TCU Joins the Big "East" in 2012 and Everybody Wins in This Deal

Texas Christian University joined the conference reshuffling process on Monday as it announced that it will be leaving the Mountain West Conference to join the Big East Conference starting with the 2012-13 academic year.

The school joins an already extensive list of programs that will be shuffling conferences around starting as early as next year.

TCU (Big East), Utah (Pac-10/Pac-12), and BYU (Independent) will be leaving the Mountain West.

Colorado (Pac-10/Pac-12) and Nebraska (Big Ten) are both leaving the Big 12, which faced extinction earlier this year, in 2011.

Hawaii (reportedly), Boise State, Nevada and Fresno State are saying goodbye to the Western Athletic Conference to join the Mountain West. They will be replaced by Texas State, Texas-San Antonio and Denver.

TCU becomes the 17th Big East school, joining Cincinnati, Connecticut, West Virginia, Villanova, Syracuse, Notre Dame, DePaul, Marquette, South Florida, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Providence, St. John's, Georgetown, Louisville and Seton Hall.

Everyone knows the primary reason for the switch was for football purposes. The Horned Frogs (12-0, 8-0 MWC) are ranked No. 3 in the country, are guaranteed a spot in the Rose Bowl and will play for the National Championship should either Oregon or Auburn lose this weekend.

However, TCU, by effect of being in the Mountain West, is not a member of a "BCS football conference." They have to deal with the stress of going undefeated every year to even get near the BCS games.

The Big East is one of six BCS Automatic Qualifying conferences. The AQ spot goes to the champion.

Of the 16 current Big East schools, only Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, South Florida, Syracuse and West Virginia field football teams in the conference. Notre Dame is an FBS independent for football. Villanova, Georgetown and St. John's field FCS programs.

Along with TCU's addition, the Big East is also pursuing Villanova to do what Connecticut did almost ten years ago and make the jump to the FBS and join the conference as its tenth football team.

The addition of TCU to the football aspect of the conference will be advantageous for all involved. For TCU, it gives them the opportunity to earn an automatic berth to a BCS game without all the pressure of having to schedule the nation's best in the early parts of the season. By simply winning the Big East, rather than going 12-0 every year, they will reach a BCS game.

For the rest of the conference, it gives extra competition and credibility to whoever wins the championship. This year especially there is a lot of controversy revolving around the validity of the Big East as a BCS conference. Connecticut (7-4, 4-2) currently sit in the driver's seat. All they need to do is win on Saturday at South Florida and they win the automatic BCS berth. The Huskies have won four in a row, three of these games at home where they have finished 6-0. The win on the road came at the hands of Syracuse and was UConn's only road win of the year. After being blown out by Michigan and Temple on the road, the Huskies lost a nail biter at Rutgers (4-7, 1-5) and then were shut out 26-0 by Louisville.

West Virginia (8-3, 4-2) is currently ranked 23rd in the AP Poll and 24th in the BCS Standings. They are second in the Big East behind Connecticut because UConn holds the tiebreak thanks to a 16-13 overtime victory in East Hartford in October. Many feel that it is ridiculous that UConn can be considered the best in the Big East when they were embarrassed twice on the road and narrowly beat the Mountaineers at home.

Well, I will put in my two cents right here. UConn started the year with a lot of injuries to players like Scott Lutrus, Zach Hurd and premier running back Jordan Todman and suspensions to players such as quarterback Cody Endres, who has been expelled from the school. After all the struggles, the Huskies came out and forced seven fumbles, including one at their own two in overtime and knocked off West Virginia. To be fair, UConn beat West Virginia. They have the same conference record. UConn is the more deserving champion than West Virginia.

The issue with Connecticut and West Virginia is exactly why TCU's entrance is needed. People talk about the weak competition in the Big "Least" and how no one deserves to go to a BCS game.

No longer. If you win the championship over TCU, you deserve to qualify for a BCS game.

Connecticut, West Virginia, TCU, as well as a couple of other schools will bring experienced, talented teams to the field in 2012. It will make for a great fight at the top, with TCU the favorite two years in advance.

Big East football will surely be more entertaining to watch in 2012.

Of course, TCU's introduction is for all sports. The basketball teams will especially benefit from this move. The Big East conference boasts arguably the best basketball in the country in both the mens' and womens' circuits.

The mens' conference currently has six teams in the AP Top 25 (Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Syracuse, Villanova, Georgetown and Notre Dame) as well as three teams (West Virginia, Louisville and Cincinnati) who received votes. Pittsburgh, UConn and Syracuse are all ranked in the Top 10.

The Big East is always lashed out at for being given so many spots in the NCAA Tournament. This past year, the conference got seven (Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Louisville, Marquette, Villanova, West Virginia and Syracuse). Syracuse was a No. 1 seed and West Virginia and Villanova both No. 2's. West Virginia reached the Final Four.

This is typical for the Big East. Since 2003, at least one Big East school has reached the Final Four in six of the eight tournaments (Syracuse/Marquette 2003, UConn 2004, Louisville 2005, Georgetown 2007, Connecticut/Villanova 2009, West Virginia 2010). Syracuse (2003) and Connecticut (2004) went on to win the championship.

On the womens' side, five teams (Connecticut, West Virginia, Georgetown, Notre Dame and St. John's) are all ranked with UConn and West Virginia in the Top 10. DePaul received votes. Of course, Connecticut has forced the rest of the teams around them to get better. The Huskies have won 84 games in a row, two straight national championships and are No. 1 for the 47th week in a row. With their six national championships and a 2001 title by Notre Dame, the Big East has won seven championships since 2000. Connecticut also beat Louisville for the title in 2009, as the conferences superiority continues to grow.

TCU's women's program is already successful as it is. They are a regular in the NCAA Tournament and received votes in the latest AP Poll. Joining the conference will only help them.

Even the baseball team, with its consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances since 2004 and 2010 College World Series appearance will be beneficial to the Big East. It finished the season ranked No. 3 in the ESPN/USA Today Poll and with fellow ranked teams Louisville (16) and Connecticut (23), as well as vote-getter St. John's trying to bring the Big East to the level of other big conferences like the SEC and Pac-10, the addition of a team like TCU will give the competition an extra push and extra bit of motivation.

It can be agreed that from the sporting competition point of view, this move is incredibly beneficial to all parties involved. However, there have been other issues raised, mainly the geographic setting of TCU.

The university is located in Texas, which is obviously in the middle of the country down south and borders Mexico. This is halfway across the country from the Big East schools in the northeast like Providence, UConn, St. John's, Syracuse and Pittsburgh. This is typical of the Big "East" however. In 2012, the conference will be compiled of 17 schools from 13 states: Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Texas, Kentucky, New Jersey and the District of Colombia. It is a conference that spans half the country, so maybe the Big East is not exactly the best name anymore, but it sounds nice I guess and fits for the most part.

TCU has stated that travel expenses do not concern them. The Mountain West schools they play on the road are, for the most part, nearly as far away as some Big East schools. The couple extra dollars will not concern them.

In reality, this is an incredible victory for TCU. It is an incredible victory for the Big East. The conference only gets stronger in pretty much every sport, especially football. It will bring much more attention to the conference from other markets around the country. As Jesse Palmer of ESPN mentioned yesterday, as a mirror to that, the Horned Frogs' market will increase as they will be paid more attention to from eastern markets.

Recruiting for all sports will surely get better for them, as well. Playing in a big conference, especially an AQ conference for football and power conference in basketball, as well as an improving, competitive baseball conference, will give Texas and surrounding athletes a tough time turning down TCU. Possibly, this will give the Big East schools the opportunity to test the waters of further recruiting in Texas to try and draw players away from their new rival.

2012 is going to be a great year for us fans of the Big East. Every sport will be more competitive thanks to the addition of Texas Christian University.