Colorado State is expected to finish fourth or fifth in the Mountain West recruiting rankings once signing day is over, and one of the teams they will be behind is the TCU Horned Frogs. TCU is possibly going to finish the day with a top 25 class; as of now they are 27th by Rivals, 27th by Scout, ESPN has them outside of the top 30 and MaxPreps does not have them listed in their top 25 class. This will fluctuate throughout the day.
Their Rose Bowl victory over Wisconsin is really paying dividends, as is their move to the Big East next year:
In focusing specifically on the 2011 class being Patterson's best overall class on paper what gets missed is the great job [head coach Gary ]Patterson and his staff have done improving the quality of players found on both lines currently in the TCU program, the speed and athleticism in the skill positions on offense and back seven defensively, and the fact that TCU signed multiple prospects that were widely sought and not just a collection of cast-offs and undiscovered gems. I am not a huge fan of recruiting rankings, but using it as a comparative tool with other schools in the Big East you see that in 2007 and 2008 TCU was not ranked in the 50 classes in the nation while the Big East was represented by WVU, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, and Louisville. In the 2009, 2010, and 2011 TCU has moved up in the rankings and I think it will be bore out in the Frogs being able to compete for the Big East title from the start in 2012.
It will be interesting to see what TCU does -- with this 2011 class -- in their final year of the Mountain West, as there are maybe two players who will be big time contributors come this fall. Those two are wide receiver LaDarius Brown and cornerback Jason Verett. When looking at the future Big East members, TCU is currently second and rated only one spot behind Louisville in the national rankings.
Even though Colorado State and Air Force usually do not go head-to-head with TCU for recruits, having them move to the Big East in 2012 will allow the Rams and Falcons to compete on the field for a Mountain West Conference title once the TCU is out of the league.
Stay tuned to this StoryStream as we look at the stories revolving around the local FBS teams as well as stories about their conferences through signing day.