TCU Bolts Mountain West for BCS Darling Big East

Texas Christian University has announced it will leave the Mountain West Conference and join the Big East Conference on July 1, 2012.  A press conference was held this afternoon on the campus of TCU which was attended by Big East Commissioner John Marinatto, TCU Board of Trustees Chairman J. Luther King Jr., Chris Del Conte TCU’s athletic director and Big East President John Jenkins. Del Conte cited the established institutions of the Big East, television, along with the changes in the Mountain West as the three reasons for the switch. “The Mountain West Conference isn’t the conference we joined,” Del Conte said. “It isn’t the house we bought.  It isn’t the house we were invited into.  I expect significant gains in the TV markets on national TV on ESPN.  We’re associated with great friends with the Big East.”

Geographically TCU doesn’t fit in the Big East but that didn’t seem to be as big of a hindrance as it might seem. 

Marranatto used the National Football League as a reference of sports geography.  (Former NFL Commissioner) Paul Tagliabue was one of the Big East consultants who spoke out that the Dallas Cowboys play in the NFC East. Travel isn’t going to be easy in the Big East for TCU but it wasn’t simple in the Mountain West either as it was the outlier to the East.  Del Conte noted that there is “a 100 mile difference” in travel. The addition of TCU now makes the Big East the “largest and most diverse” conference in the country Marinatto pointed out. This brings the Mountain West down to nine members.  It is speculated that the University of Hawaii will join the Mountain West in football only, with the other UH sports to the Big West Conference. This would leave the Western Athletic Conference with seven football playing universities and the University of Denver who doesn’t field a football team.

TCU Bolts Mountain West for BCS Darling Big East