Memphis is the city where W.C. Handy gave the blues a modern sound, where Sam Phillips’ Sun Studios launched Elvis Presley’s career, and the Stax Records label created southern soul with Otis Redding. Now it will be a regular season stop for the Big East Conference.

The Big East announced on Wednesday that the University of Memphis will join the conference in 2013 for all sports, increasing its all-sports membership to 17.

The addition of Memphis, currently in Conference USA, comes just two weeks after the addition of Navy as a football-only member in 2015. Memphis is the fourth C-USA institution to recently join the Big East, and the ninth overall. Houston, Southern Methodist University, and Central Florida announced their intention to become all-sport conference members in December. Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette, and South Florida joined in 2005

With the addition of Memphis, the Big East also reaches its stated goal of having 12 football members, which conference commissioner John Marinatto has indicated will eventually lead to having a football championship game.

The announcement is the latest development in the rapidly changing landscape of intercollegiate athletics, as conferences vie to increase revenues through television contracts, increase playing competition, and adjust to NCAA reforms. Much of the change is being driven as conferences and colleges seek to improve their position for Division I Football Bowl Subdivision competition.

“Over the past decade, the University of Memphis has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to competing at the highest level in college sports,” Marinatto said during a national teleconference. “The University has positioned itself for long-term success by upgrading facilities and investing wisely in various areas of the athletic department, including coaching and administration. We are confident that the addition of this outstanding athletics program located in a top 50 media market and in the heart of the nation’s largest conference footprint will further propel the Big East and the University of Memphis to even greater levels of success in the future.”

Memphis fields 19 sports, 10 men’s and nine women’s. The men’s basketball team has made 23 appearances in the NCAA Championship, has reached the NCAA Final Four three times, and played in the 2008 national championship game. The Tigers football team has earned bowl invitations in five of the last nine years. Justin Fuente is the football program’s new head coach. In the last eight years, Memphis teams have won 17 conference championships in men’s basketball, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, women’s golf, and men’s track and field. The women’s soccer program has won five straight league crowns and made five straight NCAA appearances from 2007 to 2011.

“With this move, the future for Tiger athletics is brighter than ever,” said R.C. Johnson, the Memphis athletics director. “One of our goals has always been to compete with the very best, and the prestige of the Big East certainly accomplishes that goal. Additionally, a BCS conference gives our coaches a most valuable recruiting tool that they haven’t had before, and that just can’t be measured.”

Responding to a question from the New Haven Register about the expected addition of Memphis to the Big East, following the Huskies’ win over Louisville on Tuesday, women’s head basketball coach Geno Auriemma said, “From a purely basketball standpoint, I think we’re doing a great thing. It’s as much a basketball move as a football move. I think it’s great for the conference, and strengthens an already strong conference.”

In answering questions from reporters, Marinatto said he was “pleased” that the Big East has reached its goal of having a 12-team football conference, but “we’re always going to be obviously continuing to evaluate different opportunities as time goes on.”

He noted that the arrival of Navy into the conference for football in 2015 will provide the first opportunity for a conference championship game.

Asked what Memphis will need to do to raise its level of competitiveness in football to a BCS level, Marinatto said, “I shared with R.C. the Big East Conference’s strategic plan, all the elements associated with it. I think the university complies with it. What we simply want to do when we expand is to make sure that the schools coming in recognize the level of excellence we expect. From a practical standpoint, all of the elements of our strategic plan have been met. It’s just now a question of execution.”

The addition of Memphis, along with the five schools announced in December and Navy, will boost the Big East’s television reach to more than 31 million homes, which is nearly 28 percent of all U.S. television households. Thirteen conference members will be located among the top 30 television markets, and 17 will be in the top 50.

In 2015, the Big East football membership will consist of Boise State, UCF, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Houston, Louisville, Memphis, Navy, Rutgers, San Diego State, SMU, and USF.

In 2015, the Big East basketball membership will include UCF, Cincinnati, Connecticut, DePaul, Georgetown, Houston, Louisville, Marquette, Memphis, Notre Dame, Providence, Rutgers, St. John’s, Seton Hall, SMU, USF, and Villanova.