I told you months ago that the moving around in the conferences wasn't done. And this move of TCU from the Mountain West to the Big East is big news. For more than one reason.
Reason #1: It means that the Horned Frogs are now in an automatic qualifying conference for Football. And that is huge. Imagine if TCU makes the BCS 3 out of the next 5 years. That is money rolling into TCU that they could never get in the MWC. And that more than anything will allow the school to increase their profile in sports and in academics.
Reason #2: The Horned Frogs other sports programs will be able to improve. Imagine a TCU Woman's Basketball team that gets to play UConn at least twice a season. Now when they recruit, they can use the conference to get players that might have not considered TCU before. After all, if you want to be a UConn Lady Husky and they decide that you aren't good enough to be recruited by them, you might decide to go to another program in the same conference to gain some measure of revenge. It's the same for the other TCU sports teams. Improve visibility and improved opposition will get you a better player to recruit.
Reason #3: An in to the lucrative Texas markets to the Big East. Imagine now how Rutgers or Louisville will start to recruit around the Dallas.Fort Worth area. Come play for us and your family will still get to see you play. You will get to come back home at least every other year and play in front of your friends and family. Just seems like it will improve all the Big East teams, not just TCU.
Reason #4: The Big 12 gets hurt in their quest to rebuild their conference. TCU wouldn't have brought much in expanding the conference borders and where it is seen, but it also would have kept the Big East out of Texas. Now in Texas, you have The Big 12, The Big East, The SEC, Conference USA, and The Sun Belt having a presence there. That is a lot of conferences and teams that are going to be recruiting there with an actual chance to be seen. The Big 12 is down to 10 teams and Missouri just needs to be asked by any other conference and they will be gone. Texas is starting their own TV network and has bullied the rest of the Big 12 for preferential treatment. So now you are down to 9 teams and Texas acting like king shit. Who do you get to come into the league and get the conference strong again? Houston? Memphis? BYU? The thing about TCU was it would give the Big 12 a respectable name to come in and stop the watching of the conference dissolve.
Reason #5: The Mountain West is no better off than they were at the beginning of realignment. The MWC had thoughts of being an automatic qualifier for the BCS with the acquisition of Boise St., Fresno St., and Nevada. Imagine having a conference with the Top 4 teams being the 3 mentioned and TCU. If you could get BYU to come back after their experiment in being an independent, you would have 5 teams that are almost always mentioned in the lower half of the Top 25. It would look better than the current Big East roster of teams. Hell, it might look better than the vaunted ACC. But now you have Boise St., Air Force, Fresno St., and Nevada as your top 4 teams. Utah is in the Pac-12. BYU left because of inactivity of the WAC to get a better TV contract. and TCU left for an automatic qualifier conference. If I were the Conference Commissioner, I wouldn't stand still right now. I would be pounding down the President's door at the University of Houston, SMU, and Missouri. I don't think that Missouri would come, but I would try. For the 12th team, go and get Tulsa.
Watch out for more realignment this offseason from football. After all when a team from Texas is in a conference with teams from Connecticut, Florida, and New York, there is no reason that other nonsensical alignments cannot happen.
2 comments:
Definitely a score for TCU, except for the traveling. I wish someone in the Big East had been ahead of their time and created a reason for the likes of BC to stay. So one potential pitfall for TCU to consider -- BC as an ACC football and basketball program is not nearly as interesting to the northeast FB and Bball fans as it was when it was the big dog New England school playing in a northeast conference.
Definitely a score for TCU. After all even if TCU doesn't make it to a BCS Bowl game, they make millions because of the conference splitting their payment.
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