Jump to content

JogginFrog

Members
  • Posts

    2
  • Joined

  • Last visited

JogginFrog's Achievements

Recruit

Recruit (1/7)

  1. Plenty old enough to remember. Getting left out of the Big 12 in the 90s forced TCU to make a decision to either pursue excellence or drop football. Either decision could have worked out; glad TCU decided to stay in the game. Understand that getting into the game is another decision entirely. And part of that would be a willingness to be less-than-competitive for a while. On the other hand, you could go toe-to-toe with Kansas right out of the gate. Best of luck with continuing your recent run of success in hoops.
  2. TCU fan here -- thought I'd venture over and see if there was a thread about re-establishing football in the wake of the Rams leaving. Can't say I've read much optimism. A regular topic of conversation on Big 12 fan boards is conference realignment, with the Big 12 (already poached by PAC, B1G and SEC) feeling especially vulnerable. My Frogs have the poaching to thank for their conference membership, but the question remains about long-term sustainability. Some want to add AAC teams as far afield as Temple and UConn; others want to try to poach the ACC. If I'm the Big 12 leadership, I have my eye on Denver and St. Louis as the best markets for shoring up membership. Both top-25 TV markets; neither with a strong historic link to the current conference of their flagship state school; both with reasonable travel costs/time for most member schools for smaller sports (a bigger consideration than you think); both offering an opportunity to claim share of interest from other conferences -- in St. Louis' case, both SEC and B1G. And in the case of St. Louis, good recruiting ground. Whoever said SIUE is better positioned to build a D1 football program doesn't realize that power brokers/legislators aren't going to let another state school erode the flagship school's influence in STL. Has to be a private university. I know little about the SLU community, but you draw well for basketball, have a large enough alumni community to provide a reasonable core of fans, have huge potential for developing a local fan base beyond alumni, and have a strong academic profile that wouldn't scare off administrators from major conference schools (an issue with Memphis and Cincinnati). I agree that a step-by-step approach to building a football program is not worth the cost and effort. But if SLU has some athletic donors with money and vision, and good relationships with local government that could lead to a favorable long-term lease downtown (giving the city time to court an NFL expansion/relocation and SLU time enough to work out plans for its own stadium), I could see a straight-to-Power-5 approach being worth a look. Big 12 might consider it on the basis of market and regional stability--rumor had it they were looking at Villanova a while back and more recently considering Temple. SLU makes more sense than either of those. The lack of optimism for the idea on this board isn't heartening. But I think you've got a compelling combination of geography, demographics and circumstances.
×
×
  • Create New...