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Big 12 increases TCU's competiton... and resources
Published: 10/11/2011 7:35 PM
Last Modified: 10/12/2011 9:34 AM

TCU head coach Gary Patterson. MIKE STONE/AP file

TCU made it official with the Big 12 on Monday night, and like I said last week, good for the Frogs.

Although it didn't win TCU any friends in the state, separating itself from the other non-Big 12 teams in Texas likely helped make this move possible.

One of the biggest questions now is: How well will TCU compete in the Big 12 in football?

I always laugh at the most popular answer, "They'll get killed now that they play REAL competition."

Do you really think the TCU team that beat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl last year would finish any worse than third in this year's Big 12?

I'm guessing those Frogs would be legitimate title contenders along with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

Is TCU stepping up in competition? Absolutely. But here's what no one ever mentions. With that increase in competition comes an increase in TCU's resources to battle these new foes.

The Frogs will be able to tell recruits it plays in an automatic qualifying BCS conference with yearly games against Texas and Oklahoma. For the first time in the history of the Big 12, a player in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex can stay home and still play games in the Big 12.

That alone may earn TCU an extra recruit or two a year it was losing to teams in the Big 12.

And the Frogs figure to earn anywhere from $5 to $13 million more per year in conference revenue.

Those two factors should help TCU keep coach Gary Patterson. And in the current landscape of college football, the best way to win games if you're not a traditional power is by hiring and keeping an elite-level coach.

The move to the Big 12 may very well drop the Frogs off the college football map. But I wouldn't count on it.

And now, when TCU is successful, the school's detractors will have to give it proper credit.

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213140 (last year)

Valid points. I agree whole heartedly. Welcome to the Big 12 TCU. Go Pokes!

Opus (last year)

Well said, Michael. Good commentary. That Rose Bowl trophy is looking like a pretty valuable piece of hardware now, isn't it.

mgpeters (last year)

It's really amazing, after getting left out the first time, how TCU was able to rebuild its image. I know it didn't sit well with the SMUs, Rices and Houstons of the world when the Frogs pulled away from those schools, but I really think that aided this process.

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Tulsa World Sports Editor Michael Peters has nearly 20 years of daily newspaper experience. A 1993 graduate of Texas A&M, he worked at papers in Bryan-College Station, Texas, Beaumont, Texas, and Galveston, Texas, before joining the Houston Chronicle as High School Sports Editor in 2008. While in Houston, he coordinated coverage of the 2008 Texas Class 5A state football championships and the 2011 NCAA Men's Final Four.

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