Andy Katz On Mike Jarvis

Andy Katz has an interesting new piece on former St. John's coach Mike Jarvis, who is entering his second year at Florida Atlantic. Because FAU was a terrible team last season I hadn't even noticed that Jarvis was the coach. You never know with optimistic coaches who love to spin their recruiting classes, but Jarvis seems to be very confident in his very young team. He thinks that FAU could contend for a Sun Belt title in 2010-11, even though I doubt they'll be able to compete with Western Kentucky or Florida International.

Still, it's interesting to see how aggressively several Sun Belt teams are trying to improve their programs, and to attract better talent. If you think about it, there's no reason that the Sun Belt can't be one of the better mid-majors. The best players on the west coast who don't make the Pac 10 tend to go to the WAC or WCC. Players from the midwest who don't make the Big Ten or Big 12 head over to the Mountain West, Horizon or Missouri Valley. Players in the northeast that miss out on the ACC and Big East can go to the Atlantic Ten, Colonial or MAAC. And obviously Conference USA picks up players from all over the eastern half of the country. But if you think about it, there really is not a good mid-major conference from the south and southeast. Conference USA can argue that it covers some of that ground, but it really doesn't do justice to all of the good athletes that come out of that part of the country that don't go to SEC schools.

There's no reason that the Sun Belt can't eventually begin to attract the best of the players not good enough to make SEC teams. Western Kentucky has already done a great job at cleaning up the state of Kentucky after Louisville, Memphis and the University of Kentucky get first pick. Maybe FIU and FAU can continue the trend of the strengthening of the Sun Belt.

It's something to think about if the Sun Belt continues the positive arc it's been on the past couple of years.