2020 Sun Belt Conference men's soccer season

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically affected the landscape of men's soccer in the Sun Belt Conference. Long-time program, Appalachian State suspended its men's varsity soccer program in the wake of the pandemic, due to anticipated budget cuts in the athletics program. Additionally, Sun Belt associate member Howard opted out of playing during the fall season due to concerns with the ongoing pandemic.

The SBC and Atlantic Coast Conference were the only two men's soccer conferences that played during fall 2020.

The conference opted to play a six-match season with all programs doing a home-and-home series, or double round robin against every program in the conference. Most teams completed the fall season playing only 8–12 matches instead of the normal 15–18 matches.

Appalachian State's decision to drop men's soccer was the first move that led to the discontinuation of SBC men's soccer after the 2020–21 school year. In July 2020, Howard announced that it would become an associate member of the Northeast Conference in six sports, with men's soccer being one of four sports moving in July 2021.^[1] This left the SBC with only four men's soccer members, two less than the six required to maintain an automatic NCAA tournament berth. The next move that affected SBC men's soccer came in January 2021, when the ASUN Conference announced three schools as incoming full members, including SBC associate Central Arkansas.^[2] The following month saw Coastal Carolina announce that it would become a single-sport member of Conference USA (C-USA), joining another in-state C-USA associate in South Carolina.^[3] This left Georgia Southern and Georgia State as the only remaining Sun Belt men's soccer programs, and those two schools announced they would move that sport to the Mid-American Conference in late May 2021.^[4]

A major conference realignment initially triggered in July 2021 when Oklahoma and Texas announced their plans to leave the Big 12 Conference for the Southeastern Conference eventually led to the reinstatement of Sun Belt men's soccer. Further moves in this realignment cycle saw three men's soccer schools announce that they would join the SBC no later than 2023: Colonial Athletic Association member James Madison, and then-reigning national champion Marshall and Old Dominion from Conference USA. Accordingly, league commissioner Keith Gill announced on November 1, 2021 that SBC men's soccer would be reinstated no later than 2023.^[5]

Later developments in the realignment cycle^[6][7] led the SBC to reinstate men's soccer in 2022 instead of 2023.^[8]

As of the 2019 season

The preseason poll was released on August 27, 2020.^[15]

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, only College Soccer News released a preseason poll.

Defensive Player – Preseason All-Conference

• Alberto Suarez, Central Arkansas

Offensive Player – Preseason All-Conference

• Aris Briggs, Georgia State

Preseason All-Conference Team

Position	Nat.	Player	Team
FW	USA	Aris Briggs	Georgia State
FW	ENG	Adam Davie	Georgia Southern
FW	ITA	Claudio Repetto	Coastal Carolina
MF	DEN	Soren Jenson	Central Arkansas
MF	ENG	Matthew Fearnley	Georgia State
MF	SCO	Ross Finnie	Georgia State
DF	ESP	Alberto Suárez	Central Arkansas
DF	MEX	Aldair Cortes	Georgia Southern
DF	ITA	Edoardo Calzola	Central Arkansas
GK	ENG	Paul Tyson	Georgia State
GK	BRA	Jose Eduardo Bomfim	Georgia Southern

For the 2020 season, each team plays every other conference team twice; once home and once away.

Legend

All times Eastern time.

All four teams qualified for the modified Sun Belt Conference Men's Soccer Tournament. The tournament was played from November 13–15, with Coastal Carolina winning the championship in penalties over Georgia State.

The winner of the 2020 SBC Tournament will earn an automatic berth into the 2020 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament was postponed from November/December 2020 to April/May 2021.