Call it being a victim of its own success, but there’s an inevitability to the long-term fate of the Mountain West Conference, based on the new rumor that the Big East has cast its eye on TCU as a potential expansion target.
It’s gotta suck, if you’re the MWC: you watch your upper-tier programs create national reputations, establish market share and garner increased media attention as you slowly and steadily build the conference’s case to obtain a coveted AQ-slot in the BCS, only to watch conferences which already have that card to play snatch away the Utahs and (potentially) TCUs and see BYU build a better TV contract for itself.
It’s enough to make you scream for Orrin Hatch.
Get The Picture 
So TCU’s going to sign on to play all of their road games 1,000-1,500 miles away?
LikeLike
My bet is the Big East is looking to go to a 12-team, 2-division format, so the travel won’t be quite that bad.
But you ought to take a look at the MWC’s current geographic footprint. It’s not like TCU’s gonna be taking buses for road games this year, either.
LikeLike
I’m glad I pull for a team on the east coast, where states are relatively small and densely populated. Makes the hate easier to maintain. If you’re living in Texas how can you hate, like Utah or Colorado State?
LikeLike
And after all, Orrin notwithstanding, how can anyone hate Utah?
LikeLike
They are trading in one coast for the other… and much more money.
LikeLike
TCU in the Big East?
I wish we’d get a playoff system in place so conferences could stop selling their souls to try and be one of the top 2 or 3 “championship game viable” conferences.
This is yet another reason we could really use 8 mega conferences with the 96 most significant, quality football programs.
LikeLike
[insert remark about Georgia’s significant, quality football program here]
LikeLike
Actually, TCU would be a great acquisition for the SEC should the SEC seek to expand. Good Football program, good school academically and it would get the SEC into the Dallas-Ft. Worth/Texas TV market. And geographically it makes a lot of sense as the SEC is already in La and Arkansas.
LikeLike
The BigEast are idiots if they don’t pick up ECU first.
LikeLike
This sounds like pot-stirring to me. Maybe a call has been made, but I can’t believe this is serious. If it is serious, it seems like it would have to be football-only, with TCU joining the WAC or C-USA (again) or something like that for the rest of its sports (assuming the MWC wouldn’t let them hang around, and I know I wouldn’t).
Alternatively, maybe the Big East could go with a real “Conference USA” model and start a Western division with some legit teams from outside the east. L’ville, Cincy, and USF aren’t exactly neighbors with Rutgers and UConn as it is. They already have basketball members in Chicago and Milwaukee.
The western realignment is important, but what the Big East does or fails to do over the next five years (since it has a BCS bid to offer) could prove even more crucial.
Crazy idea: Eight of the top new-MWC teams (like TCU) create a Western Division for the new football Big East; MWC drops football; Orrin Hatch’s head explodes.
LikeLike
Memphis probably makes some sense, as does UCF. They could have a Sun Division and an Ice Division.
LikeLike
Hey, whatever happened to that Texas joining the Big Ten storyline?
(Point is, I’ll believe the non-geographical conference membership deal when the ink is dry.)
LikeLike