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Conference USA reportedly adds Middle Tennessee State, Florida Atlantic after Tulane, East Carolina departures

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As the Big East quickly becomes the “New Conference USA,” the real C-USA is scrambling to fill in the gaps left by the sudden departures of its member schools.

After it was announced Tuesday that Tulane would join the Big East as a full member and East Carolina would make the same shift as a football-only school, Conference USA worked quickly to add Middle Tennessee State to its ranks, Harry Minium of The Virginian-Pilot is reporting.

The Middle Tennessee State move had been in realignment discussions before, with the school missing out on C-USA expansion that took place in the spring. At that time, the conference added six schools.

MTSU comes over from the Sun Belt and will become Conference USA’s 13th school. It’s likely that the conference is not done expanding, though.

Buzz has picked up that the C-USA is looking to add a 14th member, likely Florida Atlantic, also from the Sun Belt, or New Mexico State from the WAC.

Middle Tennessee State is 4-1 so far this basketball season under head coach Kermit Davis. Senior Marcos Knight leads the team with 12.4 points and has added 6.2 rebounds per game for the Blue Raiders.

UPDATE 28 November 2012, 1:41 p.m. ET

Brett McMurphy of ESPN.com is reporting that Florida Atlantic will join Middle Tennessee State in its move to Conference USA:

Middle Tennessee & Florida Atlantic leaving Sun Belt for Conference USA

— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) November 28, 2012

Daniel Martin is a writer and editor at JohnnyJungle.com, covering St. John’s. You can find him on Twitter:@DanielJMartin_