Skip to main content

E8: A Walk into the Dark and Wild: TCU’s Entrance into the Big 12 Conference


Posted on

This episode provides an in-depth analysis of Texas Christian University’s pivotal choice to become a member of the Big 12 Conference. It examines the ways in which the transition has improved not only the university’s athletic achievements but also its financial standing, academic standing, and overall campus life. Furthermore, it establishes a precedent for other universities to reconsider their conference affiliations in pursuit of increased visibility, competitive advantage, and financial stability.

The Big 12 Conference logo is displayed on a barrier at Amon G. Carter Stadium

Tyler Twardowski

Tyler Twardowski is a sophomore from St. Louis, Missouri majoring in communication with a double minor in general business and political science.

Clotfelter, Charles T. Big-Time Sports in American Universities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Ben Bernie and All the Lads- “You Gotta Be a Football Hero,” Columbia Records 1933, Youtube, June 11, 2011.

“Big 12 invites TCU to join league,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, October 6, 2011.

“Heading West?: TCU receives invitation to Join Mountain West Conference,” The Skiff, January 29, 2004.

“TCU Moves to the Big East Conference,” Targeted News Service, November 29, 2010.

Recent Episodes

  • S5 E3: Copernicus Demotes Humanity

    In this episode, student historians Viktor Lord Harrington, Lauren Flores, and Samuel Saenz tackle a myth propagated by the twentieth-century psychologist Sigmund Freud. Freud argued in an early twentieth-century lecture that the early modern revolution in astronomy which placed the sun, rather than the earth, at the center of the universe, had a profound effect…

  • S5 E1: Columbus Believed the Earth was Flat

    In this episode, Whitney Kay, Merit Wagstaff, and Abby Pruns tackle the myth that when Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, he and his crew—and everyone else in Europe at the time—believed the earth was flat. Sources Cited in this Episode Cohen, Richard. Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past. Simon &…

  • S5 E2: The Church Banned Dissection

    In this episode, Cooper Moog, Remington Strickland, and Wyatt Franz tackle the myth that the medieval church prohibited human dissection, supposedly setting back the progress of modern medicine by centuries. Sources Cited in this Episode Croce, Paul Jerome. “Probabilistic Darwinism: Louis Agassiz vs. Asa Gray on Science, Religion, and Certainty.” Journal of Religious History 22,…

Archive