Virginia Commonwealth will join the Atlantic 10 in the fall of 2012 and not at the beginning of the 2013-14 season as first reported, according to Brett McMurphy of CBSSports.com.
VCU and the A-10 have called a press conference for Tuesday afternoon to formally announce the news.
Formerly a member of the Colonial Athletic Association, VCU would have had to have spent a single season as a member of the Horizon League had the A-10 not permitted it to join immediately. The conference has also added Horizon League member Butler to the fold, but the Bulldogs will not join until the fall of 2013.
The conference switch means VCU will be leaving its chief rival, George Mason, behind in the CAA. Patriot athletic director Tom O’Connor announced that George Mason would not be leaving for the A-10 earlier this month.
The move means the A-10 will be replacing Temple and Charlotte – which are leaving for the Big East and Conference USA, respectively – with a pair of programs that each made the Final Four in 2011. Butler lost in the national title game in both 2010 and 2011.
Though the move is being made for all sports, basketball was almost certainly the driving force behind VCU’s decision to leave. The Rams are leaving behind a conference which has received just four at-large bids into the NCAA Tournament since 2000 for one that has received 20 over the same period of time.
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