Added credibility: MWC hopes adding TCU will aid its BCS chances

Back in the spring of 1998, the Western Athletic Conference staged its own version of the Civil War.

Presidents at eight of the WAC's institutions had become frustrated with the state of their league, so much so that they plotted and schemed in secret meetings — culminating with one at the Denver airport — and decided to secede from the 16-team WAC union in order to create a new conference. The announcement not only blindsided the other eight members, but it also infuriated them.

BYU, Utah, Colorado State, Wyoming, UNLV, Air Force, Colorado State and San Diego State determined that the WAC was severely lacking in financial resources and had become too fragmented in terms of traditional rivalries. The eight schools broke away, then formed the eight-team Mountain West Conference, which opened for business in 1999.

One of the schools left behind, practically left for dead, in the old WAC was Texas Christian University.

About five years later, the group of eight renegade WAC schools that once looked at TCU as excess baggage began courting the Frogs (who had since jumped to Conference USA) like they were a handsome prince. And, starting this fall, seven years after the WAC breakup, TCU will become the ninth member of the Mountain West Conference (the school officially joined on July 1).

So what happened in those seven years that so drastically altered the perception of TCU and its value to the MWC? Certainly, both the MWC and TCU have changed in that time.

"When we looked at expansion, they rose to the top of the board in every category — attendance, competitiveness and academics," says MWC commissioner Craig Thompson.

TCU's strong overall athletic department will benefit the MWC. And one of the biggest reasons for TCU joining the MWC can be summed up in three words: Bowl Championship Series.

As college football fans living within the confines of the Mountain West Conference are painfully aware, the MWC is not included in the BCS system that determines a national football champion. The BCS is made up of six conferences: the Big 12, Big Ten, Southeastern, Atlantic Coast, Pacific-10 and Big East.

However, the Big East could be in jeopardy of being excluded from the mix for an automatic BCS bid when the contract expires after the 2005 season because it lost its top three football schools, Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College, to the ACC. The Big East countered its losses by adding Cincinnati, Louisville and South Florida.