Louisiana-Lafayette South Alabama Football Dec. 7, 2013

South Alabama players Aleem Sunanon (97), Austin Cole (61) and Chris May (55) celebrate the Jaguars' 30-8 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette in last year's season finale with South Alabama students. (Mike Kittrell/mkittrell@al.com)

(Mike Kittrell)

MOBILE, Alabama - As the Sun Belt Conference football season approaches, one that is expected to be a closely contested one for the league championship, which of the 11 Sun Belt football-playing teams has the toughest road to a title?

It's a good question, so with the use of Jeff Sagarin's rankings and some number-crunching, an effort was made to come up with three areas in which to measure the schedules of Sun belt teams - non-conference competition, conference play and overall.

South Alabama (non-conference, overall) figures to have two of the toughest schedules with newcomer Appalachian State (conference) having the toughest league slate for the upcoming season.

Here's how it works: the Sagarin computer rankings, which ranks all of the Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision teams from 1 to 252, were used as the measuring stick because it covers all the teams that each Sun Belt team will play this season. It should be noted the rankings are following the completion of last season's bowl games and isn't based on predictions for this season.

In each case - non-conference, conference and overall rankings - the ranking assigned to the opponents was used, with each of those rankings totaled to provide the schedule ranking used here. For example, South Alabama plays Kent State (No. 123 ranking), Mississippi State (No. 31), South Carolina (No. 10) and Navy (No. 51) in its non-conference games this season. That gives the Jaguars a 215 total. Like golf scoring, the lowest total number represents the toughest schedule.

The process was repeated for conference games, using the ranking of each of the Sun Belt teams, and with the overall schedule ranking, which was simply a combined total of the non-conference and conference scores.

Here's how the rankings fell based on this system. In conference rankings these abbreviations are used: South Alabama (USA), Appalachian State (APP), Idaho (IDA), Troy University (TRY), Georgia State (GST), Georgia Southern (GSO), Arkansas State (ASU), Louisiana-Lafayette (LAF), Louisiana-Monroe (MON), New Mexico State (NMS), Texas State (TSU):

Non-conference schedule: 1. South Alabama 215 (Kent State 123, Mississippi State 31, South Carolina 10, Navy 51); 2. Louisiana-Monroe 227 (Wake Forest 86, LSU 15, Kentucky 104, Texas A&M 22); 3. Arkansas State 306 (Montana State 156, Tennessee 60, Miami 49, Utah State 41); 4. Georgia State 351 (Abilene Christian 165, Air Force 161, Washington 14, Clemson 11); 5. Troy 400 (UAB 167, Duke 42, Abilene Christian 165, Georgia 26); 6. Georgia Southern 443 (N.C. State 113, Savannah State 242, Georgia Tech 37, Navy 51); 7. Idaho 445 (Florida 53, Western Michigan 192, Ohio 122, San Diego State 78); 8. Louisiana-Lafayette 463 (Southern 223, Louisiana Tech 166, Ole Miss 27, Boise State 47); 9. New Mexico State 484 (Cal Poly 138, UTEP 185, New Mexico 146, LSU 15); 10. Texas State 500 (Arkansas-Pine Bluff 241, Navy 51, Illinois 76, Tulsa 132); 11. Appalachian State 607 (Michigan 44, Campbell 248, Southern Miss 199, Liberty 116).

Conference schedule: 1. Appalachian State 1,030 (GSO 148, USA 90, TRY 115, GST 183, MON 128, ASU 95, LAF 81, IDA 190), 2. Georgia State 1,037 (LAF 81, ASU 95, USA 90, GSO 148, APP 175, TRY 115, TSU 142), 3. New Mexico State 1,082 (GST 183, GSO 148, TRY 115, IDA 190, TSU 142, LAF 81, MON 128, ASU 95), 4. Idaho 1,084 (MON 128, USA 90, TSU 142, GSO 148, NMS 191, ASU 95, TRY 115, APP 175), 5. Texas State 1,106 (IDA 190, LAF 81, MON 128, NMS 191, GSO 148, USA 90, ASU 95, GST 183), 6. Lafayette 1,119 (GST 183, TSU 142, ASU 95, USA 90, NMS 191, MON 128, APP 175, TRY 115), 7. South Alabama 1,129 (GSO 148, IDA 190, APP 175, GST 183, TRY 115, LAF 81, ASU 95, TSU 142), 8. Monroe 1,137 (IDA 190, TRY 115, ASU 95, TSU 142, APP 175, LAF 81, NMS 191, GSO 148), 9. Arkansas State 1,180 (MON 128, GST 183, LAF 81, IDA 190, USA 90, APP 175, TSU 142, NMS 191), 10. Troy 1,186 (MON 128, NMS 191, APP 175, USA 90, GSO 148, GST 183, IDA 190, LAF 81), 11. Georgia Southern 1,214 (USA 90, APP 175, NMS 191, IDA 190, GST 183, TRY 115, TSU 142, MON 128).

Overall: 1. South Alabama 1,344, 2. Monroe 1,364, 3. Georgia State 1,388, 4. Arkansas State 1,488, 5. Idaho 1,529, 6. New Mexico State 1,566, 7. Lafayette 1,582, 8. Troy 1,586, 9. Texas State 1,606, 10. Appalachian State 1,637, 11. Georgia Southern 1,657.