TCU to Big 12: What Does the Horned Frogs' Switch Mean for College Hoops?

As the Big East scrambles to stay afloat after the announced departures of Pitt and Syracuse, the conference thought it could count on an infusion of football success (and subsequent stability) from the impending arrival of TCU.

Now, even that safety net has been taken away.

As reported by ESPN, TCU announced last night that instead of the Big East, it will move to the Big 12 in 2012-13. The Horned Frogs’ arrival raises the Big 12’s membership back to 10 teams for that season, at least until Missouri makes a decision on a possible move.

Like all of the recent spate of conference shifts, TCU’s decision is about football, but it will have serious implications for the power conferences in basketball.

Most immediately, it will help a shaky Big 12 hold together—good news for Kansas in particular, as far as it goes.

Sadly for the conference, TCU has never been much of a basketball power (with apologies to alum Kurt Thomas). Swapping out a rising Texas A&M program for the Horned Frogs clearly leaves the Big 12 a lesser conference in basketball terms than it has been.

The graver concern, though, is for the fate of the conference TCU has abandoned.

With one of the best football programs in the country withdrawing its support from the Big East, a conference founded on basketball talent may have lost its last chance to survive in a football-driven world.

It’s looking increasingly likely that the loss of football dollars from Pitt and Syracuse will force the disintegration of the Big East as a conference.

That’s particularly devastating news for the conference’s prominent basketball-only members—Georgetown, Villanova, Providence—who will have to scramble to find a home, possibly by poaching some of the Atlantic 10’s teams.

Even some of the Big East schools that have FBS-level football, like Rutgers and UConn, might struggle to find conferences interested in adding low-recognition programs (though the Huskies’ basketball notoriety will help their cause).

The potential demise of the Big East would also build momentum for the idea of super-conferences, in which the FBS football powers would rearrange into four giant conferences spread over larger areas.

That move would be bad for pretty much all sports, but in basketball would have the added danger of reducing the visibility of the mid-majors who have been such an energizing part of the NCAA tournament and the sport at large.

The Big East may yet find a way to save itself, even without TCU’s help. For the sake of the future of college basketball, fans should certainly hope it can.