I guess you can call these selling points Jan 19, 2004 Recruiting ... Selling Each Sun Belt School What does each school have to offer? www.collegefootballnews.com By Pete Fiutak Every school and every football program, from the best to the worst, has something positive going for it and for a recruit looking at every school, he'd want to know what makes every school unique and what every program has to offer. Some schools have an academic program that no one else has, while others can boast some of college football's best traditions. Here's a look at an interesting trait of each school and also a strictly football selling point. Arkansas State - For a smaller school, the Indians have some of the best performance and cultural arts centers in the South with the Fowler Center and the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center. ASU also boasts some of the nicest on-campus housing of any mid-size school. Football: Arkansas State has been relatively decent over the last few seasons staying in the hunt for the Sun Belt title. The program has boasted some of the best talent in the conference, but the Indians could use a few more playmakers to get them over the top. Idaho - UI offers one of the unique college football experiences playing in Moscow, Idaho offering with outdoor recreation rarely found at other schools. UI is a relatively small school with a student body of around 12,000, yet its extremely advanced as a top computer research school. Football: The Vandals have good facilities and has been a fun and exciting team ... occasionally. Idaho struggled last year, but still exploded at times on offense. This used to be a strong team and could flourish again if there could be a little more overall consistency. UL Lafayette - ULL leads all Louisiana universities in percentage of budget devoted to academics with a huge computer lab, three Van de Graaff accelerators for research in nuclear physics and the Durpe Library which houses some 620,000 volumes as well as a major collection of French, Spanish and British colonial records of Louisiana. ULL is the second largest school in Louisiana. Football: The program closed things out in 2003 winning four of its last five games. A decent recruit could get an immediate look at playing time. A few good players could make a big difference for a team that was a few close calls from being a .500 team. UL Monroe - Of ULM's eligible academic programs, 98% are nationally accredited which is first among all Louisiana universities. ULM's Radiologic Technology program is the largest in the state and one of the largest in the nation. Football: If a player wants to play right away and make a difference, they can play at UL Monroe after the Indians only won one game last year. The Sun Belt Conference is always there for the taking by a complete team, and ULM could be getting closer pushing North Texas in a 28-26 loss. MTSU - For a school of this size, MTSU has some amazing facilities with a new locker room and a top training facility. MTSU is the oldest and largest public university in the mid-state enrolling more than 19,000 students. Football: MTSU has suffered through some extremely disappointing Sun Belt seasons, but this is still a very well coached, very talented program. The sports information department will pump up its top players as well as any program in the Sun Belt. New Mexico State - NMSU is one of the nation's leaders in minority enrollment with a 46% minority population. NMSU is one of only 59 public universities in the nation in the Carnegie Foundation's Research I category. Football: In the new Sun Belt conference, NMSU is one the verge of relatively big things hanging around the Sun Belt title for a few years before last season's disappointment. The rushing attack is one of the best in America, and the team was a few breaks away from having a strong season. North Texas - UNT is the fourth largest university in Texas and has a 16:1 student to faculty ratio. It was also named one of the top 100 colleges for Hispanic and African-American students. The accounting program ranked in the nation's top 20. Football: The Mean Green has won three straight Sun Belt titles with three straight trips to the New Orleans Bowl. The defense continues to be among the best in America, even against the major teams on the schedule, while Patrick Cobbs and the offense was solid last year. Troy State - TSU has one of the most up-to-date Science Center's in Alabama and are one of the leading technological schools. 82% of TSU science graduates who apply to professional schools are accepted. Football: Troy State has been a sneaky good team over the last few years coming through with wins over Marshall and UAB last year. The defense has been one of the best among the mid-major level teams since TSU moved to the D-I level, and it should be strong in its first season in the Sun Belt. Utah State - Located in Logan, Utah, Utah State is one of the nation's most beautiful campuses with 15 national parks and a variety of recreational activities close by. Football: Utah State has boasted some of the nation's offensive leaders with RB Emmitt White in 2001 and WR Kevin Curtis in 2002. Even though the Aggies didn't have any such stars last year, top offensive players will get a ton of publicity while defensive players will be able to play right away. In the second year in the Sun Belt conference, the Aggies should soon be involved in the conference race
