NEW ORLEANS -- Arkansas State football Coach Blake Anderson and Sun Belt Conference Commissioner Karl Benson sat side-by-side Friday during the New Orleans Bowl luncheon at the New Orleans Marriott.
Afterward, ASU Athletic Director Terry Mohajir and Benson chatted cordially inside a Marriott ballroom.
Both sides insist there's no friction between ASU and the Sun Belt, after what a vocal portion of the fan base claimed was a slight from the conference Dec. 5. When ASU clinched an outright conference title with a victory over Texas State, nobody from the league office was in attendance to present the trophy.
Benson said the relationship between ASU and the league is "excellent."
"I get paid to promote the Sun Belt Conference," Benson said Friday. "The way we promote the Sun Belt Conference is through the performance of our programs. Arkansas State has given me four years of accolades to use to promote the Sun Belt."
Benson said he had intended to attend the Texas State game.
He had an 8 a.m. flight out of New Orleans booked Dec. 5 to be in Jonesboro to present the trophy to ASU, just as he did in Jonesboro in 2012 and to Georgia Southern in 2014 (the title was shared in 2013). He said an ear infection prevented him from making the trip.
"I went to bed Friday night with an ear infection and went to urgent care on Saturday morning rather than the airport because my ears were blocked," said Benson, wearing an ASU lapel pin on his suit jacket. "It was by no means an intentional disrespect to Arkansas State or its football program."
The league shipped the conference trophy, championship hats and placards that were part of a postgame celebration. ASU System President Charles Welch and Chancellor Tim Hudson presented the team the trophy. Both Anderson and Mohajir said Dec. 5 that they weren't offended by the no-show, and Mohajir reiterated as much Friday.
"I don't even worry about that stuff at all. I just don't. I've moved on," Mohajir said. "I'm not upset about it. There wasn't a representative, so our chancellor and our president were there to give out the trophy."
Mohajir and Benson said Friday the two haven't even spoken about it. Benson said he sat with Anderson and his wife, Wendy, and Mohajir and his wife, Julie, on Dec. 8 during the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame induction dinner in New York City. The topic never came up.
Benson also said Friday that there is no official league protocol for the office to be on site when a team clinches a championship, and he added that Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby did not present Oklahoma a trophy after it clinched the title this year. The Big 12 and the Sun Belt are the only FBS conferences that do not hold a championship game.
"I don't think we have minimized at all what they've done," Benson said. "It makes my job a lot easier to have teams like Arkansas State."
As for the criticism he's heard from fans over the past two weeks, Benson said it's not new.
"I've been doing this for 25 years," he said. "My job is a very easy target, and I'm very easily criticized. It goes with the territory."
Sports on 12/19/2015