As many of you may know, I am a graduate of Troy University. I worked in the Sports Information Department, or media relations, while I was there and helped with just about every sport the Trojans play.

Some I worked more than others but the main sports I worked with was football, basketball, softball, and baseball.

Troy is a member of the Sun Belt conference in all their sports.

Thursday morning, I was reading from various sites and I came across Rivals.com. Rivals is doing its 2010 countdown, ranking the teams from No. 1 through No. 120.

They start at the bottom, and will release their No. 1 team Aug. 19.

Here is the website:

http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1094845

I know this is a matter of opinion in their rankings and this blog is just a matter of my opinion, but I think the Troy Trojans could better themselves so much by moving to another conference.

I know a lot of factors go into and count with conferences and there are other sports to be considered other than football, but look at this:

As of writing this, the countdown is at No. 81. That is the bottom 40 teams in all of college football.

Of the nine Sun Belt college football teams, seven, are ranked in the bottom 40. That is all but two teams—Troy and Middle Tennessee.

Of the seven ranked, six are ranked within Nos. 100-120 and one is ranked No. 120—Western Kentucky.

So far, Florida Atlantic (FAU) is the only team not ranked inside of the 100s.

On Father’s Day, my first might I add, one part of my gift from my parents was a college football magazine and they were doing a same kind of project ranking their picks from top to bottom.

They ranked the same seven teams with the highest ranked team being Arkansas State at No. 98.

While Rivals has not yet revealed where Troy and Middle Tennessee will be ranked, the magazine has Troy at No. 86 and Middle at No. 80.

It is obvious to say that Troy and Middle are the two best teams in the conference and their rankings by these media are not the best, but it is better nonetheless than the others.

Yes, I may be partial to the Trojans of Troy, but with the recent shuffle of a couple of schools to other conferences, maybe Troy should look at another conference to better itself than the Sun Belt.

After writing this, I saw a link of a friend and fellow sports writer and Troy beat writer Drew Champlin from the Dothan Eagle.

Here is a link to a recent story he did about Troy with Trojan athletic director Steve Dennis.

http://www2.dothaneagle.com/dea/sports/college/troy/article/dennis_addresses_troy_athletic_plans/162099/

Off the subject of sports for a little bit and speaking of Troy, if there are any graduates of Troy here in Escambia County who would like to see if we could start up an Alumni chapter for the area, let me know.

We have a list of over 500 graduates in the area and are seeing if anyone would be interested in this and see if we could start one up. Any comments about this and the blog are welcomed or you can email me at sports@brewtonstandard.com.

Until we meet again here or out in the world of sports, God bless.