According to the link, Texas Christian University has accepted an offer to move from the Mountain West Conference to the Big East Conference. The changeover will start with the 2012-13 school year. Even though the move was undoubtedly prompted by the Big East to strengthen their weak football conference, all sports at TCU will be moving to the Big East, including women's basketball.
A press conference by TCU is scheduled for 2 pm Eastern Time.Texas Christian was ranked the #38 team in the country last year by RealTimeRPI.com. They finished first in the Mountain West conference but were upset by Utah (soon to be a Pac-12 team) in their conference tournament. Dayton made its first appearance ever in the NCAA Division I basketball tournament last year against TCU, and the Horned Frogs were upset by a shot with one second left by Dayton, falling 67-66 in the first round.
IF TCU had been in the Big East in 2009-10, they would have most likely been ranked eighth out of 17 hypothetical teams.
Connecticut
Notre Dame
West Virginia
Georgetown
St. Johns
DePaul
Rutgers
TCU
Marquette
....
Last year, TCU averaged 2,563 in attendance per home game. That puts TCU at sixth in the new Big East conference, behind Connecticut, Notre Dame, Louisville, Rutgers and Pittsburgh.
TCU head coach Jeff Mittie is at his 12 season at TCU. His record is 238-115 at TCU over his previous 11 years there and he has a 313-157 lifetime record as an NCAA Divisioni I head coach. His teams have made 11 postseason appearances, nine in the NCAA tournament.
For TCU's football program, it might not have been the best decision. However, both TCU and the Big East women's basketball teams will benefit from the move - except in travel time, of course.