Just ask TCU (Texas Christian University). They might not be playing for college football’s National Championship, but those unfamiliar purple uniforms you'll see in Pasadena tomorrow are no accident.
“Small” schools like TCU, Boise State and Utah have been under full frontal PR assault by athletic directors from “BCS” conferences, especially the Big 10, Big 12 and SEC. Talk radio hosts have been ridiculing them too, telling any and all listeners that a team not facing NFL talent week after week doesn’t deserve to play in such a revered game as the Rose Bowl. TCU had to further endure relentless arguments that heavyweights Stanford, Ohio State or Alabama - all from big conferences and facing hostile crowds of 90,000 people every week - should supplant them. Conversely, the critics argue, TCU plays in a weak conference and faces smaller opposing crowds than a typical Friday Night Texas High School football game.
So the week before #1 Auburn and #2 Oregon played their final regular season game of the year, #3 TCU turned the tables on everyone:
“We’re joining the Big East in 2012.” (A BCS conference)
What brilliant timing, and for several reasons:
1. If either Auburn or Oregon had lost its final game, TCU’s announcement would have been very hard for Big East coaches who vote in the USA Today Poll – a massive factor in selecting teams for the National Championship game – to ignore.
2. Unlike Boise State who remains content to play in a weaker conference, TCU was sending a message that its current contractual conference obligation won’t dictate intent.
3. The Big East, coming off a down year, was desperate for a football team with TCU’s accomplishments. In return, TCU’s basketball program will join the NCAA’s premier conference in that sport.
4. Big East football teams play regularly on National TV, which is the golden ticket for top recruits.
Although Auburn and Oregon won their final games, TCU still played a limited hand flawlessly and at the very least, prevented an all-out disaster from occurring. TCU will have an opportunity to prove it belongs on a huge stage when they a play Wisconsin in tomorrow’s Rose Bowl – a team that regularly travels 60,000 fans to bowl games.
TCU will have many more opportunities come 2012.
