Appalachian State leaving Southern Conference and headed to the Sun Belt Conference(Football Move)

*****From www.goasu.com:BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State University will hold a press conference on Wednesday at 4 p.m. to make the major announcement regarding the University and its athletics program.*****

from Tommy Bowman at the Winston-Salem Journal(www.journalnow.com)

Appalachian State University’s wait for a move up to the NCAA’s highest level of football appears to be over.

ASU officials will announce the acceptance of an invitation to join the Sun Belt Conference later this week, probably Wednesday(tomorrow), according to a source at ASU familiar with the negotiations.

The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because neither ASU nor the Sun Belt has made an announcement.

The move will take the Mountaineers to the Football Bowl Subdivision. They have competed in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) since 1982. FBS members can offer as many as 85 scholarships, compared to 63 at the FCS level.

*****CLICK HERE to read all from Tommy Bowman at the Winston-Salem Journal…..*****

2 thoughts on “Appalachian State leaving Southern Conference and headed to the Sun Belt Conference(Football Move)

  1. When I saw this I wondered does this water down the talent of the Sunbelt? I know App has a strong program but expanding the Sun Belt by elevating a 1AA program to 1A doesn’t really make it better?

    Or is App doing better than current Sunbelt schools?

  2. Does anyone really want to see APP play schools like FIU, UT Arlington, Texas State, Arkansas State, UALR, or Louisiana-Monroe? Most of these schools have shorten names that nobody has ever even seen or schools that nobody has had heard of in this area. Since none of these schools will get any media coverage until they run off a high winning streak, there will be fating interest in the APP programs as time goes on. APP will now play for the opportunity to finish on top once every 15 years and make the basketball tournament or once every 20 years going undefeated in football to make a bowl game. They may make an extra $1m per year from TV money but I think they will lose more from lost ticket sales and less interest from fans and less media coverage from local media. It is unfortunate that Conference USA would not take APP but this will be a great marketing and recruiting opportunity for schools like Charlotte and ODU for kids in this area that APP gets today. Kids want to play teams of interest and they want to have games in areas that family can attend. The Sun Belt has none of these for NC kids and they are not on national TV. APP is making a mistake by chasing the money and they will spend more in marketing their programs in the future than what they will gain in conference dollars.

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