While the Sun Belt vote to retain Idaho and/or New Mexico State yet to come in March, the NCAA has announced that conference championship game deregulation has passed...with a caveat.
Conference championship game deregulation has finally passed.
DI Council approves proposal allowing FBS conferences without 12 members to hold conference championship football games.
— NCAA (@NCAA) January 13, 2016
The rule, which is believed to go into effect immediately, impacts the two FBS leagues with less than 12 members, the Big XII and the Sun Belt.
For the Sun Belt, the vote was important as despite adding a 12th football member in Coastal Carolina in 2017, the league was looking at the football-only members Idaho and New Mexico State.