2015 Sun Belt Volleyball Conference Predictions

As a primer for those just following this year, or not paying attention in previous years, I make my conference predictions at the close of the non-conference season, just prior to the start of conference play. I feel it gives a better look at teams, as sometimes some teams play better than expected or have an impact player not expected to be a big contributor, a coach who has the team running smoothly, etc. While I have been slightly made fun of compared to the pre-season predictions the conferences release, I'll take my marginally better track record compared to the coaches poll and move forward.

I feel this year's volleyball standings will look like past years, the teams in the top half will stay there, the teams in the bottom half won't move up. Not that surprising in the Group of 5 conferences Olympic Sports. It is expected and nothing I saw this year will change that dynamic.

The coaches estimated the following finish:
1) Little Rock
2) Texas State
3) Arkansas State
4) Appalachian St
5) UT-Arlington
6) Georgia State
7) Louisiana-Lafayette
8) Georgia Southern
9) South Alabama
10) Troy
11) Louisiana-Monroe

My picks are as follows:

Volleyball Check-up: Winning Early, but Who?

Time to check in with the UT Arlington volleyball team for the first time this athletic year. To set the stage, last year's team had one of their better finish in quite a while, going 25-9 overall and 14-6 in Sun Belt Conference play. The wins were the most since 2006's 25 and the losses were the least since 7 in 2004. It was a pivotal year for Coach Diane Seymour, who seemed to be losing the support of many UTA supporters.

UTA has a proud history in volleyball. As far as national competitiveness, it has been the University's best sport. Nationally ranked in the 1970's and '80's, seven wins in the NCAA tournament to go with 10 total postseason wins, a Final Four appearance, 12 regular season conference championships, 10 conference tournament championships and a winning record against 135 of the 217 teams they have played (20 are tied) are just some of the accolades the team sports.

However, most of those accomplishments happened a generation ago. The program suffered six losing seasons in the 1990's, first time the program ever had a losing season. Then Janine Smith took over and got the Mavericks back atop the Southland Conference and into the NCAA tournament. Her last seven season with UTA ended with winning records. Coach Seymour's first season in 2004 was a 20+ win season and three of the next four were winning records. After that though, it was 7-23, 12-17, 17-15, 12-19 and 9-21. She has rebounded since joining the Sun Belt, going 19-15 and 25-9.

There was some worry that this could be a slide from last year. Ashley Bennett, Taylor Gross and Amanda Welsh were big time contributors last year and graduated. Replacing them would be a tall mountain to climb. But early on, it looks like UTA has done so and is competing well.

This Day in UTA Football History Vol. 3, Game 2: Playing with the Big Boys

Today's installment of This Day in UTA Football History will touch on a point that I have made frequently in this blog, the UT Arlington Athletic Department really bungled the move up from the College Division to the University Division, the highest level of college football at the time. In the mid-to-late 1960's, UTA was a major force in the Southland Conference. They won conference championships in 1966, and 1967, were a point away from another one in 1968 (one of my favorite UTA games) and won the 1967 Pecan Bowl. Prior to 1969, the University was already making plans to move up, primarily in securing a spot at Turnpike Stadium, the primarily baseball facility that would eventually be the home of the just-relocated Texas Rangers.

So with that, I introduce you to the 1970 squad. I'm just going to be blunt here and leave out any suspense, this team was the worst team UTA had ever seen in its history. They would not win a game, would be within one touchdown in only one game and were outscored 266-69 in ten games. Looking back on it decades after it happened, it would appear this season was the omen for playing in Turnpike Stadium and moving the program off campus.

UTA Football Vol. 3, Game 1: End of an Era

First, let me apologize for the late start. The last two editions of This Day in UTA Football started in the second week of the current NCAA football season. Got an alert from a reader asking why I didn't have one up and was told my reasoning was flawed and UTA had played games on September 5. When I looked, sure enough. So hopefully this is the last late entry.

There are a few good milestone seasons for this year's edition. Later on, we'll see UTA's first season as the then-Rebels transitioned to the four-year ranks from the Junior College level. We'll see UTA's last season as the equivalent of a Division II school. But the one we'll visit first is the last UTA spent as a Division 1-A school, 1981. I'll save the meaning of this season til the last game (that should be a hint right there), but we'll open up with the season opener.

UTA "traveled" to play SMU in the '81 opener. The Mustangs were coming off an eight-win season, their first winning season in six years. They were a talented team, several members of this team would play at the professional level. Once the game story starts, I have no doubt you'll recognize several names, so I'll hold off giving details of the team. If you need a refresher, the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, Pony Excess, is a great view. There's also clips of this very UTA game in it.

UTA played SMU the prior year, and it wasn't pretty. Some of it was due to SMU's talent, but the 3-8 Mavericks weren't hardy competition for much of anyone that year, getting outscored 341-248. When the highlight of your year is a stadium debut, there are real issues. Coach Harold "Bud" Elliott's squad was hoping for better results. He was on the hot seat as well. There was a lot of talent on the 1981 team, names that received all-conference honors in the current and future years. No one really knew it at the time, as the 1981 UTA Mavericks were a very young team.

Men's Basketball Schedule Released

The UT Arlington Athletic Department finally released the men's basketball schedule, the delay as school after school released theirs becoming more crushing by the day. Heck, even the Sun Belt Conference releasing the vast majority of conference play months ago added to the pressure. But worry no more.

I gotta say, I'm really impressed with this schedule, though not for the reason listed on UTAMavs.com. "Challenging schedule includes Ohio State, Texas and Memphis," reads the headline. Gotta say, don't really care about those teams. Will be highly proud if we pick off a win, but otherwise, they are just more name teams that come in a guarantee game to help raise funds for the team (I'm assuming Ohio State and Memphis, as part of the Basketball Hall of Fame Invitational, are games to be played for monetary value). I'm interested in two things, who is playing at College Park Center, and who are they playing in-state and near-state.

Those last two really have me buzzing.

History Lesson: Moving the Football Program Off Campus Proved Fatal.

Those who know me personally know I am a research nut, no matter the topic. Once I get an idea that I want to look into something or answer a question of some kind, I dig into the topic and won't leave it until I either tire out or feel I got everything I can.

That's how I came about gathering so much information on UTA football. Unlike the current sports UTA offers, I can't go and look at the latest media guide or fact book to answer some question. So I did the next best thing, crafted my own. I found a 1983 UTA football media guide online, which formed the backbone of what I did.

A lot of the meat of my research, though, came from information came in the online archives of the Dallas Morning News found on the website of the Dallas Public Library. I've had this information for a while and though it did provide a lot of insight, it didn't go in depth, as the Dallas Morning News covered UTA in a bare bones fashion. I thought about making the trek to Fort Worth to see if the Star Telegram had anything. However, I received a late Christmas present pertaining to that (I typed the majority of this piece in January, but decided to hold off on posting it until the offseason to give the individual sports competing in their respective seasons their deserved spotlight).

Sun Belt looking to 12 again?

Shortly after UT-Arlington joined the Sun Belt Conference (in the world of realignment, it seems so long ago), they were able to make some moves to get to twelve playing schools after losing some members to other conferences. Early in 2013, Georgia Southern and Appalachian State finally got the invite they craved to leave their long time homes in the Southern Conference to go to the SBC. To cover UTA and UALR in the football side, NMSU and Idaho football programs, left without a home after the WAC imploded (remember that one Maverick fans), were given a life raft by the SBC and all of a sudden, the Sun Belt had 12 all-sports and 12 football schools. Then Western Kentucky was offered an invite to Conference USA (I'll leave out my thoughts on that one) and the grand 12/12 with even divisions went with out the door with WKU.

Since that time rumors have floated that the SBC was going to add certain schools, with the list including, but not limited to, Liberty, James Madison, Missouri State, Eastern Kentucky, New Mexico State and Lamar. Nothing was ever concrete, and I never heard anything from an official source, either in person or in media productions.

Well, at least until now.