Frogs leap into the Mountain West
Texas Christian come on down! You have been selected as the next
participant in the Mountain West Conference.
TCU, formerly a member of Conference USA, announced Friday that
it accepted an invitation to join the MWC as a full-time member
starting July 1, 2005, and begin competition in the conference at
the beginning of the 2005-06 academic year.
“TCU is flattered to have been asked to join the Mountain West,”
TCU chancellor Victor Boschini said in a press conference. “We look
forward to competing with their members and getting to know the
schools in our new league.”
TCU’s presence in the MWC will do many things for not only the
Mountain West, but also for CSU.
With TCU being the first and only school in the MWC from Texas,
CSU and other teams from the conference will have better access to
the recruiting possibilities in Texas.
Because CSU’s men’s basketball team is already heavily rooted in
Texas, expansion gives them the opportunity to be seen in Texas at
least once a year and give prospects a chance to return home at
least once a year.
“With eight players on the current roster with ties to Texas and
two more coming in next year, having TCU join the conference only
enhances what we have going,” said CSU sports information director
Gary Ozzello.
Other advantages TCU brings to the MWC is the ability of the
conference to balance its annual football schedule, giving each
member four home and four away conference games each year.
Furthermore, TCU’s presence adds the nation’s seventh-largest
television market to the MWC.
But not everything is coming up roses with the addition of
TCU.
With nine teams, the conference will have to make a decision on
how the ninth place team will fit into conference tournaments in
volleyball and basketball.
With the national string of conference-jumping coming to an end,
the new controversy will be whether the MWC will be included in
football’s BCS when it comes time to decide the new system next
year.
“I think from top to bottom, the MWC is as good as the Big
East,” CSU athletic director Mark Driscoll said of the conference
based in the eastern United States, which lost powerhouse teams
Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College to the Atlantic Coast
Conference. “I believe we (CSU) deserve to be there.”
Nine teams, for now, seem to be the cut-off point for the
MWC.
“There will be no active consideration of additional membership
for the time being,” MWC commissioner Craig Thompson said in a
press release. “However, we will continue to monitor the issue and
move forward at any time that it is determined to be in the best
interest of the MWC to expand.”
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