Pete Thamel of the New York Times reports that TCU is about to leave the Big East behind.
Just got word that TCU is on the cusp of leaving the Big East. League administrators advised schools of this in an e-mail this morning.
The mess just gets worse – Pitt and Syracuse are gone, and now it appears that TCU is about to leave as well (to the Big 12, it sounds like - the school will pay the Big East $5 million), deciding to depart before ever playing a game with the conference. I can’t believe there won’t be more fallout from this, and we’ll see if that fallout includes West Virginia departing as well. There have been internet rumors over the past few days of WVU heading to the SEC, but so far, those rumors appear to be wishful thinking on the part of WVU fans more than anything else.
In any case, the Big East’s clout as a football conference will be just about gone if TCU leaves, if it ever had any clout to begin with. West Virginia is just about the only school left that gives the Big East much value as a football conference. The departures of Pitt and Syracuse may trigger an avalanche here. This is very bad news for the Big East.
For more on the Big East, check out Big East Coast Bias.