The Atlantic 10 just beefed up its basketball once again.

Less than two weeks after Butler officially announced it would leave the Horizon League to join the A-10, VCU is following in the Bulldogs' footsteps.

School President Michael Rao announced at a news conference Tuesday afternoon that VCU is leaving the Colonial Athletic Association to join the A-10 effective July 1, 2012. The Rams will compete in the A-10 in all sports this fall.

"Premier universities are premier across the board and that include athletics," Rao said.

Rao said some of the factors that led to the decision to jump to the A-10 were national visibility and increased revenue sharing.

"As members of the A-10, our ability to recruit and retain outstanding student-athletes will be significantly enhanced," Rao said.

VCU's move was initially reported by CBSSports.com Monday, though the initial report said the Rams wouldn't move until 2013-14. Why this fall instead?

CAA bylaws state that a team leaving the league immediately becomes ineligible for the conference basketball tournament, league Commissioner Tom Yeager told the Associated Press on Monday.

"I didn't want to put (the players) into a lame duck situation," Rao said Tuesday. "I wanted them to play in a league championship. In our judgment, it was better to move ahead -- and move ahead swiftly -- and give our athletes a chance to participate in these championships."

The additions of VCU and Butler ultimately will offset losses of Temple to the Big East and Charlotte to Conference USA. Temple and Charlotte will leave for the 2013-14 season, and Butler will begin competing in the A-10 at that point.

But this looks like it will work out quite well for the Atlantic 10, especially from a men's basketball perspective. And especially next season, while Temple is still around.

Not only is the A-10 getting two teams that recently made Cinderella-esque runs to the Final Four, the conference is getting two of the best young coaches in the nation. VCU's Shaka Smart and Butler's Brad Stevens have been two of the most sought-after coaches in recent coaching searches, and both have turned down high-major programs to stay at their respective schools.

It's going to be a fun league with the Rams and Bulldogs around, and it'll be good for both VCU and Butler that they'll be out of conferences that are essentially one-bid leagues. The A-10 got four teams in the tourney last season. This move will give both teams much better opportunities to snag at-large bids.

"We are extremely excited by the opportunity to join the Atlantic 10 Conference," Smart said in a statement. "It is a phenomenal league, made up of programs with both rich traditions and recent track records of success. We are very appreciative of the time we spent in the CAA, the experiences we had and the relationships we gained.

"We plan to maintain our key rivalries with CAA teams, now and in the future. We are enthuasiastic about attacking the challenges that lie ahead. Our No. 1 goal remains to move our student-athletes forward, both on and off the court."

VCU will pay a $250,000 exit fee to leave the CAA, according to Rao.