By Southern Pigskin Staff
SouthernPigskin.com

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With the move to the Sun Belt, Appalachian Statexe2x80x99s highly successful football program will transition to college footballxe2x80x99s highest level, the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).

nBOONE, N.C. xe2x80x94 Appalachian State University Chancellor Dr. Kenneth E. Peacock announced on Wednesday that the Universityxe2x80x99s athletics programs will join the Sun Belt Conference, effective July 1, 2014. With the move to the Sun Belt, Appalachian Statexe2x80x99s highly successful football program will transition to college footballxe2x80x99s highest level, the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).

nxe2x80x9cI am proud that Appalachian has this opportunity to compete in the Sun Belt Conference,xe2x80x9d Peacock said. xe2x80x9cOur student-athletes have earned the opportunity to participate at this level of collegiate athletics and we welcome the new academic and athletic relationships that will develop as a result of this partnership.xe2x80x9d

nFormed in 1976, the Sun Belt Conference is one of 11 conferences that sponsors NCAA Division I FBS football. Since 2007, the Sun Belt ranks fifth out of the 11 FBS conferences in postseason bowl game winning percentage, ranking ahead of three xe2x80x9cBig Fivexe2x80x9d leagues in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Pac-12 and the Big Ten as well as Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference and the Western Athletic Conference. The Sun Belt reached new heights on the gridiron in 2012, when it finished with the most non-conference wins in conference history and sent a league-record four teams to bowl games.xc2xa0

nSuccess is easy to find in other sports as well. The 2012-13 menxe2x80x99s basketball season saw the league put together its best non-conference RPI in four years and send two teams to the NCAA Tournament. Together, the Sun Beltxe2x80x99s menxe2x80x99s and womenxe2x80x99s basketball teams combined for a record-tying seven postseason appearances this season. The league is also known for placing multiple baseball and softball teams in the national top-25 rankings and NCAA postseason on a regular basis.
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nThrough it all, Sun Belt student-athletes excel in the classroom as well. A record 1,793 Sun Belt student-athletes earned a GPA over 3.0 and were named to either the SBC Academic Honor Roll or SBC Commissionerxe2x80x99s List in 2011-12. The 2011-12 academic year marked the third time in the last four years that the academic honors were doled out to 1,700 or more student-athletes.

nThe Sun Belt continues to utilize television to grow and promote the league and its member institutions. In 2012, the conference signed a new multi-year agreement with ESPN, Inc. that results in unprecedented national coverage for the league. Appalachian State fans can look forward to seeing more Mountaineer teams playing on national television on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. ESPN has also televised the conferencexe2x80x99s menxe2x80x99s basketball championship game for 32-consecutive years, marking its longest affiliation with any conference in the country.

nAdditionally, the conferencexe2x80x99s regional television partnership with Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast (CSS) and Cox Sports Television (CST) enables live telecasts of Sun Belt events to reach millions of households. The addition of volleyball, baseball and softball to the conferencexe2x80x99s television package has resulted in more national and regional television exposure for the league than at any time in its history.

nAppalachian State joins current Southern Conference rival Georgia Southern, which also accepted an invitation to join the Sun Belt on Wednesday, as the conferencexe2x80x99s newest members. The Sun Belt is currently slated to have 12 full-time members when Appalachian and Georgia Southern join the ranks for the 2014-15 academic year xe2x80x94 Appalachian, Arkansas-Little Rock, Arkansas State, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, South Alabama, Texas-Arlington, Texas State, Troy and Western Kentucky. All but Arkansas-Little Rock and Texas-Arlington will field FBS football programs.

nxe2x80x9cThis is a great day for the Sun Belt Conference as we are very proud to have Appalachian State join us,xe2x80x9d Sun Belt Conference commissioner Karl Benson said. xe2x80x9cThis is an institution with teams that compete at the highest level and an administration committed to providing a quality education to its students.xe2x80x9d

nAppalachian State joined NCAA Division I in 1970 and has been a member of the Southern Conference since 1971. The Mountaineers have competed at the NCAA Division I FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) level since 1982 and won an unprecedented three-consecutive national championships from 2005-07.

nAppalachian has proven that it can compete against the best competition that college football offers with seven victories over FBS opponents since 1982, highlighted by its historic 34-32 triumph over fifth-ranked Michigan in 2007, which marked the first time that an FCS program ever toppled a nationally ranked FBS opponent.

nAppalachian Statexe2x80x99s athletic success is not limited to the gridiron. Appalachianxe2x80x99s menxe2x80x99s basketball program has won three Southern Conference North Division championships and made two postseason appearances in the last six years. Womenxe2x80x99s basketball has won three of the last four Southern Conference regular-season titles and earned four-straight postseason berths. Baseball is coming off a 41-win season that included winning the SoCon championship and advancing to an NCAA Regional final. The Mountaineersxe2x80x99 perennially powerful menxe2x80x99s and womenxe2x80x99s cross country and track and field programs have combined to win 98 SoCon team championships and hundreds of individual titles, including two-time NCAA 1,500-meter champion Mary Jayne Harrelson (1999 and 2001).

nAs a result of its all-around athletic success, Appalachian has won seven-straight and 32 of the last 35 Commissionerxe2x80x99s Cups as the Southern Conferencexe2x80x99s top all-around menxe2x80x99s sports program and nine Germann Cups as the SoConxe2x80x99s top all-around womenxe2x80x99s sports program.

nIn the classroom, each of Appalachian Statexe2x80x99s 20 athletic programs boast a multi-year academic progress rate score of 947 or higher while its football programxe2x80x99s APR of 982 earned it a 2012 NCAA Public Recognition Award. Of the 14 NCAA Division I FCS football programs to receive Public Recognition Awards in 2012, Appalachianxe2x80x99s was the only to offer a full allotment of 63 football scholarships and the lone public institution (eight of the 14 recipients hail from the Ivy League).

nThe scholastic performance of Appalachian State student-athletes mirrors the academic excellence of the University. A comprehensive, regional university with nearly 18,000 students, Appalachian State is ranked No. 3 among the top public master-degree granting universities in the South. It aspires to be a model 21st-century, nationally recognized university combining the best characteristics of liberal arts and research institutions by resourcefully blending teaching and scholarship.

nxe2x80x9cThis is a great day for Appalachian State University,xe2x80x9d Appalachian State director of athletics Charlie Cobb said. xe2x80x9cBeing invited to join the Sun Belt Conference is the culmination of decades of hard work and achievement by thousands of Appalachian student-athletes, coaches, University leaders and supporters.xe2x80x9d

nxe2x80x9cWhile we will always be grateful for and proud of our 40-plus-year association with the Southern Conference and what we achieved in more than 30 years in NCAA Division I FCS, we are excited for the challenges that lie ahead in the Sun Belt and FBS.xe2x80x9d