TCU Big 12: Joining Big 12 a No-Brainer for Horned Frogs

The Big 12 conference still doesn't have 12 members, but it did add a 10th for the 2012-2013 academic season.

That 10th member is none other than TCU. The Big 12 and TCU had been dancing around each other, but the news became official at a news conference on Monday.

According to the conference's official website, TCU will officially become a member of the Big 12 on July 1, 2012. That will give the school plenty of time to prepare to compete in all sports in the ensuing season.

Obviously, football is the big one. From the sound of things, the Horned Frogs' transition into the Big 12 will be an easy one. According to Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com, even figuring out scheduling should be easy enough:

So you see, piece of cake.

In general, this news comes as no surprise. TCU is a natural fit for the Big 12, and picking it up always did seem like the conference's best option as it looked to replace Texas A&M, which will soon depart for the SEC.

Joining the Big 12 also makes perfect sense for TCU. The Horned Frogs were already developing into a national power, and they proved a pretty big point when they won the Rose Bowl last season.

Having done that, the next step was to ditch the whole "Little Sisters of the Poor" label, and joining the Big 12 will allow TCU to do that.

The competition is going to be much stiffer, make no mistake about that. The tradeoff is that the stiff competition comes with an automatic BCS bid and greater exposure. That, in turn, will mean more money (also known as the stuff that the earth revolves around).

Sure, TCU would have gotten these things in the Big East had the school stayed on course to join the conference. But it's not a secret that the Big East is not quite on the same level as the Big 12, even if the conference was near death for a while there.

The question now is whether Missouri will stick around. There's a report out from the Associated Press that claims Mizzou is looking into making a play to join the SEC, and that the school likes what it sees from a financial perspective.

If Mizzou does leave, the Big 12 will be down to nine schools again.

But hey, at least that would be better than being down to eight schools. The Big 12 can thank TCU for not having to worry about that.