Georgia State is coming home.

The Atlanta-based school, a charter member of the Sun Belt Conference in 1976, has accepted an invitation to rejoin the league, effective July 1, 2013.

Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson was in Atlanta Monday for the announcement.

The Panthers were in the Sun Belt from 1976-81.  They most recently have been members of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA).

Georgia State fielded its first football team in 2010.  They are coached by former Georgia Tech and Alabama coach Bill Curry.

The addition of Georgia State gives the Sun Belt Conference twelve members, eleven of which play football.  Georgia State, currently a member of the FCS, will move its football program to the FBS in 2014.

GSU is the second largest university in the state of Georgia, with over 32,000 students and is located in downtown Atlanta, the nation's seventh largest market.

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