Are you keeping up with all of the changes? If not, let’s recap:
– Syracuse and Pitt are leaving the Big East to join the ACC (though it could be some time before it happens).
– Texas A&M is leaving the Big 12 to join the SEC beginning in the fall of 2012.
– The Pac-12 chose not to invite Texas and Oklahoma, leaving them committed to the Big 12.
– If anyone wants to leave the ACC, they’re going to have to fight pretty hard to get out.
– The SEC may or may not add a 14th team, but Missouri is actively exploring the possibility.
– TCU has had the door opened to joing the Big 12.
TCU’s move is the latest in the revolving door of college athletics. The verbiage is all very carefully calculated, but what it sounds like is that TCU would love to join the Big 12, and the Big 12, under a new commissioner, would love to have them.
TCU’s situation is even more complicated. They’re currently in the Mountain West Conference, and haven’t even competed in a single competition as a Big East school before they’re ready to leave. What’s even wackier is that they stood with the remaining Big East commissioners on a resolution to seek expansion to the Big East.
The move makes total sense for TCU. The Big East, at least as a football conference, is dying out. TCU was going to be their big bullet – a window into the rabid Texas football market, two-straight BCS bids, and a well-managed Athletics Department that is making gigantic improvements in their athletics facilities to become a premier program, even before joining one of the major six conferences.
The only question now is whether or not the remaining programs see enough value in the Big East basketball brand to keep themselves together. I think that West Virginia, that is the big-ticket football program now (though they haven’t been great lately), is probably gone to the SEC, but could see the rest sticking it in…for now.
TCU would also be back with their geographical brethren in Texas, much as they were back in the days of the old Southwest Conference. In that regard, this move will benefit the swimming program, because it’s a heck of a lot easier for them to spend the money to hop back and forth between Missouri and Texas for big conference meets than up and down the Eastern seaboard.
Competitively, TCU won’t compete with Texas (at least right away). They could make Missouri nervous for as long as the Tigers stick around.
Here’s a crash-course on TCU swimming:
- They’ve had 14 All-Americans in program history: 12 women and 2 men. Their most recent All-American was Jason Flint in 1997.
- Senior Edgar Crespo could be the next. Last year at NCAA’s he finished 20th in the 100 breast in 53.50 and 30th in the 200 in 1:57.91.
- The TCU Men signed a top-100 recruit in Cooper Robinson out of Houston. He is a behemoth of a swimmer and placed 3rd at the Texas State Championships in the 100 back in 49.66. The only two swimmers who beat him are Stanford’s Jonathan Edwards and Gray Umbach, the top-ranked swimmer nationally in 2012.
- TCU swims at the University Recreation Center Pool, which is a 6-lane, 25-yard pool on campus. It doesn’t match up to the megafacilities at Texas, Missouri, and Texas A&M, but after a total renovation in 2003, is nice for what it is.
- TCU also has access to a 50-meter, outdoor pool at Forest Park just down the street from the rec center. They use this pool heavily during the summer as well as the warmer spring and fall months.
- The head coach of the Horned Frogs is Richard Sygesma, who has been at TCU for 33 years. The two programs are jointly-administered.
- The TCU men won four-straight Conference USA Championships between 2002-2005. The women won in 2002 and 2004.
- The TCU men finished 4th at the MWC Championships last year. The women took 6th.
