Print edition: 
Frank Windegger got the news of TCU’s invitation to the Big 12 on Thursday morning like everybody else, only Windegger isn’t just another happy Horned Frog.
He’s the happiest of Frogs, or at least should be. Windegger was TCU’s athletic director when four schools from the Southwest Conference departed to help form the Big 12 before the 1996-97 school year.
TCU was left behind, although many believed it shouldn’t have been.
Today, nearly two decades after those fateful who’s in and who’s out meetings, TCU is in.
“I’m elated, I really am,” said Windegger, 77, retired and living in Fort Worth. “This is the best news that I could have heard.”
It wasn’t the only news of the day in the Big 12.
The league signed off on a six-year grant of rights, which essentially binds the conference together through its media rights, and agreed to no high school content on third-tier television packages such as Texas’ Longhorn Network.
All of the changes are intended to promote long-term stability in a conference that had two members leave for other conferences before this season and a third, Texas A&M, that will do so next year.
Missouri also has announced it is exploring options for conference membership and the Southeastern Conference is in play for the Tigers.
Thursday’s measures were approved unanimously by the Big 12 Board of Directors, but Missouri, on the advice of its legal counsel, didn’t participate in the votes.
But for the first time since Colorado and Nebraska left last summer, the Big 12 became at least a revolving door and not an exit ramp.
“I think it’s a great change to be on the offensive and be out there talking in a positive way about the future of the conference instead of worry about whether it’s going to break up in a number of years,” said Kansas State president Kirk Schulz, chairman of the Big 12 expansion committee.
The mood was the same down the road in Lawrence.
“This is a great day for the Big 12,” Kansas athletic director Sheahon Zenger said. “It feels so good to move forward, and I believe that Texas Christian University is a tremendous fit for the Big 12 Conference with its academic reputation, its athletic competitiveness and its proximity within the footprint of the Big 12.”
The Horned Frogs are 3-2 this season, including a loss to Baylor in their opening game. But they went 13-0 last year, with a Rose Bowl triumph over Wisconsin and finished second in the polls.
The football program has posted double-digit victories in eight of the last 11 seasons, and since the dissolution of the Southwest Conference has been a member of the Western Athletic Conference, Conference USA and Mountain West.
TCU will bring the Big 12’s population next season to 10 — pending Missouri’s decision. Officially, the Horned Frogs have been invited to join the conference, but TCU chancellor Victor Boschini Jr., talked as though his school was ready to strap it up against the Longhorns and Sooners today.
“It will allow us to return to old rivalries, something our fans and others have been advocating for many years,” Boschini said through the school.
This year, TCU is a member of the Mountain West Conference, but had started the process to join the Big East. That membership was to begin July 1, 2012.
But the Horned Frogs are likely to join a conference with headquarters in Irving, only a few miles away.
“That’s the best part,” Windegger said. “Our fans can drive to Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas and not have to fly to New York.”
The Horned Frogs would have to pay a $5 million exit fee to the Big East, according to published reports. But because TCU hasn’t started competition, there would be no waiting period to leave, unlike Pittsburgh and Syracuse, which under Big East bylaws have to wait for 27 months to relocate to the ACC.
The Big 12’s five-member expansion committee will stay on the job. According to officials at two Big 12 schools, the league continues to consider different membership sizes.
Will the Big 12 work better as a 10-team league, as it’s currently structured with TCU simply replacing Texas A&M? Would it stay at nine, if Missouri left?
Or does the conference want to expand back to its original size of 12 teams, or go even larger, and return to division play with a football conference championship game?
“Should we stay at 10, go to 12 or go to 14?” Schulz said. “That will continue to be a discussion the (expansion) subcommittee has. I don’t there has been a decision made. Some institutions are comfortable staying where we are. There will be some that think we should be bigger. We’ll continue to watch the college landscape and be in a position to respond quickly if need be.”
The expansion roster, based on speculation, may look more east than west. With TCU’s invitation, the Big East would be down to six football-playing schools and programs such as Louisville and West Virginia could be prime Big 12 expansion candidates, perhaps over Brigham Young.
The Birmingham (Ala.) News, citing anonymous sources, reported Thursday that a majority of SEC presidents would support a Missouri application to the conference, but is short a nine-vote majority needed for admission. Texas A&M would not vote on this issue.
If the uncertainty of Missouri’s candidacy sounds familiar it should. Days after Texas A&M announced it was exploring conference options, an SEC official told a New York Times reporter that there was a “30- to 40-percent chance” the league could voted against the Aggies’ membership.
There was no comment from Missouri on the Big 12 actions that were proposed earlier this week by interim Big 12 commissioner Chuck Neinas, he hoped, would help keep Missouri from leaving the conference.
“I’m not objective on this, but this should be a positive sign for Missouri,” Neinas said of the prospect of a six-year grant of rights contingent on the league sharing first- and second-tier football telecast rights.
Those rights will be worth about $150 million annually to the Big 12 beginning next year, when the Fox Sports Net contract begins. That deal, worth $1.2 billion over 13 years, represents the Big 12’s second-tier, or cable broadcast rights.
The first-tier deal, or network rights, which belong to ABC/ESPN, runs through 2015-16. As that contract’s expiration date approaches, the Big 12 is expected to negotiate a larger deal, perhaps twice as large as the Fox contract, according to industry analysts, and could make the Big 12 among the richest of conferences.
Missouri is believed to have wanted a longer grant of rights, perhaps as long as 10 years.
Eliminating the high school content on school-based networks also can seen as a unifying force. Missouri football coach Gary Pinkel had been outspoken against the ESPN-produced Longhorn Network showing high school games or highlights, citing a recruiting advantage.
Will any if it make a difference to the Tigers? Oklahoma president David Boren put Missouri’s chances of remaining in the Big 12 at “50-50.”
