TCU is the cover of Dave Campbell's 2012 Texas Football

Unlike the cover of Sports Illustrated or the Madden football video game, being asked to be the cover art of Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine is not the unofficial end to your season.

The always anticipated football preview magazine has released its cover art, and TCU football coach Gary Patterson is the cover boy.

Funny that Patterson is on the cover of an issue that hails his team's entrance into the Big 12 while in the bottom right is a shot of his former boss, Dennis Franchione.

Fran's Texas State team is making the jump to the FBS level.

 

 

 

 

 

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TCU results vs. the Big 12 - an indicator of future performance?

FORT WORTH - TCU is in its finals days as a member of the Mountain West Conference. Not only does this mean no more trips to San Diego, Las Vegas or 9:30 p.m. CT starts, it also means no one at TCU has to explain how its conference is just as good as the Big 12, ACC or Big 10.

Whenever TCU's baseball season ends, this part of sales job is over. The Big 12 sells itself.

"It will be nice not to have to win our league every year to get in (the NCAA tournament)," TCU baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle said, which pretty much goes for every sport the school sponsored.

Part of this sales job included TCU coaches and administrator's telling the world their results against "the big boys".

For instance, TCU always had very handy its record in football against AQ schools, Big 12 etc. Since Gary Patterson took over as the head coach 2000, here is how TCU fared against then Big 12 schools: 6-6.

Texas: 0-1 (2007, 13-34)
Texas A&M: 0-1 (2001, 9-28)
Texas Tech: 1-1 (2004, 35-70; 2006, 12-3)
Oklahoma 1-1 (2005, 17-10; 2008, 10-35)
Baylor: 3-1 (2006, 17-7; 2007, 27-0; 2010, 45-10; 2011, 48-50)
Iowa State: 1-0 (2005, 27-24)
Nebraska: 0-1 (2001, 7-21)

Can TCU's success against teams from the Big 12, ACC, Big 10, Pac 12, etc., be used to accurately forecast future success when the school joins the conference next month? Yes. No. Not really. Kinda. Sorta. 

"Somewhat," Schlossnagle said. "Now all I know is baseball. But there are so many things; for instance, if we play a mid-week game (against a Big 12 team), it's a toss up. What you look at is how have we done in weekend series against Cal-State Fullterton, an SEC team, or a Big 12? Look at those records, and that comes out pretty good.

"We haven't had to go Oklahoma one weekend, Texas the next. That's more of a football deal because of the physical nature of the sport. It is more of a thing to talk about in football and less in baseball but still something to consider."

Just using football, there are a million ways to spin, or distort, the 6-6 record against the Big 12.
* Two of the losses came in 2001, when Patterson took over a young roster.
* When TCU played at Texas, Andy Dalton was a redshirt freshman.
* When TCU lost to Baylor in 2011 it was breaking in a new QB while the Bears had the future Heisman winner.
* When TCU defeated Oklahoma, the Sooners were using a raw QB who couldn't hit the air if he fell out of a plane.

No one knows exactly how this is going to play out. Too many variables make this an impossible prediction. Privately, most people around TCU feel the school will "hang" with the Big 12 in its first year; meaning, finish around fourth, fifth or sixth.

"In baseball we better be there, at least, because we have built it on pitching," Schlossnagle said. "If you can pitch with Oklahoma, Texas and Baylor you've given your chance to compete in the league."

Less than one month remains before TCU joins the Big 12. At this point, it looks as if the Frogs will be able to compete in the league, but forecasting their success is an impossible guess.

Hope this clears everything up ...

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Oops: TCU AD Chris Del Conte unintentionally confirms Big 12 expansion chatter

Mr. Chris Del Conte may have pushed the envelope a bit too far this morning, and God love him for it. TCU isn't even an official member of The Big 12, but that did not prevent the TCU director of athletics from speaking as if he is conference comissioner DeLoss Dodds.

Del Conte is in Lubbock this morning speaking to a Committee for Champions breakfast on the Texas Tech campus. According to Chris Level, who is the publisher of RedRaiderSports.com and a co-host of a radio show on 104.3 FM in Lubbock; he Tweeted that Del Conte said that the once dead Big 12 "now has schools like Florida State, Clemson and Miami trying to get in."

This is called a confirmation, and it's actually on the record.

UPDATE: Per the Star-Telegram's Stefen Stevenson, Del Conte's comments were a reference to the rumor mill, not confirming school's interest in the Big 12.

Before Del Conte let fly this winner all of the Big 12 expansion talk had been either rumor, or the ramblings of an irritated member of the Florida State board of trustees. Before this everything had been "deny", "deny", "no comment" or "we are very happy in this crappy conference under the direction of these morons."

This should not get Del Conte into any trouble at all, primarily because it is so obviously true and this stuff has been floating for a little more than one week.

Del Conte also appeared on The Double T radio show this morning and said he thinks the Big 12 needs to be a bit more patient in this latest round of expanion.

"From my standpoint of right now, I want to stay let's take our breath. We are in a position of strength. Let's not rush into anything. We know expansion has to happen. It may not be for a while. We are in the catbird seat right now. We don't need to rush it. You are excited all of these teams want into the Big 12 and two years ago it was going to disintegrate."

Click here to listen to part I of the interview.

Click here to listen to part II of the interview.

On behalf of so many of my media brethren hacks, thank you Mr. Del Conte and to Chris Level.

 

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Have to wonder how much TCU's success factored in to the firing of SMU AD Steve Orsini

SMU may rank ahead of TCU in academic standings, but the Ponies' inability to match what their cross-town rival has done in athletics likely helped get an AD fired.

The Ponies fired AD Steve Orsini today, only a few weeks after he hired Larry Brown as its men's basketball coach.

Even though SMU has a new football stadium, a winning football team with a head coach who clearly knows what he is doing, it has not translated into the type of off-the-field success the school obviously wants after sinking so much money into the public relations tool that is college athletics.

According to this story in The SMU Daily Campus a few weeks ago, SMU's losses are staggering - around $113 million. That's a lot of green, even at SMU.

It is not uncommon for athletic departments to lose money; financial losses in the athletic department are justified as part of the public relations arm of a school. It's a risky formula, but it has worked for TCU.

TCU is enjoying a level of national notoriety in a way it never has before. The Frogs are seeing a tangible return on their investment. SMU has spent millions, but have the perception and popularity of the private school in Dallas changed much in the past decade? Maybe a little but certainly not enough to justify the expense.

Regardless of academic rankings, this power shift can't be easy to watch if you are an SMU alum or administrator. 

Baylor may not be better than SMU, but the Bears are in the Big 12.
TCU is supposed to be the poor man's SMU, but the Frogs are in the Big 12. The Frogs just announced they slold out their 30,000 season ticket allotment.

How does this happen?

As many improvements as the Ponies made under Orsini, it hasn't been enough. Everything feels like it was just a moment too late, from the hiring of June Jones to moving into a Big East Conference that now looks nothing like it did one year ago.

So now SMU fires its AD, which itself feels too late.

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Road trip to Tallahassee - Florida State may want in the Big 12, which means ...

The brief geographical sanity that was the Big 12 was kicked to the curb once West Virginia joined, so adding Florida State makes about as much sense.

But conference realignment has nothing to do with academics, proximity or frequent flyer miles and everything to do with straight cash, homey.

Florida State is irate with the ACC's recent TV contract with ESPN, and is now flirting with the Big 12.

In an exclusive interview with www.warchant.com, FSU board of trustees chair Andy Haggard verbally torched the ACC.

A Big 12 official told Yahoo Sports' Dan Wetzel the league would be crazy not to look at FSU.

Adding FSU would mean the Big 12 has an odd number, which means the league has to find another school (Miami? Louisville? South Florida? Oxford? Cambridge?), and puts a Big 12 football title game back on the table.

Haggard said the ACC TV contract is too basketball heavy, and furthers the perception the conference favors the schools in North Carolina.

When directly asked about the possibility of joining the Big 12, Haggard said: "How do you not look into that option. On behalf of the Board of Trustees I can say that unanimously we would be in favor of seeing what the Big 12 might have to offer. We have to do what is in Florida State's best interest."

Whoops. A few hours after this interview was put online, FSU started to hear it. Obviously. FSU president Eric J. Barron issued this statement Saturday evening: 

"Florida State University regrets that misinformation about the provisions of the ACC contract has unnecessarily renewed the controversy and speculation about University's athletic conference alignment. Florida State respects the views of the Chair of its Board of Trustees that, of course, any university would examine options that would impact university academics, athletics or finances. At the same time, Florida State is not seeking an alternative to the ACC nor are we considering alternatives. Our current commitments remain strong."

Suuuuure they do.
 
So ... let's do the math here.

- Nebraska, Colorado, Texas A&M and Missouri all leave the Big 12 for more money. Sorry; those schools left for conferences that are more aligned with their academic standings.

In their place are TCU and West Virginia for sure. Now Florida State could join that would make the Big 12 look like:

Texas
Texas Tech
Baylor
TCU
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma
Kansas
Kansas State
Iowa State
Florida State
West Virginia 

 

 

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Former Texas A&M star goes Blake Griffin on the Grizzlies

The L.A. Clippers have other players who can dunk. Not only that, but Clippers have players other than Blake Griffin and Chris Paul. I didn't know that.

In Game 2 of the Clippers/Grizzlies series in Memphis on Wednesday night, it was former Texas A&M center DeAndre Jordan trying to bring down the backboard. Me gusta!

Check this out:

 

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