Columnist Ron Kantowski: The ABCs of MWC for TCU

Monday, March 28, 2005 | 9:01 a.m.

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

In less than three months, the Crazy Eight, also known by its formal name of the Mountain West Conference, will add a ninth member and about 5.2 million TV sets, according to the latest census report, when TCU joins the club. Or rejoins the club, if you count the shortlived 16-team Western Athletic Conference experiment in 1996-97.

I have to admit that I initially preferred the cozy eight-team format comprised mostly of teams from the old, original WAC, but perhaps the inclusion of the Texans will be a good thing. After all, both TCU basketball teams made it to the postseason and it hasn't been that long since LaDainian Tomlinson led the nation in rushing. Twice.

Besides, if former princely members of the UNLV coaching staff keep turning into Frogs (first baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle and more recently women's soccer coach Dan Abdalla), maybe we can get a new rivalry going around here.

Above and beyond all that and Slingin' Sammy Baugh, too, TCU, which is saying goodbye (along with just about everybody else) to Conference USA, seems genuinely enthused about joining our little party. Last week, the school's sports information department even sent out a nice e-mail to conference media saying as much, and also to never to refer to it as "Texas Christian" which, I think, was the real purpose of the missive.

Not that the long-standing bastion of higher learning based in Fort Worth has a problem with Texas or Christians. It just prefers TCU, which is fine by me, in that it's fewer key strokes.

But in that it has been a little while since we last saw the Horned Frogs around these parts and that the old WAC quadrant setup precluded TCU from seeing the entire league, I thought our old/new friends from the Metroplex might benefit from a little refresher course of the Mountain West's ABCs -- or at least its A to Z's: