Sun Belt Championship 2019: 3 takeaways from App State’s win over Louisiana

1. App State has a New Year’s Six argument

The Appalachian State Mountaineers have an impressive resume for the playoff committee to mull over when they select the Group of Five representative in the New Year’s Six game. They are Sun Belt champions, they have 12 wins and they have two wins against Power Five teams. That’s not a bad resume.

However, they have some holes in their résumé. If the Mountaineers end up in the New Orleans Bowl instead of the Cotton Bowl, they can point to their loss to Georgia Southern after they were ranked in the College Football Playoff Top 25. That loss means they need some help.

First, they need Boise State to lose to Hawaii. Not only that, the Mountaineers needs every Group of Five team ahead of them to lose. A Broncos team with two losses is eliminated from contention. They need Cincinnati to beat Memphis as well. The committee might favor the Bearcats over the Mountaineers, but those two Power Five wins are hard to ignore if they are looking at a two loss Bearcats team. Both would have a conference title.

If the Bearcats win, that means it would be on the road unlike App State. Depending on what happens on Saturday, the committee has quite the job selecting the Cotton Bowl participant.