College football preview season is in full swing as we're now inside of four weeks until kickoff of the 2024 college football season.
On the BBOC podcast and YouTube channel at Action Network, experts are breaking down all the top conferences in the sport.
As a reminder, you can subscribe to BBOC on YouTube for full episodes before they hit your podcast feeds.
However, if podcasts are more your speed, be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you normally find your podcasts.
This week on BBOC, experts Stuckey, Mike Calabrese, and Mike Ianniello broke down the Sun Belt Conference, including their thoughts on every team in the league, their favorite overs, unders, conference outrights, College Football Playoff futures, and more.
Below, you can find an excerpt of analysis from our three experts. You can also watch or listen to the full episode. However you choose to get your college football analysis, be sure to subscribe, rate, and review so that you're up to speed on all the action all season long.
Sun Belt Conference Futures
James Madison Dukes
Conference Champions (+1000)
Stuckey: My fair value on this is around +650 and you can find a +1000 out there. It's in the +800 to +1000 range at most sportsbooks.
James Madison went 5-1 in one-possession games last year. They lost everybody. They are bottom-10 in returning production. I get it.
But I'm buying the upside. I have them with the easiest schedule in the country. They get Southern Miss and Louisiana-Monroe in their cross-division games. This schedule is just an absolute joke. They avoid four of the top five teams in the league outside of Appalachian State.
That game is obviously going to be huge for the division, and Appalachian State should be favored, but JMU has a chip on their shoulder. They lost a lot of guys, but the last two years they got a bad shake. They should've been there. Now, they're finally eligible because that stupid rule is in the past.
They're just what you want when you're taking on a future. Something in the +800 to +1000 range.
There's a lot of uncertainty after they added 64 players because 55 departed, but I really like the new coach Bob Chesney who has found success at the D-II and FCS levels, and I think this is a nice flyer at a good price.
You hear about all the production they lost, but in some cases I think when a team loses a lot they end up undervalued in the market, and I think that's the case with JMU.
Texas State Bobcats
Over 8.5 Wins | Conference Title (+500) | College Football Playoff (+1600)
Mike Calabrese: The Mack Leftwich offense delivered in year one: almost 37 points per game, top 30 in both run and pass, top 30 on third downs, top 30 in red-zone touchdown percentage.
They were just efficient and they made you pick your poison. It wasn't one of those air raid offenses where they were going to throw it 70 times per game and catch teams sleeping, they were able to beat teams in any way that defenses had weaknesses.
They return all of their meaningful skill position guys. Ismail Mahdi led the nation in all-purpose yards, and they even added in one of my favorite UTEP Miners from the last few seasons — shout-out Miner Nation — Deion Hankins.
Joey Hobert proved that he wasn't just some cute FCS story, and then there's Our Guy nominee Kole Wilson. I love this guy. He's a sawed-off playmaker at 5-foot-9, 170 lbs.; an absolute burner. A former FCS All-American, he made honorable mention last year in the Sun Belt.
The offensive line is all juniors and seniors. They have plenty of experience. They're going to be blocking for Jordan McCloud, who in the rare intra-conference move, transfers from James Madison to Texas State. He had a massive breakout year for the Dukes last year. I think he'll really blossom as a passer in this really quarterback-friendly system.
I really like their schedule. UTSA comes to San Marcos, and then Arizona State comes to town on a short week, and you know I love when a power program plays an actual road game. As for tricky Sun Belt games, they're at Troy early, but they avoid Appalachian State and James Madison, and they host Louisiana off a bye.
Give me Texas State over 8.5 wins, give me Texas State at +500 to win the conference, and you know what? Let's go at 16-1 to make the College Football Playoff. I'm all-in on the Bobs.
Coastal Carolina Chanticleers
Under 5.5 Wins
Mike Ianniello: Coastal Carolina has to replace star quarterback Grayson McCall, as well as two of its three running backs and top two receivers from a season ago.
Ethan Vasko or Michigan State transfer Noah Kim will likely take over at quarterback.
Vasko started four games last year and did pretty well, throwing seven touchdowns and just one interception. He helped lead the Chants to a bowl win over San Jose State with three touchdown passes. Kim, meanwhile, started the first five games for Michigan State, throwing six touchdowns and six interceptions before being benched.
Whoever it is will have a super-thin receiving corps to work with.
The defense loses its top three tacklers and has a bunch of holes to replace. Depth will be an issue across the board for this team.
Coastal Carolina doesn’t get to play UL Monroe or Southern Miss, but it does get Temple in the nonconference slate. This team probably can make a bowl, but going over 6.5 is a tough ask. I just don't think Tim Beck is a very good coach. We'll see if that remains true now that he loses most of Jamey Chadwell’s players.
