My question for you is what’s the difference between a perennial 7-6 team (Tech) and a perennial 10-3 team (TCU) if neither ever win a conference championship or play in a playoff game? I’d submit that in the eyes of national perception there really isn’t any. The program with the most money, most alumni, and deepest political connections are going to be the metric that either tip for or against us in the next alignment. We need to increase our profile by winning big and doing consistently as that the only real means to assurance.
Not sure why Hell Sent has some strange fixation on Tech but I’d say there’s a lot of difference between a perennial 7-6 team vs a 10-3 team from a national perspective. Problem is we’ve never been a perennial 10-3 team since we’ve become a P5 program. 4 of the 7 seasons we are 7-5 or worse. Not sure averaging 10-3 is even possible for TCU (or Tech), it’d be a monumental achievement. I agree with your last sentence though, we have to stay a winning program. I don’t even want to think about where we’ll be in the next round of realignment if we have a Tech-like stretch over the next 5-6 years.
Regardless of what conference a school is in, an AP Top Ten finish is an AP Top Ten finish and TCU has had a bunch of them in the Gary Patterson era. Three of them while being in the Big 12. Many times winning conference championships and finishing with 11 or more wins.
TCU has won national championships, finished third in the nation twice in the Gary Patterson era.
TCU is one of only around ten schools in the nation that has appeared in all six of the New Years Six Bowl Games (Rose, Fiesta, Cotton, Sugar, Peach and Orange), winning four of them (Rose, Cotton, Sugar and Peach).
Times have changed. Horned Frogs Football has all of the ingredients.
The media is having more and more influence on realignment and those tv networks want the Metroplex college football tv market where TCU is the P5 home team.
Location, location, location !
Prestigious Top 80 US News academics, the very best designed football facilities, beautiful campus in a big city setting.
Texas Tech has nothing close to these ingredients. They have about the same size enrollment as UT Arlington but they're stuck in Lubbock.