Five universities Texas Tech fans would love to kick out of the Big 12
The world of college athletics has been obsessed with conference realignment for over a decade now. However, much of the focus has been on what conferences are adding rather than subtracting.
It seems that the name of the game is to try to add as many attractive universities as possible to ensure that your league is as stable as can be in what is the most unstable state that college sports have ever experienced.
No conference has embodied that spirit more than the Big 12. In the brief time that Brett Yormark has been the league's commissioner, the Big 12 has added six teams to its mix making it the most aggressive conference in the country.
That doesn't mean that fans love all of the moves this league has made in the past 15 years, though. In fact, there are schools that Texas Tech fans would gladly kick out of the Big 12 if possible. Let's look at some schools that Red Raiders might love to see expelled from the conference starting with one Tech never wanted in the league to begin with.
TCU was a school Texas Tech didn't want in the Big 12 to begin with
Texas Tech and TCU are rivals and in the current state of the Big 12, rivalries are hard for the Red Raiders to come by. That's because in-state programs such as Texas and Texas A&M have left for the SEC diminishing the number of programs in the Big 12 that Texas Tech fans truly hate.
Still, it would be better for Texas Tech's overall interests if TCU were to be banished from the league. That's because the presence of a Big 12 team in the middle of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex is not what the Red Raiders want or need.
When TCU was admitted to the Big 12 in 2011, Texas Tech administrators and power brokers were adamantly opposed to the addition. However, because TCU's inclusion was inevitable, the Red Raider brass went along with the plan to bring the Horned Frogs on board.
Adding TCU to the mix hurt Texas Tech more than it did other programs in the conference. That's because Tech relies heavily on the Dallas/Fort Worth area to be its primary recruiting base given the sparse population of West Texas.
With the Frogs being able to now offer a Big 12 experience while allowing Dallas/Fort Worth athletes to stay close to home, it has undoubtedly hurt Tech's recruiting (though Joey McGuire is changing that narrative). Programs such as Texas, OU, and Texas A&M don't typically target the same recruits that Tech does but TCU seems to always be an option for a player that the Red Raiders offer.
For years, TCU wasn't able to recruit with Tech because they didn't have the chance to pitch themselves as a major conference program. Now they can and that's a problem. Thus, if Tech could kick TCU back to the Mountain West, it surely would.