CBSSports.com is reporting that TCU is expected to accept an offer to join the Big 12. The Horned Frogs were scheduled to join the Big East next year, but that became questionable when Pittsburgh and Syracuse fled that league for the ACC last month.
Earlier this week it was reported that officials from TCU had told the Big East at a Sunday meeting that they were still 100% a go for lift-off in that league next summer. Which just goes to show you can’t trust anyone when dollars are on the table.
With the Big 12 waiting on Missouri to make a decision, TCU is a safe pick-up. If the Tigers stay in the Big 12, TCU can come in as the 10th team in the league and simply fill Texas A&M’s old slot.
If Missouri goes, then the Big 12 can look outward — BYU, Louisville, Cincinnati, Tulane and West Virginia are the most rumored possibilities — to expand to 12 teams.
As one Big East team after another departs, WVU officials have to be on edge. Ditto UConn and Rutgers. The farther east you go, the longer the shot becomes of a partnership with the rebuilt Big 12.
If the Big East bellyflops, UConn and Rutgers would be desperate for a bid to either the Big Ten or the ACC. Would those leagues snap them up to try and tap into the New York television market?
One other element to pay attention to — Notre Dame. As the Big East shrinks, the Irish lose one opponent after another in all sports but football. The Big Ten is being awfully quiet these days. Texas’ DeLoss Dodds believes the Big 12 can flush Notre Dame out by killing off the Big East. And the ACC’s John Swofford would love to add the Irish and UConn as the perfect 15th and 16th partners with his league.
And how might all that affect the SEC? Leagues expanding and contracting around them, schools coming off the board like tight ends in a fantasy draft… as much as I’d love to have Mike Slive’s wallet, I sure wouldn’t want to trade shoes with him right now.
