NEW ORLEANS- The Sun Belt
Conference has entered into a primary bowl partnership with the GMAC Bowl
beginning next season and running through the 2013 football season. The
announcement was made Tuesday.
"We are very excited to enter this relationship with the
GMAC Bowl because it represents one of the most significant steps in our
league's history," Sun Belt Commissioner Wright Waters said. "We look
forward to this partnership with the GMAC Bowl, its outstanding leadership and
staff, as well as the city of Mobile."
"We are excited about the brand of football the Sun Belt
Conference will bring to Mobile
and we are eager to begin our partnership with Commissioner Wright Waters and
his staff," GMAC Bowl President Jerry Silverstein said. "The proximity of the
conference in New Orleans
and the geographic location of the schools make a natural fit for our bowl
game."
The four year partnership with the GMAC Bowl will call for a
Sun Belt team to represent the league in the game following the 2010, 2011,
2012 and 2013 regular seasons. The GMAC Bowl will have first or second
selection of a Sun Belt Conference team after the Bowl Championship Series and
the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.
The Troy Trojans will play in the GMAC Bowl on January 6
against Mid-American Conference Champion Central Michigan. Troy's invitation to the in-state bowl game makes the
Trojans the first team from the state of Alabama
to ever play in an Alabama
bowl game. Troy
was selected as an at-large participant in this season's edition of the
game. The 11th Annual GMAC Bowl will kickoff at 6:00 P.M (CST) January
6th 2010, at Ladd Peebles Stadium. ESPN will nationally broadcast the game.
The Sun Belt Conference sent multiple teams to postseason
bowl games for the fourth time in the conference's brief nine year history as Troy and Middle Tennessee
accepted bowl invitations this season. It marks the third time in the
last four years that the Sun Belt Conference has had two teams in postseason
bowl games.
The Sun Belt Conference has also had recent success in the
postseason as teams from the SBC have combined to win four of its last six bowl
games, which gives the league a winning bowl record since the 2006 postseason.
The Sun Belt Conference previously announced that it has
extended its partnership with the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. The
league will continue to send a team to face an opponent from Conference USA
for the next four seasons.
