Appalachian State will accept Sun Belt invite

Big news out of snowy Boone this afternoon.

Appalachian State University will accept an invitation to the Sun Belt Conference, thereby becoming an FBS university.

From Tommy Bowman, beat writer at the Winston-Salem Journal:

@AppTrailWSJ: Appalachian State will accept an invitation to join the Sun Belt Conference this week, probably on Wednesday, according to a source at ASU

Georgia Southern also could accept a Sun Belt invite. They have a news conference scheduled for 9am on Wednesday.

Butler to Big East

Butler is dropping out of the Atlantic 10 and moving to the Big East (Catholic 7), per David Woods of the Indianapolis Star.

From Woods article:

An announcement is expected next week. The goal is to get a new conference done before the second round of the NCAA Tournament begins on Thursday.
Bernadette McGlade, the A-10 commissioner, said Friday in an e-mail that several presidents and athletic directors left a conference meeting earlier in the day. She did not identify which ones or why they left.
A source familiar with the situation said later Friday that representatives of several schools did leave early, but the departures were not because of the planned withdrawal and exit fees were not among topics discussed.
Leaving the conference early will cost Butler a $2 million exit fee.

 http://www.indystar.com/article/20130315/SPORTS0605/303150071/Butler-withdraw-from-10-next-week-will-join-Big-East?odyssey=mod|breaking|text|IndyStar.com