty running back Devin Roche returns, and sophomore Quinn Henicle, who led ODU to a bowl win last year, gets first crack at quarterback. This is a program built to create explosive plays and get pressure on defense, and my pick to win the East. 

 

 

 

 

SUN BELT WEST: 

 

7. Louisiana Monroe (0-8)

 

There isn’t much reason for optimism in Monroe. Head coach Bryant Vincent got the Warhawks from 2-10 to 5-7 in year one, but a leaky offensive line and a defense that could only keep three players healthy enough to start all 12 games dragged them back down to 3-9 last fall, including an eight-game losing streak to close the season. The good news, quarterback Aiden Armenta returns, along with three of his top four targets. New running back Donald Chaney Jr. arrives as a former blue-chip looking to resurrect his career, and new offensive coordinator Jesse Montalto comes over from Iowa Central.  

 

The bad news is almost everything else. This roster returns only five starters total, and just one on the offensive line. Outside forecasters have ULM projected as one of the two or three worst teams in the entire FBS. 

 

 

 

 

6. Southern Miss (1-7)

 

Southern Miss is a full teardown on both sides of the ball, and it’s the most extreme one in the country. Charles Huff left for Memphis and took majority of the Golden Eagles talent with him, leaving new head coach Blake Anderson with the single worst returning production number in the FBS heading into 2026. Only one returning defender saw more than 40 snaps last season. The quarterback race is a three way fight between Illinois transfer Ethan Hampton, second-year passer Landry Lyddy, and a returning backup, with running back Robert Briggs one of the only proven pieces on offense.  

 

Six new defensive linemen came in through the portal, the linebacker room has some experience, but the entire secondary is starting from scratch. This is a rebuild that will likely take more than one season. 

 

 

 

 

5. South Alabama (3-5)

 

Major Applewhite is taking over play-calling duties after South Alabama’s stunning fall to a 4-8 disaster in 2025. Quarterback Bishop Davenport returns, which makes the Jaguars more settled at the position than most of this conference, but no starting receiver came back and the group responsible for 18 of 60 offensive line starts is gone.  

 

Defensively, South Alabama loses a huge chunk of its production and brought in fewer transfers than almost anyone in the league, just 11 in exchange for 27 departures. A very tough schedule doesn’t do them any favors either. 

 

 

 

 

4. Louisiana Tech (4-4)

 

Louisiana Tech didn’t get an easy debut schedule, but Sonny Cumbie’s program enters the Sun Belt with real momentum after posting its best win total in seven years. Quarterback Blake Baker was excellent before tearing his ACL and should be ready to go this fall, throwing to a retooled receiving room.  

 

The defense is the strength, they ranked top 10 nationally in several key efficiency and havoc categories last season and returns a strong front six, even though the secondary is almost entirely new. La. Tech also enters with the best returning production number in the conference by a comfortable margin, which matters in a league full of teams starting over. 

 

 

 

 

3. Arkansas State (5-3)

 

Butch Jones has quietly built Arkansas State into one of the Sun Belt’s more stable programs, and the schedule sets up nicely. The catch is finding a quarterback, former starter Jaylen Raynor left for Iowa State, so Jones brought in four transfers to compete for the job, led by former Texas blue-chipper Trey Owens and a pair of Vanderbilt transfers who followed their old position coach to Jonesboro.  

 

Arkansas State returns the most 2025 starters of any team in the conference, including a strong interior offensive line and its top two running backs, giving whoever wins the quarterback job a real supporting cast. The defense, historically Arkansas State’s soft spot, got a near-total makeover through the portal. 

 

 

 

 

2. Troy (5-3)

 

Gerad Parker’s Troy tenure looked shaky after an 0-3 start with quarterback Goose Crowder hurt, but the Trojans ripped off five straight wins, got Crowder back, and pushed James Madison deep into the fourth quarter of the Sun Belt Championship Game before falling short. New offensive coordinator Adam Austin arrives from Tarleton State, where he ran one of the most explosive offenses in the FCS, and he inherits a Troy offense that started two quarterbacks, two running backs, and eleven different offensive linemen last year.  

 

Edge rusher Donnie Smith, who racked up 11 sacks last season, headlines a defense that was excellent against the pass and dominant in the red zone. If a receiver or two emerges, Troy has the pieces for a real run. 

 

 

 

 

1. Louisiana (8-0)

 

Louisiana took a different approach than almost everyone else in this conference, instead of loading up in the portal, Michael Desormeaux brought in just five transfers and doubled down on the internal pipeline that built his program. Quarterback Lunch Winfield is a better runner than passer right now but flashed real dual-threat upside late last season, and he’ll lean on receiver Shelton Sampson Jr, the breakout transfer hit of 2025. The schedule sets up beautifully, no James Madison, Old Dominion, Marshall, or Troy on the slate, and just one of those quality East teams shows up at all.  

 

The defense is the lingering concern after a rough season, but with the Ragin’ Cajuns bringing back their most experienced roster in years, this looks like the team best positioned to make a leap in the West. 

 

 

 

 

Sun Belt Championship: Old Dominion over Louisiana 

 

If the divisions shake out this way, the title game in December sets up as a fascinating contrast in styles, and it’s Old Dominion that comes out on top. Louisiana’s path through the West is favorable with their schedule, and Michael Desormeaux’s team should arrive with the most game reps and internal continuity of any team in the conference. But a soft slate that lets Lunch Winfield and the offense build rhythm all year also means the Ragin’ Cajuns won’t have faced anything close to ODU’s level of defensive pressure heading into the championship. That’s the difference maker.  

 

Ricky Rahne’s defense, anchored by coordinator Blake Seiler and a deep, experienced front seven, is built to speed up exactly the kind of run first, rhythm dependent offense Louisiana wants to play, and Winfield’s still developing passing game gives the Monarchs a path to take away Louisiana’s best weapon and force the game into obvious throwing downs. On the other side, ODU’s own offense is a bit of a mystery with a new starting quarterback, but Devin Roche in the backfield and a defense that can produce short fields and takeaways make Old Dominion less reliant on a finished product at quarterback. In a game between two 8-0 division champs, the team that wins with defense and situational