Middle Tennessee and Florida Atlantic are leaving the Sun Belt Conference early and joining Conference USA on July 1.
Both schools already had announced plans to switch conferences last November no later than July 1, 2014. But officials at both universities had been negotiating recently with Conference USA and the Sun Belt to speed up the move in all sports by a year.Middle Tennessee President Sidney A. McPhee said it was in the university's best interest to make the move as soon as possible.The Blue Raiders weren't happy at losing out on a bowl berth last December despite finishing second in the Sun Belt with an 8-4 record. They joined the Sun Belt in July 2000 and leave having won a league-best 50 Sun Belt games.MWC adds title gameThe Mountain West will add a football championship game next season when it expands to the requisite dozen schools, which will be split into two divisions. The league is adding Utah State and San Jose State next season.The new football alignments will feature Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, New Mexico, Utah State and Wyoming in the Mountain Division and Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, San Diego State, San Jose State and UNLV in the West Division.The inaugural football championship is Dec. 7 at the home stadium of the school with the highest BCS ranking.Woman in hoax talksThe woman whose photo was used as the "face" of the Twitter account of Manti Te'o's supposed girlfriend said the man allegedly behind the hoax confessed and apologized to her.Diane O'Meara told NBC's Today show that Ronaiah Tuiasosopo used pictures of her without her knowledge in creating a fake woman called Lennay Kekua. Te'o asserts he was tricked into an online romance with Kekua and, until last week, did not understand he was being hoaxed.O'Meara went to high school in California with Tuiasosopo, but she said they're not close. He called to apologize Jan. 16, the day Deadspin.com broke the hoax story, she said."I don't think there's anything he could say to me that would fix this," said O'Meara, a 23-year-old marketing executive in Los Angeles.Briefly Oklahoma football: The Sooners set the annual spring game for April 13. A time and ticketing will be released later, once the school finishes working out the details. NCAA basketball: Buffalo Wild Wings has reached a sponsorship deal with the NCAA to be the "official hangout" of the men's basketball tournament. Florida football: Brad Lawing has left South Carolina to become Florida's defensive line coach and assistant head coach. Drury women's basketball: The university suspended coach Steve Harold for one game for what it called "conduct detrimental to the university and athletics program." It would not discuss the reason for the suspension.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
