If there was one consistent talking point at Sun Belt Conference Media Days in New Orleans this week, it’s the league’s standing among its peers in Group of 5 football in 2023.

Commissioner Keith Gill and nearly every coach who took the podium made a point of saying in his opening remarks that the Sun Belt is the best G5 league (though Gill used the more official term of “non-autonomy” conference). Such rah-rah talk is to be expected in the preseason perhaps, but Sun Belt coaches seem unanimous in that assessment.

“We are the premier Group of 5 conference,” Marshall coach Charles Huff said. “I think the Sun Belt Conference has separated itself with its consistency on and off the field.”

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The American Athletic Conference has long held the unofficial title of best Group of 5 league, though commissioner Mike Aresco would probably rather consider the AAC part of the “Power 6″ with the likes of the SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12. AAC champion Tulane finished the 2022 season No. 9 in the final AP poll, the only G5 team in the Top 10.

But the AAC is in a bit of a weakened state in 2023, with Houston, Cincinnati and Central Florida having departed for the Big 12. The AAC in turn raided Conference USA, bringing in Texas-San Antonio, UAB, Rice, North Texas, Florida Atlantic and Charlotte this year.

Conference USA has seen its membership drop from 14 teams in 2021 to eight this year, having lost Southern Miss, Old Dominion and Marshall to the Sun Belt in 2022. CUSA replaced the latest departures with Jacksonville State, Sam Houston, Liberty and New Mexico State, two FCS programs and two FBS independents.

The Mountain West and Mid-American Conference have had stable membership in recent years, though the MWC narrowly avoided losing San Diego State to the Pac-12. None of those leagues are as consistently competitive as the Sun Belt, said Huff, who was an assistant at Alabama, Penn State, Maryland, Mississippi State and with the NFL’s Buffalo Bills before landing the Marshall head-coaching job in 2021.

“I’ve been in three of the best conferences in the world — I’ve been in the AFC East, I’ve been in the SEC and I’ve been in the Big Ten,” Huff said. “And the thing that makes those conferences strong, competitive, is every team top to bottom is in a very competitive, close-knit range. It’s not like you’ve got one team up here that’s just totally dominating and then you’ve got a team that’s building or whatever.

“The top to bottom competitiveness of the Sun Belt, to me, is what makes it the premier Group of 5 league. And I think the fan bases have a lot to do with that. The fan bases, the support, the passion, the traditions, the logos, the brands — I think it puts all those things together. I think that’s what makes us what we are.”

As Huff noted, when the Sun Belt expanded in 2014 and 2022, it chose not to chase programs in large TV markets, as the AAC has done. Instead, the Sun Belt focused on programs with long-standing traditions of winning, and multiple generations of passionate fans, such as Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, Southern Miss and Marshall.

The new-look Sun Belt made some noise with four victories over Power 5 programs early last season — Old Dominion beat Virginia Tech, Marshall beat Notre Dame, Georgia Southern beat Nebraska and Appalachian State beat Texas A&M. Troy won the conference championship and beat UTSA in the Cure Bowl to finish No. 19 in the final Associated Press poll.

“I just think top to bottom, the parity is real,” Troy coach Jon Sumrall said. “You look at maybe the way the conferences were configured last year, it’s different than they are this year, right? Not to make a big deal about what other leagues have or don’t have, but our league through the last two to three years of conference realignment, with the additions of Marshall and JMU and Southern Miss and then ODU, I think has strengthened where we are and where we’re headed.

“And so I think that puts us in a really prime position to elevate, to be in that driver’s seat for the strongest Group of 5 conference.”

The next step, of course, is earning a spot in the College Football Playoff. Cincinnati in 2021, then in the AAC, is the only G5 to make the CFP under the current four-team format.

The Playoff expands to 12 teams in 2024, however, opening up opportunities for the Sun Belt and other G5 leagues to be included on a regular basis. Gill said his conference is in position to take advantage.

“Our competitive success and momentum have positioned us for great expectations,” Gill said. “We expect to be the best non-autonomy FBS conference and earn a spot in a New Year’s Day bowl or the College Football Playoff. Those are our ultimate goals each season and we will not shy away from those great expectations.”