The clock is set. Tonight at 6PM Central Time, TCU is holding a press conference where they are expected to announce that they will be joining the Big 12 Conference, ESPN’s Joe Schad is reporting. The rumor of this move has really heated up the last week, with the TCU Board of Regents meeting today to finalize the decision. Click here to read the potential swimming impact.
There’s still not timetable on when they will be allowed out of the Big East, which has maintained that Pitt and Syracuse wait the stautory 27-month period before joining the ACC. This will likely be an issue of some legal rambling, given that TCU never competed in the Big East, but were slated to begin competition their next fall. It’s probable that they would waive the waiting period in TCU’s situation rather than have a team come into the league for two seasons and then hop right back out again.
If TCU is able to join the Big 12 in the fall of 2012, as hoped, then this will leave the conference with three men’s teams (Texas, Missouri, TCU) and five women’s teams (Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa State, TCU) after the departure of Texas A&M to join the SEC.
That all, of course, is contingent on Missouri’s decision about whether or not to stay in the Big 12. Their university leadership has been holding serious discussions of their own on joining the SEC. On that front, the SEC presidents and chancellors took made no moves regarding league expansion at their meeting today
