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Come Fan with UsTuesday, August 4, 2026

New Mexico State, Idaho joining Sun Belt

Georgia Southern and Appalachian State aren’t the only schools headed for the southern non-BCS conference. NMSU and Idaho will soon join as football-only members.

The Sun Belt will be adding not only Georgia Southern and Appalachian State, but New Mexico State and Idaho as well, Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports reports. Georgia Southern and Appalachian State are set to announce they are joining Wednesday, with New Mexico State and Idaho possibly announcing they’re joining as soon as Thursday, Dodd reports. The latter two schools will be football-only members.

SB Nation’s Steven Godfrey reported the departure of both Georgia Southern and Appalachian State from the FCS to the Sun Belt earlier this morning.

The addition of these four schools provides the Sun Belt with a dozen members. These four schools join Arkansas State, Georgia State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, South Alabama, Texas State, Western Kentucky and Troy to provide the Sun Belt with the ability to stage a conference championship game.

New Mexico State and Idaho have been looking for a conference ever since the dissolution of the WAC. Both schools will be independents in 2013 before joining up in 2014. Georgia Southern is expected to join the same year in a transitional move before fully incorporating into the conference in 2015. There is no official announcement regarding when Appalachian State will make the change.

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