change in the early-2020s realignment). As of , the last change in the MAC's core membership was Marshall's departure for Conference USA in 2005. Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference had seen little effect from the first several rounds of realignment, with the only change being the loss of non-football member Denver to the WAC. Although South Alabama had announced it would establish an FBS football program and join the Sun Belt football league in 2012, this move was finalized before the Big Ten and Pac-10 set the realignment process into motion. The Sun Belt's next move was to bring back one of its charter members, FCS upgrader Georgia State, effective in 2013. Soon afterwards, it became a target for C-USA after that conference lost several members to the American Athletic Conference. FIU, Florida Atlantic, Middle Tennessee, and North Texas all left for C-USA in 2013, and Western Kentucky did the same in 2014. The Sun Belt initially reloaded by adding new FBS member Texas State and non-football UT Arlington, both from the WAC, effective in 2013. It added four more members, two in all sports and two for football only, in 2014. Appalachian State and Georgia Southern, both from the FCS Southern Conference, started their FBS transitions in 2013 (remaining in the Southern Conference, ineligible for the conference title and the FCS playoffs, at that time), joined the Sun Belt in 2014, and became full FBS members in 2015. After the WAC dropped football, Idaho, a former football-only Sun Belt member, and New Mexico State, formerly an all-sports member, both returned for football after one season as FBS independents. On September 1, 2015, the Sun Belt announced that Coastal Carolina of the FCS Big South would join the Sun Belt in 2016 as an all sports-member; however, the football program, as part of its FBS transition, played the 2016 season as an FCS independent, and joined the Sun Belt in football in 2017 (being postseason-eligible only if the team has more than six wins, and more games than six-win eligible teams), becoming fully eligible in 2018. On March 1, 2016, the Sun Belt announced that it would not renew Idaho's and New Mexico State's football associate memberships after 2017. FCS conferences affected Big Sky Conference Conference realignment came to the second-tier Division I FCS in September 2010, when the Big Sky Conference increased its profile in California by