2025 College Football Predictions: Sun Belt Conference

The Sun Belt should be fun this year. For the first time in awhile, there was not much coaching shakeups, so the conference has a little stability (Charles Huff left Marshall, but stayed in conference by going to Southern Miss). 

I believe JMU and South Alabama will be the teams to beat. The Dukes brought in Matthew Sluka, who is not without controversy, but proved to be quite talented last season at UNLV, in just three games (remember, he left because he claimed UNLV did not live up to their NIL promises). The Jaguars have a new QB (they lost theirs to UNC during spring practice, rough), but Bishop Davenport has experience in Applewhite’s offense, and should be able to succeed quickly.

The two teams I am most curious about are Marshall and Southern Miss. The Thundering Herd won the conference last year, and that caused Southern Miss to lure Huff away, along with a bunch of players. The Marshall team is practically completely different.

Intriguing Team: Appalachian State only brings back five starters, and they have a new head coach. The Mountaineers brought in QB AJ Swann from LSU, who was a 4-star recruit out of high school. This is the thing I do like about the transfer portal, these smaller conference schools can poach those QBs from the P4 schools, who would likely sit the bench. Want to start? Come to App State! 

Hot Seat: Honestly, I do not think any coach is on the hot seat in this conference. Ricky Rahne has been at Old Dominion since 2020, which is like a million years in G5 Coaching Years. He has went 19-30 in that time, but has taken the Monarchs to two bowl games. I feel like ODU should be happy with that kind of performance for this type of school. Rahne is probably staying put, and honestly, that is a good thing.