Appalachian State’s football fans are breathing easy these days, with a soft spot in a tough schedule and the knowledge that things will soon change.

A road game against Sun Belt cupcake South Alabama comes one week after a homecoming win over La.-Monroe, another conference opponent not in Appalachian’s league.

That’s in part because the Mountaineers, ranked No. 21 nationally by the Associated Press and No. 22 by coaches, really are in a league of their own, apart from the Sun Belt and without official classification.

App fans pay attention to their conference brethren because the reality is that App State is going to be in the Sun Belt, at least for now. But this year, Appalachian is grouped with a dozen or more schools looking for something bigger.

“We’re definitely looking over the landscape,” said Doug Gillin, the App State athletics director. “We know what’s out there, but it’s still early.”

Six years after bolting the Southern Conference for something bigger, that goal is finally coming into focus. It’s not just about the Sun Belt championship now. The Cotton Bowl is in play.

When the school first announced its intentions to leave the SoCon and the old Division I-AA, which it had dominated to a point of saturation, a lot of skeptics wondered just what the next step would look like.

And after the Power Five conferences stiff-armed the newcomers such as App State and Boise State, Central Florida and SMU, to monopolize power and money, it seemed to close the door on the upstart programs from ever realizing the full potential of Football Bowl Subdivision status.

So since 2014, when App State went out on its own and the Power Five conferences made the move toward autonomy, the question was whether they’d already peaked. “Is this it?”

It was, in fact, at the time. But not now.

The College Football Playoff structure has created a championship game among FBS power schools, and the CFP threw the outsiders a bone, creating a second tier of leagues now known as the Group of Five made up of the Sun Belt Conference, Conference USA, Mountain West, American Athletic and Mid-American Conference.

The selection process is simple. The highest-ranked school in the College Football Playoff rankings from the Group of Five leagues will be invited to the Cotton Bowl if that school is not in the playoff. The Chick-fil-A Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl will rotate that at-large bid on a regular basis.

So the future for Appalachian State football has a new ceiling: a New Year’s Six bowl game.

“We’re looking for App to be in the Cotton Bowl,” said Kathy Keene, the deputy commissioner of the Sun Belt. “We don’t control what happens. Right now, with App being ranked, it’s a real possibility.”

While the Sun Belt champion would automatically go to the New Orleans Bowl under normal circumstances, an undefeated Appalachian State just might end up as the highest ranked Group of Five school.

“We know that’s a possibility,” Gillin said. “Right now though, we’re trying to focus on what’s in front of us, trying to control what we can control. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves.”

The first playoff rankings will be released Nov. 5, and the final rankings and bowl selections will be announced Dec. 8, after the conference championships.

So while App State will be keeping a close eye on the Sun Belt standings with the Georgia and Louisiana schools trying to steal a New Orleans Bowl bid, they’ll also begin to watch schools such as SMU (No. 16 AP, No. 17 coaches), Cincinnati (No. 18 both), Boise State (No. 22, No. 21), Memphis (No. 25 coaches), Navy and a number of schools from the other Group of Five leagues that are either ranked or are getting votes in the AP and coaches polls.

Appalachian State likely would need to win at South Carolina on Nov. 9. If App State loses that game, the Cotton Bowl dream would all but die in Williams-Brice Stadium.

But a win in that game would go a long way toward convincing the committee to move App State ahead of all of the other Group of Five schools, considering the win at North Carolina and the anticipated run to an undefeated season.

So the nagging question about Appalachian State football in recent years – "Is this it?" – is moot now.

There’s another level, and it includes a league beyond the Sun Belt.

And down the road, this situation will also bring the next question into focus. If an undefeated Appalachian State doesn’t get the Cotton Bowl bid this year, then just what will it take to get it in future years?

That’s a harder answer, but it likely involves getting out of the Sun Belt and either joining another league or forming a new league of regional schools. We’ve proposed it here before. It would involve convincing East Carolina and Charlotte and Coastal Carolina and Georgia State and Georgia Southern and maybe Army and Navy and a few others, basically forming a strengthened version of the old Southern Conference.

Wouldn’t that be ironic?

“We’re looking at the map,” Gillin said. “We want to be the best Sun Belt partner we can be.”

Travel expenses, however, are real. And so are perceptions.

Appalachian State has work to do either way, so the future is interesting if nothing else. But this could end up being the ultimate test for App State remaining in the Sun Belt long-term. If indeed the Mountaineers go undefeated and still remain behind schools from the perceived stronger Mountain West, C-USA and American Athletic, it would be time to rethink everything.

Breathe deep, Appalachian. The fun is just getting started.