In 1987, the National Collegiate Athletic Association approved a proposal made by two Division II conferences that allowed any conference with 12 football members to split into divisions and stage a championship game between the divisional winners, with that game not counting against NCAA limits on regular-season contests. However, the rule would not see its first use until 1992, when the Southeastern Conference, which had added Arkansas and South Carolina the previous year, launched its title game. In early 2016, NCAA legislation was passed that largely deregulated FBS conference championship games, allowing a conference with fewer than 12 teams to stage a championship game that featured either the top two teams at the end of a full round-robin conference schedule, or the winners of each of two divisions, with each team playing a full round-robin schedule within its division. Several months later, the Sun Belt Conference announced that they would be introducing a football championship game starting in the 2018 season. In 2017, the conference announced the two divisions that teams would compete in, with division winners qualifying for the championship game. As the conference would have 10 teams competing in football in the 2018 season, East and West divisions were created with five teams each, with the championship game to be played at the home stadium of the team with the bestCollege Football Playoff ranking. If no teams are ranked in the CFP selection committee, the conference will determine home field using a formula based on six computer ratings that were used in the old Bowl Championship Series standings. Unlike the conference's sports of Baseball and Volleyball, which are also divided into divisions, the Jaguars of South Alabama compete in the West division rather than the East. In 2018, for the inaugural championship game, Appalachian State qualified as the East division team, as they had defeated Troy head-to-head, with both teams finishing the regular season with 7–1 conference records. Louisiana qualified as the West division team, as they had defeated Arkansas State head-to-head, with both teams finishing the regular season with 5–3 conference records.
Results by year
Below are the results from all Sun Belt Conference Football Championship Games played. The winning team appears in bold font, on a background of their primary team color. Rankings are from the College Football Playoff committee ranking released prior to the game.
