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Virginia Commonwealth reportedly moving to the A-10 in 2013

Shaka Smart

Virginia Commonwealth head basketball coach Shaka Smart waves the net after winning the Colonial Athletic Association Championship at the Coliseum in Richmond, Va., Monday, March 5, 2012. VCU beat Drexel 59-56. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

AP

Days after intra-conference foe George Mason affirmed that it would remain in the Colonial Athletic Association, Virginia Commonwealth is headed to the Atlantic 10, Brett McMurphy of CBSSports.com is reporting.

According to McMurphy, an official announcement will come from the school this week.

Virginia Commonwealth joins Butler as the two newest members of the conference.

With these two additions, the A-10 has added teams that have combined for three Final Four appearances in the past three seasons.

The move is an attempt to fill in for the losses of Temple, which has moved to the Big East, and Charlotte, which has departed for Conference-USA.

VCU reportedly favored the move because the CAA is more prone to being a “one-bid” conference, whereas the Atlantic 10 has sent multiple teams to the NCAA tournament for each of the past five seasons.

As McMurphy points out, the CAA has had just four at-large bids into the tournament since 2000, while the Atlantic 10 had three just this past year.

Head coach Shaka Smart has led the Rams to success over the past three seasons and has increased VCU’s national brand in the process.

After winning the CBI championship in 2009-10, the Rams enjoyed a run to the Final Four in 2010-11, and came back this past season, making it to the Round of 32 of the NCAA tournament.

The Atlantic 10 was reportedly in talks with George Mason as well, but was only looking to add one more team, which ended with this news of VCU’s move.

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