Frogs bolt, C-USA plots counter-move

Texas Christian and the Mountain West Conference hope they can help each other get into the Bowl Championship Series. Conference USA hopes it can regroup and beat the MWC to the BCS treasure chest.

The Horned Frogs accepted an invitation Friday to become the Mountain West's ninth member, making its third conference switch since the Southwest Conference dissolved in 1995.

"There's no question that the Mountain West Conference wants to be a national program. Their focus is on the BCS," TCU athletic director Eric Hyman said. "This is what they aspire to be, and these are the aspirations of TCU."

TCU will leave C-USA and begin Mountain West play in all sports during the 2005-06 academic year, also the final season of the current BCS contract.

"Postseason football is an absolute priority for us," Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson said. "I'm not saying this gets us into the BCS or gets us an automatic bid, but it certainly helps move us in that direction."

The Horned Frogs were 11-2 last season and got as high as sixth in the BCS standings, the highest ranking ever for a team from a non-BCS league. They went to their sixth straight bowl and were in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll for the third time in four years.

"Couple that with our top programs, we feel we can make a great step forward, and a great statement about inclusion in a new BCS," Thompson said. "We feel that we have really made a step toward being a BCS league."

The Big East has one of the six automatic BCS bids but is losing Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College to the Atlantic Coast Conference. Still, it is uncertain how the BCS will change under a new contract, or how automatic bids will be determined.

TCU is the ninth school, fifth with a football team, to announce its departure from C-USA since the exodus began last summer with Army's announcement that it would resume its historical status as an independent after next season.

Cincinnati, Louisville and South Florida are leaving the league for the Big East in 2005-06, along with non-football playing DePaul and Marquette. Saint Louis and Charlotte, who don't have football teams, are going to the Atlantic 10.

C-USA commissioner Britton Banowsky said in a statement that his league was sorry to see the Frogs depart but that he doesn't anticipate a problem in quickly identifying a replacement.

"Although we would have preferred that they stay in the conference, we respect their decision and wish them well," said Banowsky. "TCU's decision will in no way affect our plans to continue to develop Conference USA into a great league and we remain very enthusiastic about our future.

"Regarding future membership, we have been contacted by many institutions and we will engage a process to finalize our membership in the near future."

Temple — which will be expelled from the Big East after next season — is expected to be one of the programs pursuing a new home in C-USA. Its Philadelphia market and long-prominent basketball program may be factors in its favor as C-USA's decision makers formulate a strategy to offset the sudden loss of all of the league's traditional hoops heavyweights.

Geography is another aspect that could weigh in the Owls' favor. The school's East Coast location would help counter-balance the westward shift of C-USA's center of gravity when WAC members Rice, Southern Methodist and Tulsa join the league in 2005, along with Mid-American Conference teams Marshall and Central Florida.

Among a host of other schools likely to have already extended feelers to C-USA are Louisiana Tech of the WAC, Miami (OH) of the MAC, and a trio of soon-to-hatch I-A programs in market-friendly and talent-rich Florida — Florida A&M, Florida Atlantic and Florida International.

In the Mountain West, TCU again will be affiliated with Air Force, Brigham Young, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, UNLV, Utah and Wyoming. All were in a 16-team Western Athletic Conference before the eight current MWC members decided in the spring of 1998 to form their own conference.

"Stability. I'm looking for stability," Hyman said. "The key word that Craig said is shared vision. That's what we're excited about."

Thompson said the Mountain West has no immediate plans for further expansion. With nine teams, each will play eight conference football games and 16 MWC basketball games a year.

That stance by the MWC will concede at least one advantage to C-USA in the jockeying to gain revenue streams and the attention of the BCS. C-USA has openly stated its intention to consider a lucrative conference championship football game once it achieves the requisite 12 members split into two divisions.

02/23/2007 10:47:30 AM