Wednesday, November 28, 2018 

Sun Belt Communications Contact – Scottie Rodgers (rodgers@sunbeltsports.org) 

Sun Belt Football Championship Game Set for Live Wrap-Around Coverage on ESPN3 NEW ORLEANS – The 2018 Sun Belt Conference Football Championship Game is set for three hours of live programming on ESPN3, providing wrap-around coverage of the Saturday, Dec. 1 matchup between Appalachian State and Louisiana in Boone, N.C.

The day’s coverage kicks off with a two-hour pregame show beginning at 10:00 a.m. ET/9:00 a.m. CT and closes with a one-hour postgame show immediately following the game. Both shows, presented by Louisiana Seafood, New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation, Dole Food Company and Crystal Clear Imaging, are slated to originate from Duck Pond Field outside Trivette Hall on the Appalachian State campus.

Hosted by J.D. Byars and Wayne Gandy, the pregame show will take an in-depth look at the Mountaineers and Ragin’ Cajuns with analysis, season highlights, features and interviews and the postgame show will recap the game and showcase live coverage of the postgame awards ceremony from Kidd Brewer Stadium. The tentative interview schedule for the pregame show is:

10:10 a.m. Jerry Silverstein – President, Dollar General Bowl

10:20 Doug Gillin – Director of Athletics, Appalachian State

10:35 Dr. Joseph Savoie – President, Louisiana

10:45 Alan Gooch – Executive Director, AutoNation Cure Bowl

11:05 Karl Benson – Commissioner, Sun Belt Conference

11:15 Bryan Maggard – Director of Athletics, Louisiana

11:30 Paul Valteau, Jr. – Executive Committee Chairman, R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl

Appalachian State (9-2, 7-1 Sun Belt) hosts Louisiana (7-5, 5-3 Sun Belt) in the inaugural Sun Belt Football Championship Game on Saturday, Dec. 1 at Noon ET/11:00 a.m. CT on ESPN immediately following College GameDay.

Entering the second decade of the new millennium, the Sun Belt Conference continues to challenge itself, and its competitors, in all aspects of intercollegiate athletics. Not content with being simply the youngest football conference in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the conference has shown that it can rise each and every season that comes along. And since the birth of the league as an FBS member in 2001, the evidence is clear that the conference is indeed rising above competitors and peer conferences.

The Sun Belt finished second in bowl winning percentage among all 10 FBS conferences the last two seasons. Reaching back to the 2014 season, no conference has a better total bowl winning percentage (.611) than the Sun Belt. All that success comes as the 2018 season will see the conference split into East and West divisions for the first time and stage its first-ever championship game at the end of the regular season on December 1, 2018.

Appalachian State, Arkansas State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Louisiana, ULM, South Alabama, Texas State and Troy give the league 10 football members. Little Rock and UTA compete as Sun Belt members in sports other than football.