Editor's Note: On April 9, 2012, Georgia State was officially invited to join the Sun Belt Conference and compete for 14 league titles starting July 1, 2013. This is the fourth of a seven-part series looking at the Panthers' move into the Sun Belt, including an historical look back, a peek around  the conference as a whole, as well as sport-specific information about GSU's upcoming league opponents.

The Sun Belt is one of 10 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) conferences. Members compete for automatic bids to two guaranteed postseason bowls: the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl against a Conference USA opponent and the GoDaddy.com Bowl in Mobile against the MAC champion.

Other bids could still be earned depending on the way other leagues fill their slots. The league earned four bowl bids last year after earning two wins over top-25 teams and posting its most non-conference wins in league history. Over the past five years, the Sun Belt is 7-7 in bowl games, producing a better bowl winning percentage than the Pac-12, ACC, Big Ten, WAC and MAC.

Here's a look at the football members' history:

The Troy Trojans made the jump to FBS in 2001 and the Sun Belt football in 2004. They have expanded their football stadium to 30,000 seats. Troy began football in 1909 and is closing in on 500 all-time wins at various levels. It has won five Sun Belt championships and has sent more than 60 players to the NFL, including league MVP DeMarcus Ware of the Dallas Cowboys. Two years ago, the champion N.Y. Giants had three Troy players on roster. Coach Larry Blakeney has been at Troy for more than 20 years.

Newcomer South Alabama played its inaugural football season in 2009 and the Jaguars play in the 40,000-seat Ladd-Peebles Stadium that has been home to the Senior Bowl since 1951. Its head coach is former Alabama and Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Joey Jones. The Jaguars played a Sun Belt schedule last year, finishing in last place. Georgia State defeated South Alabama at Homecoming in the Georgia Dome in 2011 in two overtimes, while dropping a 39-34 shootout in Mobile in the inaugural 2010 season.

The Arkansas State Red Wolves have been an FBS member since 1992. Arkansas State won back-to-back Sun Belt titles before coach Gus Malzahn left to take the Auburn job after last season, leaving former Georgia State defensive coordinator John Thompson as the interim head coach in the GoDaddy.com Bowl win over No. 25 Kent State. Texas offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin takes over this year. With a 31,000-seat stadium, ASU averaged 26,000 fans last year to give it a dynamic home-field advantage.

Football is king at Louisiana-Monroe with a 30,000-seat stadium for the Warhawks, who grabbed headlines last year by beating No. 8 Arkansas, losing in overtime to Auburn and losing by five points to Baylor. Tied for second in the Sun Belt, they earned a bid to the Independence Bowl last year.  Louisiana-Monroe also picked up a win over Alabama in 2007. Its NFL line-up has sent three QBs to the highest level in Stan Humphries, Bubby Brister and Doug Pederson.

The Ragin' Cajuns of Louisiana-Lafayette play in a sports-crazy town that supports its Ragin' Cajuns by filling the 31,000-seat Cajun Field, known to them as The Swamp. With back-to-back 9-4 seasons and wins in the New Orleans Bowl over San Diego State and East Carolina the past two years, football fever is raging. SEC fans remember they had Florida down by 10 points last year at that Swamp, but the Gators scored twice in the final two minutes for the win. NFL stars from ULL include former Carolina Super Bowl QB Jake Delhomme and the NFL's second-ranked all-purpose yardage leader in Brian Mitchell.

Texas State has had football since 1904, excelling with 44 All-Americans at the Division II and FCS levels on its way up to FBS. Its head coach is former Texas A&M and Alabama mentor Dennis Franchione. The Bobcats played in the WAC last year, finishing 6-6 including beating the Houston Cougars. Bobcat Stadium holds 30,000 fans on campus in the city located between San Antonio and Austin.

Western Kentucky will play one final season in the Sun Belt before moving to Conference USA. This past year, the 7-5 Hilltoppers advanced to the Little Caesar's Bowl in Detroit. When Western Kentucky comes to the Georgia Dome in the fall, former Falcons head coach Bobby Petrino will lead the way as coach of the Hilltoppers. Twenty-six former WKU players have been drafted into the NFL.

A pair of schools will be making the rise from the FCS ranks in 2014 and should provide great football rivalries for GSU.  Georgia Southern, a former TAAC rival, will bring its football base, many of whom work in Atlanta, to stir up a rivalry. FCS power Appalachian State will also bring appeal and a rich football history against the Panthers.  

Also in 2014, two schools from the former WAC will re-join the Sun Belt for football only: Idaho and New Mexico State. The Vandals hail from Moscow, Idaho, and the Aggies from Las Cruces, N.M.

The lineup is a strong one in the Sun Belt as Georgia State readies for its first season with a full FBS schedule, just four years after starting the program from scratch.