Just when you thought conference realignment was a thing of the past, Texas Christian University has announced that in 2012, TCU will be leaving their current home in the Mountain West Conference and making the leap into the big time of college football by joining BCS member conference the Big East.  This year’s TCU squad, which is currently undefeated and ranked third in college football by the BCS poll, was at risk of missing out on a BCS berth due to its membership in a lesser conference (despite having a team that’s better than every team in the Big East or ACC this year).

TCU makes the jump on July 1, 2012.  As part of their negotiations, TCU not only joins the Big East in football, but in every sport in which the Big East participates.  The Big East is the only major conference that has separate basketball and football divisions; a team can be a member of Big East’s basketball division (now boasting 17 teams with the addition of TCU) but not its football division.  The Big East is expected to add basketball conference member Villanova as its tenth team, assuming they don’t add Central Florida University to the fold and Villanova makes the jump from Football Championship Subdivison to Football Bowl Subdivision.  It’s all about that bowl game money.

So where does that leave the Mountain West?  Well, trying to plug another gap.  At one point, the conference looked to be on the cusp of becoming a national power.  Yes, they were losing BYU (becoming an independent) and Utah (to the Pac-10), but they were adding ranked Nevada, Fresno State, and ranked Boise State.  Now, I don’t know what the future holds for the MWC.  It all depends on whether or not Hawaii joins up.

Tags: Mountain West Conference, Big East, Texas Christian University, TCU, Abilene, Texas, NCAA Football, Big East Conference expansion, TCU to join Big East, Big East Conference adds TCU, TCU to leave Mountain West, Gary Patterson, football bowl subdivision

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