Columnist Ron Kantowski: MWC expansion committee tuned in to TCU

Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2003 | 10:04 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

It has become increasingly clear that it's not what a school brings to the table that interests the Mountain West Conference when it comes to expansion.

It's what it brings to the center rack of the entertainment center.

That's why TCU, its outstanding defense, BCS aspirations and cool nickname aside, has moved to the top of the MWC's short list. It's all those TV sets in the Dallas-Fort Worth market that make it so attractive.

According to a report in the Salt Lake City Deseret News, Dallas-Fort Worth is the nation's fifth-largest television market, easily surpassing San Diego, currently the MWC's top market at No. 26.

That the Horned Frogs play pretty good football and that their inclusion would result in a balanced schedule is just a bonus. All those remote controls would help the MWC in future TV negotiations, which basically explains how the Big 8 evolved into the Big 12, and why the ACC won't be receiving a Christmas card from the Big East.

Directly or indirectly, money is the driving force behind all this moving and shaking that has become commonplace in the college conferences.

Collegesportsinfo.com, an Internet website devoted to the inexact science of predicting the future landscape of NCAA Division I, lists TCU as the only "likely" new MWC member, with Fresno State, Boise State, Hawaii and Nevada-Reno listed as "possible," especially in the long shot the MWC expands to 12 teams (which would enable it to hold a football championship game).

But none of those media markets compare to TCU's. Fresno is No. 57, Hawaii No. 71, Reno No. 114 and Boise a distant No. 124. The Broncos may have a heck of a football team, but you need rabbit ears to see it.

According to Collegesportsinfo.com, the MWC could also look at UTEP, not because the Miners would enhance the conference's BCS bowl viability or that it would provide New Mexico with a geographical rival, but that the UTEP football team, as lame as it is, averages nearly 60,000 paying customers at the spacious Sun Bowl.

Still, TCU's TV sets might be hard to resist, if, in fact, it is interested in leaving Conference USA, which seems to be falling apart like an old Buick.

Being in the minority that would like the see the Mountain West remain a cozy eight-team league, I would point out that TCU once played alongside the the MWC teams when all were members of the sprawling 16-team Western Athletic Conference.

With the exception of those who marveled at Billy Tubbs' comb-over or his colorful language, nobody seem to miss TCU when the Disenchanted 8 decided to secede from the WAC.

It's not as if those TV sets in the Dallas metroplex didn't exist back then. It's just that most of them were tuned to the Texas-Oklahoma game.

Somehow, I don't see that changing.