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Posted on Fri, Jan. 30, 2004



TCU makes Mountain West move

By Damien Pierce
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

TCU accepted an invitation to join the Mountain West Conference in the 2005-2006 season.

The school announced its decision to leave Conference-USA during a news conference Friday. The Mountain West will be TCU's third conference since the Southwest Conference dissolved in 1995.


The board of trustees approved the change, because the move it could generate millions of dollars more in television revenue and attendance sales for the school. The Mountain West extended an invitation to TCU on Wednesday, and the school's athletic committee decided to recommend the move during a meeting Thursday.


TCU will join Air Force, Brigham Young, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, UNLV, Utah and Wyoming.


TCU will be the only conference member in the Central Time Zone, but the current league's eight athletic directors are happy.


The athletic directors hope the addition of TCU will boost the conference's hopes of gaining membership in the Bowl Championship Series when the BCS contract expires after 2005-2006 season. The Mountain West is not a BCS member but is hoping to replace the football-depleted Big East.


"There's no question that TCU is a great addition to the Mountain West," BYU athletic director Val Hale said earlier this week. "TCU is a nationally respected program, and the Mountain West is now clearly going to be as good as the Big East and several of those other BCS guys. We can compete favorably with them."


Hale said TCU has always been a favorable option in the Mountain West's eyes because it's in a recruiting hotbed and a large television market.


"We've always had an interest in recruiting in Texas, but now we will be able to come down there more often," Hale said. "It's also going to be great for us to get in the Dallas-Fort Worth television market. It will probably be the largest market in our league when TCU joins."


New Mexico athletic director Rudy Davalos believes the addition of TCU gives the league an immediate upgrade, and he's looking forward to trips to Fort Worth.


He is also excited about the prospect of adding a fourth bowl game to the conference. The PlainsCapital Fort Worth Bowl is expected to follow TCU to the Mountain West, but bowl officials have declined comment on the matter because they have a contract with Conference USA through 2004.


The Mountain West has affiliations with the Liberty Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl and San Francisco Bowl.


"We'll be a much stronger conference with TCU," Davalos said earlier this week. "When you look at the possibility of them bringing another bowl and our BCS potential, it certainly gives us an added advantage."


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Damien Pierce, (817) 390-7760 [email protected]





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© 2004 Star Telegram and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.dfw.com

These poor MWC guys actually believe their own hype. The BCS ain't gonna add anybody if the Big East can't make it...they don't need MWC's paltry collections of TV's to get ABC's money.

They need to read the BCS rules. One of the primary ones is that they have to have a team in the top 15 for 2 out of 5 years. The MWC has not had a top 15 team (final poll) since BYU in the early 90's. It'll never happen. So, if the Big East drops out, no one else gets in and they get to split the money fewer ways. How pathetic. The good news is that TCU just marginalized themselves in the Texas market. And note that they are aiming at the Ft. Worth Bowl, which of course will replace the San Francisco Bowl when it goes under. MWC Bowl ratings averaged a 1.65 share. SF Bowl had a 1.23. TCU/Boise got a 2.48, but that was a match-up made in heaven for the Frogs and only because of some real work by CUSA and the WAC.

<small>[ 01-30-2004, 12:10 PM: Message edited by: EastStang ]</small>

Will this ever end?

Originally posted by Bergermeister:
Will this ever end?

QUESTION: Are we even jealous? I'm not, I wouldn't want to play out west. It makes as much sense as Texas leaving the Big12 for the PAC10. Relatively speaking, there's not much difference between the conferences, and you are adding a huge burden to all of your athletic teams, not to mention alienating alumni and local sports coverage.

Jealous-no. Disappointed-yes. I would like to be in the same conference with them. I feel like C-USA is stronger with them, than without. They have a good thing going over there. But if we were offered to go with them to the MWC, I would not be for it.

No, I'm not jealous...we just ended the nightmare of having to keep travelling out west every other weekend...San Diego State/San Jose State...they're one in the friggin' same in my opinion.

I AM ticked off, though, that the ugly little toads think they're so much better than everyone else...USM kicked the crap out of them and they barely beat USF, Memphis and UAB (not to mention SMU!!!) I REALLY hope our guys refuse to play them...in my opinion, the rivalry is dead...Rice and Tulane much more closely resemble SMU than Tarrant County University...I like those as rivals.

As for the horny toads, I hope the travel costs eat them alive (in addition to being eaten alive by BYU and CSU). Recruiting for the toads will also decline here in Texas...who wants to make their parents travel to Wyoming or Utah for games?

As a bonus, we no longer have to travel to that ugly campus and listen to that stupid Buick horn go off when they kick a field goal!! (That is, assuming our good folks do the right thing and cut all ties with Tarrant County University.)

I really don't understand those who don't want to play TCU just because of this move. Besides being our only TRUE natural rival and it making economic sense to have them on the schedule in every sport in which we both compete...this is really a favorable development for CUSA. Why? Because CUSA, thh MWC, WAC, MAC and now possibly even the Big East (at least in football) will all be competing to prove who is the "next best" after the BCS conferences. An annual SMU win over TCU would do wonders for CUSA's chances in head-to-head comparisons between our two conferences.

We can now have a non-conference schedule consisting of TCU, either Army or Navy and a 3rd game against a Big XII school (Baylor, TTech, OSU, etc...) IN those years where we get a 12th game, try to take a road $$ game against a top 25 goliath who can write us a big check...or schedule UNT to guarantee a good crowd at Ford.

I don't see this as a bad thing. The question is how CUSA backfills this spot and how quickly it might happen.

Originally posted by Charleston Pony:
I really don't understand those who don't want to play TCU just because of this move. Besides being our only TRUE natural rival and it making economic sense to have them on the schedule in every sport in which we both compete...

I don't see this as a bad thing. The question is how CUSA backfills this spot and how quickly it might happen.

I agree CP although I was really looking forward to being back together in the same conference with them. From that stand point I am disappointed. They are pretty full of themselves right now and perhaps not without reason...but that may change in a few years and they will be stuck with the mountain goats.

In regards to backfilling C-USA, this was in this mornings DMN:

"This comes as no surprise, and as we've said consistently, we hope that TCU decided to stay in the league," Banowsky said. "However, if they choose to leave, we wish them well. We're going to move forward with our plans to make Conference USA into a great conference with a bright future for its members. ... If they decide to leave, we've put a process together to finalize the conference membership structure within 60 days."

<small>[ 01-30-2004, 02:50 PM: Message edited by: PK ]</small>

Here's a response. Click and fid out.


http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/births/2004/jan/30/516268014.html

It would be foolish on our part to take TCU off our schedule. They are our natural rival, and the biggest problem with this rivalry is the schools can't seem to be good at the same time. I think TCU is making a mistake in going west, but I can't fault them for trying to do what they think is best. The winner in this move is the other members of the MWC. They just strengthened their Texas recruiting ties, Eastern exposure, and gained a bowl game. I would think that TCU had learned from the WAC experience that there is alot of vacant land between Texas and California, and nobody gives a rats [deleted] about the Pac 10, much less the non BCS schools. I don't recall any benefit from playing BYU and Utah when we were conference mates, do you? The bright side for us, wer'e still going EAST.

I heard a sound byte of Hyndman (sp?)on the radio and he said that when you compare the power rankings (whatever that is ) from last years MWC and include TCU, the conference is ahead of the Pac-10, Big East and ACC. I don't really begrudge TCU about the move and I don't get all caught up in the good riddance stuff, but this guy cannot really believe the MWC is ahead of those other conferences.

Originally posted by Invader133:
I heard a sound byte of Hyndman (sp?)on the radio and he said that when you compare the power rankings (whatever that is ) from last years MWC and include TCU, the conference is ahead of the Pac-10, Big East and ACC. I don't really begrudge TCU about the move and I don't get all caught up in the good riddance stuff, but this guy cannot really believe the MWC is ahead of those other conferences.

interesting note that no one is talking about... since tcu (by their own admission) played a woefully soft schedeule last year (include SMU) - what happens to them when they play these "stonger teams" in the MWC - well... I will tell you - they risk having a loss.

Does anyone want to quess what a mid-major school with one loss gets? ...ask Miami (OH). Lord help them (or any of the other goats) - if they start getting 2-3 losses (even to each other)., Next thing you know.. NO ONE IS RANKED

here's the DMN article. Interesting comments from Jerry Palm and Coach Patterson. Doesn't sound like either one of them is too enthusiastic about this "lateral" move. Also interesting to see that TCU's athletic budget will increase by $3M, although they expect only $200k in increased travel costs. Anyone know how much of that $22M is raised by private donations?

TCU got too big for their britches . . . come back down to earth froggies. Nationally recognized program? OK, I guess so. 10-2 is pretty good, but before that it was 6-6, and it was in the late 90's they were 6-5, 4-7 and 1-10.

"Man's got to know his limitations." - Dirty Harry