Ranking and Previewing the D1A Conferences for the 2008 Season Part One

Conference Rankings # 11-7

Seeing  as I play football for “The U,” of Rhode Island that is, most of you can guess which D1AA conference I think is the best, the Colonial Athletic Association of course, CAA for short. With six teams in the USA Today D1AA Top 25, including 3 in the top 7, it’s pretty clear that the CAA is a very deep conference.

While my D1AA views are pretty clear, my D1A opinion is not so clear, and before I started this article it wasn’t even that clear to me. After some research and the knowledge I already had regarding these conferences, I was able to come up with a list that I am pretty confident with.

Take a look…

11. Sun Belt

The best team in the Sun Belt last year was Florida Atlantic and I have no reason to believe they won’t be the top team this year. They return 18 starters and 10 on the offensive size of the ball. Other then FAU, the only other team in the conference to finish above .500 was Troy and they return 14 starters. Louisiana-Monroe and Louisiana-Lafayette both finished at .500, and they return 14 and 15 starters respectively.

I don't really think any of the teams in this conference could hang with the big boys, I think the best a team from this conference would do in even the ACC would be about 3-9.

10. Mid-American

Last season Bowling Green won the Eastern Division before losing to the Central Michigan Chippewas in the conference title game. Both teams celebrated eight win seasons and that seems like an attainable goal for each team as Bowling Green returns 18 starters and Central Michigan returns 15. As many people might remember, the Chippewas lost an exciting 51-48 game against Purdue in the Who-Really-Cares Bowl. That showed the sixth best team in the overrated Big Ten is still better than the best team in this conference.

9. Conference USA

East Division: Central Florida lost 2,000 yard rusher Kevin Smith’s decision to leave after his junior season was a tough loss, but they still should finish first in the East Division. UCF was 10-4 and they should be able to put together another good season this year. UCF proved they were a team on the brink when they held tough with Texas in an early season game last season. East Carolina should have another strong season which has become pretty typical of them; they’re a consistent threat to win eight or more. Southern Mississippi is a stronger lower level program, but let’s hope they have more of an idea of what they want to do this season then graduate Brett Favre. Junior Running back Damion Fletcher might be the best player in Conference USA this season.

Memphis, “We Are” Marshall and Alabama-Birmingham should round out the East Division.

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