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East Carolina has been left out of the latest round of Big East Conference expansion after Memphis accepted a bid to the league on Wednesday.

Memphis is the seventh school, and fourth from Conference USA, to sign up since December for future membership in the Big East. The Tigers will compete in the Big East in all sports.

The Pirates, who applied for Big East membership last September, join Marshall, Rice, Southern Miss, Tulsa, Tulane, UAB and UTEP as the remaining teams in Conference USA.

Houston, SMU and UCF had already agreed to leave C-USA for the Big East.

According to an ESPN report, a source has said that Conference USA’s board of directors are expected to meet later this week to discuss a full-scale merger with the Mountain West Conference.

The Mountain West, which is losing Boise State, San Diego State and TCU, would have Air Force, Colorado State, Fresno State, Nevada, New Mexico, UNLV and Wyoming in all sports in 2013-14, and Hawaii in football only.

According to the report, the C-USA-MWC merger could consist of 15 schools in all sports and 16 in football.

“Based on my conversations with Commissioner (John) Marinatto, the Big East has now completed its future membership plan,” C-USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky said in a statement Wednesday. “If this is true, it is very helpful as we can now move forward with our plans in a more stable national environment.”

ECU Director of Athletics Terry Holland is ready to go forward with a C-USA-MWC merger.

“The merger is definitely still on,” Holland said Wednesday. “While losing a long-time colleague like Memphis is disappointing, it was not unexpected.

“That does not change the goal of the merger — to create a football conference as strong or stronger than the Big East and other conferences that currently have BCS automatic qualification. It remains to be seen whether Memphis will make Big East football stronger or whether losing them will weaken the merged conference football image. Everyone here is dedicated to controlling our destiny by building the strongest possible new conference over the next few years.”

Marinatto called Memphis a “perfect fit.”

“There were a number of contributing factors for our membership in making the decision to invite Memphis, including among other reasons its geography in the heart of our future membership makeup, its Central time zone presence, its top-50 media market, as well as its outstanding corporate and community support, quality athletic facilities and the overall brand and competitiveness of its athletic programs,” Marinatto said.

The Big East pitched Air Force and BYU on joining, but couldn’t work out a deal with either. Temple was also being considered, but the Philadelphia school and former Big East member was passed over for Memphis because the conference wanted to bolster its new west wing.

Memphis gives the Big East 11 football teams committed for the 2013 season, still one short of the 12 needed under NCAA rules to hold a conference championship game. The league could ask the NCAA for a waiver to play a title game with less than 12, though Marinatto said there are no plans for that and the Big East championship football game will debut after Navy joins in 2015.

There’s also no guarantee some of the holdovers, such as Louisville, Rutgers and Connecticut, won’t jump at the chance to join another league if the opportunity comes up. But for now, Marinatto said Memphis is the final piece of the puzzle.

“It was our goal to get to 12 football-playing members and we’ve done that, so we’re obviously pleased that we’ve filled our primary objective,” Marinatto said. “We’re always going to be vigilant and we’re going to continue to do what’s in the best interest of the conference. So you never, never say never, I guess.”

It is still unclear when West Virginia, Pitt and Syracuse will leave. Big East bylaws require a 27-month notification period for schools that want out. West Virginia has filed a lawsuit to begin competing in the Big 12 in the fall.

The Big East has countersued and Pitt and Syracuse are watching the cases closely as it could determine when they start playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Marinatto declined to answer questions related to the legal issues or when the Big East’s 2012 schedule might be released. The Big 12 has also been waiting to release a 2012 schedule, but has made it clear that it expects that schedule to include West Virginia.

Marinatto reiterated he expects all three of the departing schools to remain in the Big East for two more seasons. So it’s possible the Big East could have 14 football teams and 20 basketball teams for the 2013-14 seasons.