Fort Worth Star-Telegram
TCU’s Success Starts Hurting Team’s Schedule
January 20, 2011 /
The Red Raiders will not be meeting the Horned Frogs on Sept. 10 at Amon G. Carter Stadium after Tech officials told TCU they needed to drop the nonconference game to make room for a ninth Big 12 Conference game. The Red Raiders are scheduled to play New Mexico and Nevada in nonconference games next fall.
TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte, who is in China this week on a tour of Nike apparel factories, was informed by Tech officials several weeks ago of the change. He hoped to sway the Red Raiders by offering to play them at Cowboys Stadium, but to no avail. Tech wants to reschedule the game in the future. But the relationship between the two institutions could be strained after a scheduled game for the 2010 season was dropped when ESPN intervened last spring. The network forced the split when it wanted to televise the Texas-Texas Tech conference game and move it to the date designated for Tech’s meeting with TCU. ESPN made it up to TCU by helping engineer the Frogs’ season opener against Oregon State at Cowboys Stadium, which the network also televised.
“It’s a done deal for sure,” Del Conte said Wednesday about the cancellation. “Nothing has been determined for the future; we’re negotiating that right now.”
Texas Tech could have dropped another nonconference opponent instead of TCU. Instead, the Red Raiders appear reluctant to play the Horned Frogs, who have gone 25-1 the last two seasons and defeated Big 10 tri-champion Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day. The Red Raiders are 17-9 the last two seasons with wins in the Alamo Bowl and the TicketCity Bowl.
“To me it was a little late in the game [to change the schedule],” Del Conte said. “They knew Nebraska was going to the Big Ten eight months ago. We would have had more time [to find a new opponent] if they had told us earlier. It’s disappointing we couldn’t make the game work. I did everything possible.”
This puts the Frogs in a tough spot, scrambling to fill the open date with a quality opponent. The only Frogs games with definite dates for next season are at Baylor in the Sept. 3 season opener and hosting SMU on Oct. 1.
The Frogs were already dealing with the departure of Mountain West Conference opponents BYU and Utah for the 2011 season. Utah is joining the Pac-10, while BYU is going independent. The confluence of those scheduling changes, plus MWC newcomer Boise State trying to move its scheduled 2011 game against TCU from Fort Worth to Boise, Idaho, has made devising the Frogs’ 2011 schedule a headache for TCU.
“It’s very difficult,” Del Conte said. “I’m hoping to have it wrapped up next week. [Texas Tech] just put us in a bind. It’s nothing negative, we just have to move forward.”
