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ESPN Report: Sun Belt Conference Football Teams To Play In Two Additional Bowl Games

By Jesse Wood

It looks like Appalachian State Mountaineers football squad will have more opportunities to play in a bowl game this upcoming football season, according to a report from ESPN.

Citing anonymous sources and an expected announcement from the NCAA later this week, three new bowl games will take place in Tuscon, Ariz. Austin, Texas and Orlando, Fla.

Two of these three new bowl games feature the Sun Belt Conference. The bowls in Texas and Florida feature American Conference teams versus Sun Belt Conference teams.

“With the three new bowls, there will be a record 42 bowl games, including the College Football Playoff title game, requiring 82 teams to fill each bowl this season. Nearly 65 percent of the 127 FBS teams will play in a bowl game after the 2015 regular season,” ESPN reported.

SBC Associate Commissioner John McElwain declined to comment on the bowl game in Austin, but he did say that GoDaddy, R+L Carriers New Orleans and Camellia bowls and the new bowl game in Orlando are under contract through 2019.

Last year, Sun Belt Conference teams played in three bowls.

If those three bowls remain and the report of two added bowls is correct, this means that five of the 11 Sun Belt Conference football teams will play in a bowl game next winter.

With a 7-5 record and conference play tiebreaker, Appalachian State placed third in the Sun Belt and would have likely played in a bowl if wasn’t ineligible because of the transition period from the FCS to the FBS.