Sun Belt Bowls Determined; Georgia Southern, Troy Learn Their Destinations

The Sun Belt Conference’s bowl destinations are now set.

Georgia Southern will play in the Camellia Bowl and Troy will play in the Dollar General Bowl, sources told Stadium. The official announcements will be made Sunday.

The league had already officially announced that Arkansas State would play in the Arizona Bowl and the winner of Saturday’s Sun Belt title game between Appalachian State and Louisiana would go to the New Orleans Bowl, while the loser would play in the Cure Bowl.

Georgia Southern (9-3) will make only its second bowl appearance in school history. The first came in 2015, a 58-27 victory against Bowling Green in the GoDaddy Bowl. The Eagles, who were 2-10 last season, have seven more wins than last year under coach Chad Lundsford, which is the nation’s biggest turnaround this season.

Georgia Southern will play a Mid-American team in the Camellia Bowl on Dec. 22 in Mobile, Ala.

Troy (9-3) is headed to its third consecutive bowl in coach Neal Brown’s four seasons with the Trojans. Brown is one of the hottest names in coaching in part for his ability to pull off some big upsets. This year, Troy won at Nebraska and last year won at LSU. In 2016, Troy nearly knocked off eventual national champion Clemson, losing 30-24. A win in the bowl game would give Troy a third consecutive season with at least 10 wins.

Troy will play a Mid-American team in the Dollar General Bowl on Dec. 15 in Montgomery, Ala.

While the destinations for Georgia Southern, Troy, Arkansas State, Appalachian State and Louisiana have been determined, UL Monroe (6-6), the Sun Belt’s other bowl-eligible team, likely must stay home, sources said.

There are currently 81 bowl-eligible teams for 78 bowl berths and that number could increase to 82 bowl-eligible teams if Virginia Tech (5-6) defeats Marshall on Saturday. If Virginia Tech wins, there will be four bowl-eligible teams that don’t go bowling. Stadium is projecting those four to be UL-Monroe (6-6), Wyoming (6-6), Miami (OH) (6-6) and Southern Miss (6-5).