Conference Expansion: Butler Officially Joining Atlantic-10

ESPN’s Andy Katz is reporting that Butler is officially set to leave the Horizon League and join the Atlantic-10 conference for all sports.

The school will begin playing in the league at the beginning of the 2013-2014 season.

This is a move that has been rumored for a while now and it seems that it will finally happen and give the Bulldogs a larger platform on the basketball side of things. While the Horizon League boasted solid mid-major teams, the A-10 will give Butler a chance to compete in a stronger league that will be much better on the RPI come NCAA tournament time in March.

With Temple leaving for the Big East, this is a good get for the A-10 considering the success that Butler has had over the last several years under Brad Stevens.

It’s not every day that you can bring in a team that competed in back to back national title games.

And assuming that Stevens remains in the role for several years to come, they should be able to recruit well enough to have the same type of success in the A-10.

Needless to say, the move severely hurts the Horizon League, who loses a team that made it to the NCAA title game two years in a row and brought unprecedented attention to the league in the process.