Poinsettia Bowl: TCU Victory Sends Emphatic Message to Big 12 Conference

The TCU Horned Frogs deserved better than they got from the Bowl Selection Committee this year, but they did not let that stop them from walking away with a victory over Louisiana Tech in the Poinsettia Bowl on Wednesday night. 

The Horned Frogs ended the season with eight consecutive victories including one against Boise State on the road, and won their third straight Mountain West Conference title.

Now they will join the Big 12 and have a chance to play in BCS bowls on a consistent basis. 

As much as it hurts the smaller conferences to lose a program like TCU, the fact that they have to jump through so many hoops, making sure that they don't lose a game just to have a chance to play in one of the five big bowl games, makes it easy to understand the move. 

And the Horned Frogs are coming at the right time, because the Big 12 is down right now. Oklahoma State was the best team this year, but it's not like they have been a dominant program for a long time.

Oklahoma doesn't look as strong as it used to and Texas has fallen off a cliff since playing in the 2009 BCS Championship Game. 

Those teams should be scared of TCU. This program is not just coasting by because of a soft schedule in an easy conference. They play great defense every year, and head coach Gary Patterson has done a marvelous job of recruiting under difficult circumstances. 

As Richard Durress of ESPNDallas.com wrote, they are going to make an instant impact in the Big 12. 

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The Frogs are now regularly beating programs in power conferences and likely enter the 2012 season as one of the favorites in the Big 12. That, of course, could largely depend on which quarterbacks enter the NFL draft from other schools (headlined by Robert Griffin III). But the Frogs return nearly everyone from a young team that struggled earlier this season and then got things together, including a win at Boise State...

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So while the Horned Frogs got shafted by the BCS this season because they were overqualified for the game that they played in, they didn't complain or go on talk shows saying that they deserved better. 

They put their heads down and took care of business. It was a loud message sent to the teams in the Big 12, and one that all of them should take seriously. 

No longer is TCU that nice program from a weak conference. It is going to be one of the most dominant teams in a BCS for a long time to come, and it will happen sooner than you think. 

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