Big 12 Expansion: Why TCU Must Bail from Big East Agreement

From extinct to expansion, it’s been a wild ride for the Big 12 conference over the past month.

Now that the dust has settled and the conference isn’t going anywhere, it’s time to start looking for a team to replace Texas A&M and potentially Missouri.

The answer is simple: TCU.

Problem is, it has already agreed to a deal with the Big East conference to join in 2012.

That’s one hurdle to jump over, but the ultimate hurdle is laid out by ESPN’s David Ubben:

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You can't escape the fact that it would be the smallest school in the Big 12 by 4,000 students and the third-smallest school by more than 10,000. That's a lot of alumni over time. Baylor has 13,000 students. Oklahoma State has 23,000. Additionally, TCU couldn't sell out its 44,000-seat stadium last season, despite going 13-0 and winning the Rose Bowl.

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It comes down to just how greedy the powers at be in the Big 12 are.

Is that the supreme focus? Do geography and in-state rivalries mean anything?

Other options for potential expansion include BYU (odd sense of entitlement that will keep it independent), SMU (wouldn’t be competitive), Arkansas (crazy to leave SEC) and Notre Dame (see BYU).

The pickings are getting slim, and aside from grabbing lesser football schools such as Cincinnati and Louisville (two schools that would royally mess up the geographic sense in the Big 12), TCU makes more sense than anybody else.

TCU just won the Rose Bowl and is still on the brink of the top 25 this year after losing a slew of its best players from a season ago. It is on the verge of being a top contender year in and year out.

The football-crazed state of Texas would love to keep another in-state team in the conference. They don’t care about a midseason matchup between Oklahoma State and Louisville.

The Horned Frogs would have better access to the fertile region that is the Texas recruiting landscape. That will increase the attendance and revenue for the school like no other potential candidate.

For once a high-powered college official has to show America that not everything is based purely off how much money they will make off the decision. For once they need to make the move that makes the most sense from a competitive and geographical standpoint.

Do the right thing, Big 12: Pick TCU.