Source: Texas Arlington moving to Sun Belt

Texas Arlington has accepted an invitation to join the Sun Belt Conference, pending the approval of the school's board of regents, a source said.

Texas Arlington plans to accept an invitation to join the Sun Belt Conference, pending the approval of the school's board of regents, a source said.

The Mavericks, coming from the Southland Conference, will join Texas State and Georgia State as new members of the Sun Belt, which lost North Texas and Florida International to Conference USA this week.

UT Arlington does not play football, although the school intends to explore building a football program after completing an upgrade of the baseball and softball facilities.

The school opened a $78 million basketball arena this year. New Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson attended the opening of the 7,000-seat College Park Center.

The Mavericks' men's basketball program is 103-82 under coach Scott Cross. They made their first NCAA tournament appearance in 2008 and set a school record with 24 wins last season, winning the Southland's regular-season title.

UT Arlington baseball program, which is 27-19 this season, has played in the NCAA tournament four times, most recently in 2006.