The great eastern state of Texas?

What do Cincinnati, Connecticut, DePaul, Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Providence, Rutgers, St. John’s, Seton Hall, South Florida, Syracuse, Villanova and West Virginia have in common?  Besides their terrible football teams?
They all make up the Big East conference.  At least the basketball conference.  Now this 16 team mess is about to get one spot bigger and it is all because of football.  Texas Christian University out of Fort Worth, Texas is about to become the newest member in the 2011-12 season.
What about the state of Texas is East?  Now I understand that a conference name has little to do with the teams in it.  For instance, my favorite conference, the Big 10, has had 11 teams in it since 1993 when Penn State joined.  Next year when Nebraska officially joins it will be the Big 10 with 12 teams.
However, Nebraska’s move makes sense as far as location goes.  It is driving distance to places like Iowa City, Minneapolis, Madison and Bloomington.  If not driving distance a short flight.
Texas Christian is only hurting themselves with this move.  The Big East benefits as it will get one of the top football schools in the nation to help beef up what is the most pathetic excuse for an automatic bid conference in the history of the BCS.
Look at some of the traveling TCU will have to do during the football season alone.  Not counting all the other sports, The Horned Frogs will have to travel to Syracuse, New York (1,588 miles), Rutgers University in Newark, N.J (1,605 miles)and West Virginia (1,275 miles).
Gas prices don’t seem to be getting any cheaper in this country, and it will most likely be TCU’s students who are forced to help foot the bill for the new bloated travel budget for all athletics.
I understand why the Big East was attractive to TCU.  TCU for many years now have been BCS busters.  Because it plays in the Mountain West conference, any chance to play in the national championship is basically non-existent.

 However, if you look at the BCS critically it is obvious that the evidence against the system is piling up.  Meaning there will most likely be a playoff in college football sooner rather than later.
It may not seem like a great strategy, but TCU should have simply stayed in the Mountain West, continued to dominate, and waited out the BCS system.  I predict in less than 10 years college football will have a 16 team playoff system.
Even with this move to the Big East TCU is not guaranteeing itself a shot at the national championship.  Even if it runs its conference schedule the Big East is terrible.  It will need to bolster its non-conference schedule with some great teams in order to impress the BCS system and allow them to play in the national championship.  Good luck trying to convince good teams to play you when they know a loss to any team will all but shatter their own hopes at a shot at the title.  The BCS system hinders great competition, it does not help it.
This move was also a selfish move on the part of the football team.  It is going to be some time before it competes in other sports.
TCU has not been great in basketball, men or women’s.  The school has earned only seven births into the “Big Dance” and is yet to win a regular season or tournament title since becoming part of the Mountain West.  That’s playing teams such as Colorado State, Fresno State, and the Air Force.  Good luck with good basketball schools such as Syracuse and Georgetown.
This move may set a poor basketball program back even further.  Now you can argue that TCU is a football school and this is a football move, that would be true.  However, I find that unfair to the non-revenue sports.  You might as well do away with them if you make a decision like this, only to benefit one of your many programs.
TCU is not alone in a decision like this.  The University of North Dakota (Or school up north as I like to call them) just joined the Big Sky conference.  I hope the Fighting Sioux (or whatever its name will be) is ready for some long trips to Montana and California.  Had it settled the nickname issues, it would have had a great place with the other Dakota schools in the Missouri Valley football conference and the Summit League.  However, I digress as that is a rant for a later time.
Congratulations to you TCU.  By placing a handicap on the rest of your sports you may one day get a chance to have an even bigger complaint against the BCS when you run your conference in a crappy Big East only to get shut out again.
- Adam St. Paul

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