Rather than rush to replace Middle Tennessee and Florida Atlantic after the two schools finalized last week its plans to join North Texas and Florida International in leaving the Sun Belt Conference for Conference USA, the SBC has taken a patient approach to addressing league membership.

The Sun Belt acted quite quickly in replacing North Texas and FlU, tapping Texas State and Georgia State to join the conference in July 2013 — and essentially trading its footprints north of Dallas and in Miami with ones between Austin and San Antonio and in Atlanta.

Once Middle Tennessee and FAU declared late last year their intentions to leave, and ultimately made a July 2013 departure official early last week, Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson said, "We knew "» that the likelihood of adding any members for the 2013 season was going to be very, very difficult."

It was doable, especially if the Sun Belt was willing to add New Mexico State and Idaho as football-only members.

That perhaps would have required one or both of those two schools to break valuable existing individual-game 2013 football contracts.

But it would have enabled the SBC to play with 10 football members this coming season rather than a less-than-ideal eight.

However, presidents and chancellors of Sun Belt schools aren’t collectively keen on adding New Mexico State and Idaho, former Sun Belt members who — as things stand now — will play 2013 as FBS independents due to the recent collapse of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).

The school administrators seem more intent on adding two current lower-level FCS programs, with leading contenders believed to be Georgia Southern and Appalachian State, especially if the Sun Belt decides to add two Eastern-based universities.

Liberty, Lamar and Sam Houston State all seem to be on fairly equal footing as contenders in their own right, and Jacksonville (Ala.) State evidently is a longshot.

Sun Belt officials also are anxious to see how Conference USA and the Big East handle their own less-than-stable membership situations.

Accordingly, the Sun Belt has opted to wait before adding. Doing so, Benson said, gives "us breathing room and time to evaluate and to see perhaps what is going on around us."

"We’ve been pretty consistent," the SBC commissioner said, "trying to maintain some order.

"It hasn’t meant," Benson added, "that we have not had conversations with interested universities about future membership in the Sun Belt."

Decisions looming

If the Sun Belt does decide to add one or more FCS schools in time for the 2014 football season — two is the likely number — NCAA rules dictate that it must do so by June 1.

Even then, though, the incoming programs will not be full-fledged SBC members right away.

Rather, that would merely start a transition period in which NCAA FBS requirements for scheduling and additional scholarships would be met.

Those schools would in all likelihood play the 2013 season in their current FCS conference, and would not be bowl-eligible and would not eligible for 2014 FBS championship consideration. But they would be recognized as a so-called "counter" program in 2014 for opponent bowl-eligibility purposes and in the Sun Belt standings.

Comparative issues

After Middle Tennessee and Florida Atlantic’s July 2013 departure was formalized last Tuesday, Benson said the Sun Belt had been "hoping to build our conference to a point where it could stand alongside Conference USA in a comparable manner."

The losses of MTSU and FAU may have derailed those hopes for now, but Benson sees it as only a temporary setback and said he still felt that "eventually we will get there."

For assurance, he looks to the Sun Belt’s on-field success last season. The SBC had a record four bowl teams — UL, Arkansas State, UL Monroe and Western Kentucky — and a fifth, Middle Tennessee, that was bowl-eligible but didn’t go to a postseason game.

Those four went 2-2, with UL and Arkansas State winnings its bowl games but UL Monroe and Western Kentucky losing.

It was a down year on the field comparatively for Conference USA, with Sun Belt teams going 7-2 — including UL’s New Orleans Bowl win over East Carolina and its regular-season win over Tulane ——against C-USA teams in 2012.

C-USA did have five bowl teams and went 4-1 in the 2012 postseason, but it also had a winless team in 0-12 Southern Mississippi.

The Sun Belt earned its largest-ever BCS performance bonus in 2012, finishing third among the five NCAA non-Automatic Qualifying conferences while losing out to the WAC and the MAC but beating out both C-USA and the Mountain West.

"We certainly had a football season this year," Benson said, "that demonstrated Sun Belt football is credible, and has been able to be successful.

"We need to grow our other sports along those same lines," he added, "to be able to demonstrate a comparability."

Scheduling OK

Benson said the Sun Belt wouldn’t prevent current members from scheduling outgoing members in future seasons in any sports.

"We have no input or influence on non-conference scheduling in that context," he said.

But Benson went a step farther, suggesting certain matchups simply make sense, conference affiliation notwithstanding. "Just like Louisiana Tech and UL Monroe need to play," he said, "I would say the same — that Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky need to play, just based on geography and rivalry."