Although college football news has been recently dominated by the latest twist in the Cam Newton saga, an arguably equally significant—not to mention equally distressing—development took place in the days prior. Texas Christian University, a school located in Fort Worth, Texas, accepted an invitation to join the Big East Conference for the 2012-13 season, becoming the conference’s 17th member. Yes, you read that correctly: A school based in central Texas is joining a 17-school conference named the Big East.
The reasons for TCU’s move are clear. The Horned Frogs’ football team is 12-0, but may miss out on a chance to play for the national title if both Auburn and Oregon win their final games. In fact, TCU may not have gone to a big-money bowl if Boise State hadn’t slipped up at Nevada last week, as both schools are from conferences that do not have BCS automatic qualifying status. By moving to the Big East, a conference that currently features one team ranked in the AP top 25 (No. 23 West Virginia), TCU becomes the odds-on favorite to win the conference and earn a spot in the Fiesta, Sugar, or Orange Bowl each season—and in turn receive the massive payouts that come with a spot in a BCS bowl.
And then there’s the matter of TCU’s other seventeen sports. The men’s basketball Horned Frogs went 13-19 in 2009-10 and must now prepare for life in a conference that includes the likes of Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Georgetown, Syracuse, and Louisville. TCU’s women’s basketball team recently lost to West Virginia by thirteen points; UConn beat West Virginia 80-47 last season. And if you haven’t noticed, Fort Worth is kind of a long way from the other sixteen Big East schools. Louisville, the closest school to Fort Worth, is 755 miles away. The longest trip, to Providence, R.I., is 1,550 miles.
But what’s TCU to do, you ask? Certainly, inconveniencing seventeen sports is a worthy price to pay in order to benefit the one other sport whose revenues, frankly, make it possible for most big-time schools to offer as many sports as they do…right?
My response: Surely, you’re familiar with an institution by the name of Notre Dame?
The Fighting Irish treasure their football independence like it’s gold. In fact, it was the school’s refusal to join the Big Ten this summer that prevented what could have been a groundbreaking series of conference realignments. However, Notre Dame has been a Big East member in other sports since 1995. Notre Dame is eligible to be selected for a BCS bowl if it finishes in the top 14 of the BCS standings, and receives an automatic selection if it finishes in the top eight.
This year, TCU is currently third in the BCS standings, and Boise State was fourth before its loss at Nevada—and that’s with these schools playing the likes of San Jose State and New Mexico, not exactly football powerhouses. In fact, both schools have often been criticized for their weak conference schedules, despite their best efforts to fill their non-conference slots with marquee matchups (such as Boise’s 2010 opener at Virginia Tech).
But what if they elect to become independents? Now, Idaho State and New Mexico State can be replaced by, say, Ohio State and Florida. Boise has already proven it can play with the big boys, having taken down Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl; so has TCU, as shown by its demolition of Utah earlier this season. And without weaker conferences dragging down their strength of schedule ratings, BCS apologists will have lost their sole justification for holding down non-BCS conference schools come playoff time.
Certainly, independence is not without its drawbacks, and there is a reason only three Football Bowl Subdivision schools (Notre Dame, Army, and Navy) have maintained their independence. Plus, there’s no guarantee other top-tier schools would risk playing Boise State or TCU after witnessing their giant-slaying abilities, particularly in the current environment, where one loss often spells the end of a team’s national title aspirations.
But wouldn’t that make a lot more sense than joining a conference where the other 16 schools are all over 750 miles away?
Cohen is a member of the class of 2010 and the Sports Information Intern for Wesleyan University.
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