With the wheels of realignment kicking into gear once again the only conference that has been consistently linked with expansion is ours, the Big 12. What does this mean? Firstly it means that the Big 12 is seen as a solid enough to be desirable to other schools, despite being the victim of the last two realignment raids, which is all good news from the TCU standpoint. Secondly, it means that there are a lot of schools out there who may covet entry into the Big 12 conference- which is all well and good, but what do we really know about these ACC schools and how attached they are to their conference, or which ones would be the best fit for the Big 12? Fortunately Frogs O' War is here to enlighten as we share some basic information and interesting facts about the universities rumored to be interested in Big 12 membership. Make the jump if you will and learn what there is to know about the fourth school to be investigated: The University of Miami.

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TCU's official entry to the Big 12 is only a month away now, and though the Big 12 has always seemed like the promised land to TCU fans the Mountain West years have been good to the Frogs. So every day until the Big 12 becomes official Frogs O' War will be counting down its staff's top ten TCU sports moments in our Mountain West tenure. Number ten was beating Oklahoma in 2005, number nine was the 2010 Fiesta Bowl, number eight was TCU's winning every Mountain West Championship in baseball, number seven was TCU's three consecutive Mountain West Championships in football and number six is the 2011 TCU/Boise State football game.

It's amazing to think that one game can salvage a season in which you lose to your two most hated rivals, but a few factors tied in together to make the upset of the 2011 season sweeter than any other.

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With the wheels of realignment kicking into gear once again the only conference that has been consistently linked with expansion is ours, the Big 12. What does this mean? Firstly it means that the Big 12 is seen as a solid enough to be desirable to other schools, despite being the victim of the last two realignment raids, which is all good news from the TCU standpoint. Secondly, it means that there are a lot of schools out there who may covet entry into the Big 12 conference- which is all well and good, but what do we really know about these ACC schools and how attached they are to their conference, or which ones would be the best fit for the Big 12? Fortunately Frogs O' War is here to enlighten as we share some basic information and interesting facts about the universities rumored to be interested in Big 12 membership. Make the jump if you will and learn what there is to know about the second school to be investigated: Florida State University.

Continue reading this post »

With the wheels of realignment kicking into gear once again the only conference that has been consistently linked with expansion is ours, the Big 12. What does this mean? Firstly it means that the Big 12 is seen as a solid enough to be desirable to other schools, despite being the victim of the last two realignment raids, which is all good news from the TCU standpoint. Secondly, it means that there are a lot of schools out there who may covet entry into the Big 12 conference- which is all well and good, but what do we really know about these ACC schools and how attached they are to their conference, or which ones would be the best fit for the Big 12? Fortunately Frogs O' War is here to enlighten as we share some basic information and interesting facts about the universities rumored to be interested in Big 12 membership. Make the jump if you will and learn what there is to know about the first school to be investigated: Clemson University.

Continue reading this post »

TCU's official entry to the Big 12 is only a month away now, and though the Big 12 has always seemed like the promised land to TCU fans the Mountain West years have been good to the Frogs. So every day until the Big 12 becomes official Frogs O' War will be counting down its staff's top ten TCU sports moments in our Mountain West tenure. Today is #10: the 2005 Oklahoma football game.

TCU 17, #7 Oklahoma 10.

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All of the comments frog fans have had to endure about "you guys don't deserve a national title shot, your schedule is weak!" over the past few years is about to fall by the wayside in a big way as the Frogs schedule will move away from a marquee date with Utah/BYU/Boise schedule to a marquee date of Texas/Oklahoma/West Virginia/Oklahoma State schedule- That's going from "in the BCS every few years" opponents to "in the BCS title game every few years" sort of opponents. If TCU goes 10-2 without winning the conference they'll be in at large discussions, if they win the conference they're in with at least a Fiesta Bowl big and if they go undefeated they're in the title game period, unless the SEC puts out an undefeated team and either Michigan, Ohio State, Notre Dame or USC go undefeated. That's the cache of the Big 12, and though some pundits question if we'll have sustained success in our new conference there can be no questioning that if we do have success, big things will be ahead for us. Which leaves the froggy faithful with a question going forward- with nine conference games and a long term contract still ahead of us with SMU, is it worth it for the Frogs to continue to schedule a big name out of conference opponent? We'll look at TCU's future schedules, analyze the options and some of the pros and cons for each situation after the jump.

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I was sitting pretty secure in the thought that despite the rumors swirling around, Florida State was not a legitimate option for Big 12 expansion. The ACC has more academic clout (one of the big factors in those Texas-to-ACC rumors last summer), a shared time zone, and the money would be about comparable (the ACC deal is worth less than the Big 12 deal, but not by that much, I thought). Then this happened, and suddenly the Big 12 seems like it's on the mind of Seminoles everywhere, with commentators seeming decidedly in favor of a Big 12 move. This comes just after Florida State's AD issued a statement "We're in the ACC, we're committed to the ACC." and so forth, but as we have just seen from our friends in College Station, an AD against the wishes of the fanbase and board of regents becomes an ex-AD. So there is enough smoke coming from the Seminole camp to warrant taking a good look at just what the factors are for Florida State to make the move, whether the Big 12 should be interested and what could possibly get in the way of the switch (if both parties are receptive).

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The day is drawing ever nearer that TCU will be joining the Big 12, what is expected to be the final lily pad in the Frogs Conference hopping days. Now that a college football playoff is all but finalized it also seems likely that the big five conferences (Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, ACC and Pac 12) will have little impetus to continue expansion into the superconference realm at the expense of any of those other five conferences (the Big East still is imminently poachable if the Big 12 decides it wants to live up to its name), and the remaining Big 12 members all seem pretty happy to stay the course together- meaning that for the first time since Arkansas departed the SWC, TCU is in a stable conference (that it wants to be a part of). At the same time as TCU is at it's highest point the WAC, TCU's first conference home after the SWC breakup, is on it's deathbed it seems a good time to look back at just how TCU got to the point it is now, and how we avoided the fate that now seems to await Idaho and New Mexico State. Join me after the jump as we look back at what brought TCU into the WAC, TCU's first three seasons in the WAC and the eventual jump to CUSA which followed.

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Former LSU head basketball coach Trent Johnson will be introduced to TCU fans in a press conference Monday, but in order to really get to know the situation and more about Coach Johnson's history and philosophies as a coach some of the best people to ask are the fans he's been coaching for before us. With that in mind we contacted the excellent SBNation LSU Blog And The Valley Shook who were kind enough to answer our questions (Yes, every time you see an SBNation blog link to another, we do refer to them as being great- in this case it's very true, ATVS is a great read even if you're not really invested in LSU).

1.) A lot of TCU fans seem to think that this signing was totally out of the blue. Were there any signs on the LSU side that Coach Johnson was unhappy with administration, or was seeing his name pop up in the TCU search unexpected?

To be honest, once I saw that TCU was interested in Johnson, I thought it was very similar to the situation that Ed DeChellis had at Penn State last year. Both of those coaches were in tough spots where they knew they had only one year left, and thought it was the safer move to take a step back to ensure they weren't fired. I don't think Trent was unhappy with the administration, but he was in a really tough spot at LSU.

2.) Being in the Mountain West, we were not exactly used to keeping an eye on the SEC West during basketball season. What sort of offensive and defensive systems does Coach Johnson like to run, and do you think his style will fit into the Big 12?

Offensively, LSU has been quite bad in every year he has been here in regards to his record. His first year was great, finishing with a 27-8 record, but still wasn't ranked in the top 50 by Kenpom. The struggle the last three years has been with relatively poor guard play and poor shooting. Bo Spencer, who you may or may not have seen with Nebraska this year, was perhaps the best guard he had in the last 3 seasons, and he wasn't all that efficient by any measure. He has had somewhat better success with the forwards, but even so, they seem to struggle against more physical players.

Defensively, Johnson has actually been very good. Kenpom rated this year's defense very highly despite the fact that LSU played a lot of good offensive teams. In the second to last game of the year against Kentucky, LSU was actually able to hold them to a total of 60 points and keep it competitive for most of the game. His defensive signature is probably that the guards are very active once the opposing team crosses half court. Anthony Hickey and Andre Stringer were able to force a lot of turnovers and get steals by simply using fundamentals and hustling. The forwards tend to foul quite a bit in his system, but they also tend to rebound quite well out of it as well.

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Earth shattering news out of Houston today as Rice officials announced they have accepted to join the Big 12 in all sports except baseball.

When asked why for the love of all things good and holy Rice was invited to the Big 12, Big 12 conference commissioner Chuck Neinas responded, "These past years of conference realignment have played havoc on traditional rivalries in college sports. Next year West Virginia won't play Pitt, Kansas won't play Missouri, Texas won't play Texas A&M. These are great rivalries that may never be played again- or may never have the intensity that they once had. So we in the Big 12 came to the decision that some rivalries were too important to risk ever jeopardizing- with this move we have ensured that come hell or high water, Texas will continue to play Rice every year."

Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds and football coach Mack Brown were reportedly elated by the decision to make Rice a conference member. "It's just so great to know that we'll have Rice on the schedule for years to come, that's the one game our players get really fired up for, even in 2010!" said Brown, while DeLoss Dodds added "The game was just too important to us to risk losing, and this means that our basketball team will have a chance to play their rivals in Houston every year as well!" Dodds refused comment on why the Rice Baseball team was not invited to the Big 12 as well.

A search is now on to find a twelfth football playing member for the Big 12 conference, and Chuck Neinas was asked if there were any schools he wouldn't consider for the coveted 12th member slot. "Just SMU," the commissioner replied, "Everyone else has got a shot."

Well, that got ugly fast and stayed ugly throughout- TCU fell to Oregon State on a night where it seemed the Beavers could do anything but miss, shooting an otherworldly .658 percentage from the floor and hitting 52% of their threes. Though that's not the full story of the game- Oregon State's dominance was present throughout, as the badgers outrebounded, outblocked and out-stole the Frogs, giving the Frogs even fewer chances to catch up with the Beavers blistering shooting. Sadly, the road ends here for the Frogs, though it is fitting that the end came on the road- where TCU momentum went to die all season. The Mountain West era is officially over for TCU basketball, and the shadows of the Big 12 are looming large as March Madness continues on- those schools that we're counting on to provide wins in football every year (Iowa State, Kansas State, Kansas and Baylor) all happen to be pretty darn good at this basketball thing right now, and West Virginia and Texas made the tournament as well. Coach Jim Christian will have a lot of work to do on the recruiting trail and in the gym to get the Frogs ready for the Big 12, but the turnaround this season has shown that TCU can still win basketball games, and has given fans enough reason to be optimistic as a whole different class of basketball team will be visiting Daniel Meyer next season. Great season Frogs, let's hope next year will be even better.

The Frogs held strong and will be moving on to round two of the CBI tournament as despite several runs by the Panthers the Frogs led the entirety of the second half with the lead varying from anywhere between two and ten. The really good news is that the Frogs pulled this win out with a decidedly below average game from our First team All-Mountain West guard Hank Thorns (who had a truly miserable first half, going 0-fer from the field)- and they did it with truly balanced scoring- six of the nine frogs who hit the floor against the panthers scored in double figures. The Frogs will now be off until Monday when they will play at the winner of the Western Illinois-Oregon State game in the quarterfinals. Great job frogs, we'll be looking forward to seeing you in round two (seeing being a key word, as the next game should actually be televised legally! Woo!)

Postseason basketball is being played in Fort Worth, Texas tonight Frog fans, so if you've been holding out on seeing our hoop frogs in action then tonight is the night to get to Daniel Meyer Colosseum and bring all of your energy. The opponent is the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, so we're out to continue to prove to the entire state of Wisconsin that we own them. The CBI may not be a Rose Bowl, but winning this game will keep us alive and keep getting our team more practices and more game opportunities that are key for the program going forward. If you can't attend the game tonight, perhaps because you're in another state (or another continent in my case) put the game on the radio- KTCU or find some way to watch the game online- Keep in mind that we can't endorse online streams of questionable legality on Frogs O' War, so please by no means should you Google the terms "tcu milwaukee-wisconsin TV" and click on one of the links labeled "Free online Stream" you'll find there to watch. Don't do that. That would be a darn shame. This is your open thread for the game, so feel free to comment on the proceedings at your leisure.

Though we were still somewhat hopeful that TCU would slip into the NIT, the Frogs were passed up by the selection committee which left the College Basketball Invitational Tournament the destination for our hoop frogs. Though the CBI is still in its infancy, it's great to have the Frogs playing postseason basketball again- the tournament opens up with TCU playing the Milwaukee University Panthers in round 1 tomorrow, but there are some familiar names (and interesting matchup possibilities) in the bracket- the Frogs could snag a semifinal date with two-time NCAA runner up Butler, or perhaps even a finals showdown against Pitt- with noted TCU alumni Jamie Dixon coaching. Good luck Frogs, and congratulations on the bid.

Edit: I forgot one of the most important things: The game will be played at Daniel Meyer Coliseum, so if you're in the DFW area get on out there and show our guys a ton of support!

Well, that certainly was ugly. Despite feeling pretty good about the Frogs chances in this one, Colorado State rolled out to a huge early lead and was never threatened throughout the second half, and there is one clear reason for this: 2-20. That is TCU's three point percentage in this game, and it's even worse than it looks- both three pointers were made by our all-Mountain West first team star Hank Thorns (who went 2-6 from three) meaning that no frog player named something other than Hank Thorns made a three pointer all game (despite 14 attempts). Colorado State didn't exactly shoot the lights out from three themselves (4-10, a good percentage but not a great one) but the key there is attempts- the Rams took ten fewer three point shots than the frogs and instead relied on their midrange and inside game to carry them, and they certainly controlled the inside well, getting a +9 rebounding advantage over the frogs as well. When the paint is clogged you have to be able to shoot over the top to keep the defense honest, and the frogs just couldn't do that today. What's next for TCU is anyone's guess, according to Alex Apple on the Frogs O' War Podcast (which will be available soon) the Frogs are on the NIT Bubble- which is a strange and hard to predict thing. Hopefully this will not be the last performance for this group of frogs, but if it is I know that with Hank Thorns graduating this year it will be much more important in 2013 that the frogs pick things up from outside the arc- we won't win many games in the Big 12 without an occasional three.

TCU's seniors had never experienced what it's like to be a part of a court storming victory by TCU. There have been wins over the past four years, of course, but none that were so unexpected, or so important to a program that the die hard TCU basketball fans have stormed the court over. UNLV came into Fort Worth with a tie for the MWC lead, a well-earned top 11 ranking and more swagger than Chris Del Conte coming into a press conference to announce TCU's move to the Big 12. They put together a five point lead at the half and quickly widened their lead to 18 in the opening minutes of the second quarter, evoking my memories of the USC game earlier this season. However, unlike the USC game, this game was at home, and TCU has decided that it's done being rolled on its home court and fought back, knocking 15 points off the rebel lead in the next five minutes and having a chance to win outright on the last possession of regulation, only to put the boot to the running rebels in OT. Special kudos to seniors Hank Thorns for going an unreal 8-12 for three and J.R. Cadot for collecting a beastly 12 rebounds against a strong UNLV frontcourt. This is a huge win for the frogs for many reasons- it assures the frogs of a .500 or better finish for the regular season, keeps us nominally alive(!) in the conference championship hunt, virtually assures coach Jim Christian of another season as head coach, and perhaps most importantly takes us to 12-3 at home (we've won eight in a row at home, and are undefeated at home in conference play). This is the most important area to me, because right now we still aren't a school that cares a tremendous amount about basketball- a decade of mediocrity and spotty play will do that, and coincided with the football team's third golden age it's really easy to forget about TCU basketball. What we need to do in order to build up our basketball fanbase again is what we're doing this very season: win your home games. We aren't going to win all of our home games every season (with teams like Kansas in the Big 12 that would be an amazing feat), but if we're in every home game, and have a chance to win every home game, the fans will come out and see it. The fact that we're joining the Big 12 a year before SMU gets into the Big East helps us as well, as it gives us a chance to establish ourselves as the place to see top tier college basketball in the metroplex. And if our beloved Dallas Mavericks have shown us anything, it's that people in the metroplex will come out in force to see a good basketball team- this is step one into making TCU into one of those.

Now don't blow it against Boise State on Saturday, okay?

The frogs created a three way tie for fourth place in the MWC by knocking off the Rams at home yesterday. As should be familiar to fans of the hoop-frogs, TCU trailed at the half, but in this case they pulled it out late, as Craig Williams led all Frog scorers with 20 points off the bench going 7-11 from the field and 4-5 for three. As is often the case, however, it will be difficult for the frogs to maintain momentum as #14 UNLV comes calling on Valentine's day. Still, with Boise State and Air Force still ahead, at 14-10 (4-4) the Frogs look to be in good position to finish this basketball season above .500.

Brett McMurphy and The Chronicle are both reporting the Big 12 has revisited the expansion topic, and it seems that the two schools brought up most often are schools that TCU is pretty familiar with from our days of conference jumping- BYU and Louisville. The Big 12 re-expanding to 12 is potentially a good thing for TCU for several reasons: A Big 12 championship means more revenue (and the site would most likely be in Jerryworld, a convenient drive for TCU fans if we make the game, the added stability of two more teams would increase the likelihood that Texas (and as a consequence, Tech, 0U and State) will stick around and keep the Big 12 together for the foreseeable future. The downside for TCU (and if it does come to pass, it is a very sizable downside) is that this will likely mean the reprise of the absolutely murderous Big 12 South- except with TCU in the place of Texas A&M (a definite upgrade). There is certainly some argument that being in what would then become the toughest division in football has an upside- after all, the second best team in the current best division in football was just awarded the BNC (Bogus National Championship), but the SEC has one thing that the likely Big 12 does not have (no, not Texas A&M, I'm talking about things other conferences actually want), which is name recognition and a national power in the other division. Florida is down at the moment, but is indisputably one of the top five jobs in college football, and Georgia and Tennessee are both programs that could easily anchor a weaker division in any other conference- while the only team in the hypothetical Big 12 North redux to sniff a national title is BYU- which is by no one's definition a Nebraska-esque name to anchor a division. What is the Big 12 to do to ensure competitive balance, then? The Big Ten laid the blueprint for it just this past year- split your two national brands into different divisions, even if it doesn't make geographical sense.

By kicking Oklahoma (and to keep as many rivalries as possible intact, Okie State) up into the North and making the Red River Shootout a protected cross division game (as the Big Ten did with Michigan/Ohio State), the Big 12 would give itself not only more competitive balance (and give the non-Texas/0U programs in the South a better chance at the title game) but would also be a significant boon to the conference in negotiating a price for its title game. It's predicted that the mere possibility of a Michigan/Ohio State rematch in the Big Ten title game added a million dollars a year to that games television rights, and by giving networks a possible Texas/0U part two the Big 12 would stand to cash in significantly from the networks as well. This subject might be a sore spot for Longhorn and Sooner supporters, but to those fanbases I have a response: 45-35. Longhorn fans would not tie for the division title with their hated rivals to the North, while beating them head to head, and end up getting shafted out of a title game opportunity. Unlike the Big Ten's premier rivalry (which is played on the last week of the regular season) the Big 12's superpowers play in October, giving both teams ample opportunity to right their place in the rankings and give a winner-takes-all second showdown a huge boost in sending a Big 12 team to the national championship game (or hopefully, playoffs). I'd propose Big 12 divisions like so:

Northeast:

Oklahoma

Oklahoma State

Kansas

Kansas State

Iowa State

West Virginia

Southwest:

Texas

TCU

Texas Tech

Louisville

BYU

Baylor

Or if you want to substitute your preferred expansion candidate (USF? Cincinnati? UNT?) for BYU or Louisville (or kick out Baylor) it doesn't make much difference. In this example what remains of the Big Eight and SWC have their rivalries intact- and giving Oklahoma State a protected rival of either TCU or Tech ensures that the Cowboys don't revolt as a result of being more shut out of Texas exposure in recruiting. In the summer of 2011 Texas and 0U came together to save the Big 12 conference, but should the conference build back up to 12 in the future the best way for them to save the conference again is separating.

The Frogs were in a deep hole, 8:50 left in the game, the Broncos had a commanding 50-34 lead and has established total dominance on the boards (the final tally was a 40-28 advantage for the Broncos). Shades of the USC game, where TCU had been blown out by a pretty bad team, were going through every fans mind at the Daniel Meyer Coliseum, and then the most interesting Frogs in the world spoke up: We don't always beat Boise State, but when we do we prefer to do it in the the way that is most heartbreaking for them. Boise State added only two points to their tally in the final 8:50, as the Frogs defense clamped down and Kyan Anderson started to take over the game, giving TCU a big three pointer that helped swing the momentum in a big way. The frogs are now 11-7 (1-2 MWC) with a great chance to pull back to even in the conference this Wednesday when Air Force 11-5 (1-1 as of this writing) comes to town. If the Frogs are going to finish above .500 this year, this is the sort of game they have to win.