Dark horse contenders for every college football conference in 2019
College football is always full of surprises, and these dark-horse contenders to win conference titles could surprise more than a few people.
You hear it prior to every college football season — Alabama, USC, Clemson, FSU, Ohio State, Michigan, Oklahoma — and so on, and so on and so on. The same names seem to pop up year after year as favorites to win their respective conferences.
But it seems every season, at least one conference has a surprise contender who nearly upsets the entire balance of things in the we-need-predictability world of college football.
Some of these may seem bold, or even brash, to predict as dark-horse contenders, but all of them have the potential to make good on a “this’ll be the year” hope for their fans.
All stats used are from cfbstats.com and ESPN.com
Sun Belt Conference
Favorites: Appalachian State, Louisiana
Liked by some: Arkansas State
Dark-horse:
Eagles head coach Chad Lunsford did a commendable job in his first full season on the sidelines with Georgia Southern, and he may have an even better team on the field this season.
Outside of simply being a pretty darned good team, Georgia Southern has a schedule that — if survived — can not only propel them to become conference champs, but would also have to give them some serious Group of Five consideration for the playoffs.
The Eagles open their season against LSU, a team who has been known to sleep through the first couple of weeks in a season Against a team running the option, LSU may find themselves in an uncomfortable position. They also have a Week 3 contest against Minnesota, followed up by a home game against conference co-favorite, Louisiana.
If Georgia Southern gets through the first third of the season unblemished, they’ll have all the momentum and confidence they need to make a run to the conference championship game.
On the flip side, that daunting schedule could be the Eagles undoing, and leave them out in the cold very early on in the season.