TCU Accepts Invitation To Join Big 12

Corey DeMoss, News9.com

FORT WORTH, Texas – Texas Christian University officially announced Monday that it has joined the Big 12.

TCU previously agreed to join the Big East Conference, but decided to shift gears after the Big East began losing its schools to other conferences. Traditional basketball powerhouses Pittsburgh and Syracuse both chose to leave the Big East for the ACC.

Monday's announcement is just the latest news in a constantly evolving situation in the Big 12. The conference lost two teams last year – Nebraska to the Big Ten and Colorado to the Pac -12 – and a third this season, when Texas A&M announced it was leaving for the SEC.

The amount of instability throughout the Big 12 caused Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to flirt with joining Colorado in the Pac-12, but ultimately those schools chose to stay put.

After the drama surrounding OU and OSU's courtship with the Pac-12, the Big 12 released commissioner Dan Beebe from his duties and replaced him on an interim basis with Chuck Neinas.

Immediately afterward, the conference re-opened its expansion committee and said it would be "aggressive" in seeking new schools to replace those lost.

The addition of TCU will bring the Big 12 back to a total of 10 teams. However, changes in the conference may not be over. Missouri has been connected to the SEC for weeks now, and its president has been given the power to seek conference realignment.

The Big 12 reportedly is prepared for Missouri to leave and has targeted several other schools to add alongside TCU. Schools mentioned in those reports include BYU, West Virginia, Cincinnati and Louisville. The latter three of those schools are all currently in the Big East.