It’s week two of the 2011 college football season, and the Sun Belt has a chance to prove if they are the best mid-major conference in Division I.

The action starts Friday night with the early conference leader heading to the Big East.

Last week, Florida International opened its conference portion of the schedule with a 41-16 victory over North Texas on Sept. 1 in the only conference game so far this young campaign.

Golden Panther senior wide receiver T.Y. Hilton proved why he is one of best at that position in the nation. He had 283 all-purpose yards in the win, which was most in the nation last week. It was a very balanced attack for the wide out that was named SBC Offensive Player of the Week, thanks to a performance that included 132 receiving yards, 49 rushing yards, 92 on kickoff returns and 10 yards on punt returns.

This week, FIU heads to Louisville for a Friday night special with the Cardinals that will be shown on ESPN. This will be the first meeting ever between the schools.

As for North Texas, they will be making school history Saturday when they open its new stadium against in-state rival and Conference USA rival, Houston.

This week, the Mean Green defense will have to face one of the top single-callers in the nation, Houston’s Case Keenum. In a 38-34 victory over UCLA last week, Keenum was 30-for-40 for 310 yards and two touchdowns.  Even though the schools are about 300 miles apart, this is the school’s first showdown since 1998.

"They have been looking forward to this game, just like we were looking forward to playing UCLA,” Keenum said during the Cougars weekly press conference. “We are going to get their best shot and we will give them ours. I'm confident it's going to be a good day."

Last week, Western Kentucky fell to in-state rival Kentucky, 14-3 in Nashville.

One of the reasons, the game was close was the performance of Hilltopper sophomore punter Hendrix Brakefield. Brakefield, averaged 44.6 yards per punt on eight punts. Three went for over 50 yards, including a 58-yard boot. Two of those were downed inside the Wildcat 10-yard line. His performance earned Brakefield the SBC Special Teams Player of the Week. The Hilltoppers host the Naval Academy this Saturday.

The Florida Atlantic Owls lost to Florida 41-3, last Saturday. This week, the Owls will again face a team from a BCS conference, the Big Ten’s Michigan State. Last year, the team’s met in Detroit with the Spartans winning 31-17.

Other matchups this week include: Grambling State at Louisiana-Monroe; Memphis at Arkansas State and Louisiana-Lafayette at Kent State.

Also, this week marks the 10-year anniversary of 9/11.

Each of the SBC schools playing at home on Saturday will have a tribute to the first responders and others.

They will also have a moment of silence for those lost during that day, and other events are planned.