Kevin links to a disturbing article about some sore loseritis at Texas Christian University.

TCU was unable to land a spot in the Bowl Championship Series. Now it appears the Horned Frogs may turn down the next best thing.

The school is planning to decline an expected invitation to the GMAC Bowl because of academic considerations, athletic director Eric Hyman told The Washington Post on Wednesday night.

TCU had its sights sets on a BCS bowl, but those hopes were dashed by a loss to Southern Miss on Nov. 20. As a result, the Horned Frogs will likely finish second in Conference USA and earn an invitation to the GMAC.

However, Hyman says the school will likely decline the bowl bid because the game falls in the middle of their exam period (Dec. 18). The bowl could have pitted a pair of impressive mid-majors (TCU and Miami-Ohio) against each other.

Something tells me that if a BCS game fell that weekend or the Kiwi Fruit Bowl or something, they'd not be declining the invitation. I do feel some sympathy for a team that was aiming for the stars and hit the front lawn, and the timing of the game isn't incredibly desirable, but give me a break.

Kevin hits the nail on the head:

Let me translate that: Since we didn't take care of business and beat Southern Miss, we're going to act like a bunch of crybabies, and angle for a bowl we really like (Hawaii Bowl) instead of the bowl we agreed to go if we finished in second place in our conference.

The C-USA commissioner should make it clear to these whiners that if they screw the conference on this deal, they won't be representing C-USA in any bowls, ever. He won't, of course, because he's scared TCU will bolt to the Mountain West. But if this is the sort of conference member they're gonna be, I'll take Louisiana Tech, thank you very much.

I wonder if this might be a signal that they would have sat out the bowl season if they'd not been invited to a BCS. When they lost to Southern Miss and lost any claim to a BCS-bowl, their plans were obviously thrown off.

Oh well, at least if they won't embarass the C*USA and pull a West Virginia.

I definitely want TCU to stay in the C*USA, but they're making me bite my cheek with this one. The C*USA is blessed (though probably not for long) with five bowl alliances. It's one of the draws to our conference, provided that you don't think you're just too darn good for any of out piddly bowl games.

Maybe the Mountain West bowls are better (I honestly don't know), but this demonstrates a lack of commitment that must be grabbing the MWC's attention. If they switch to the MWC, they're going to be sacrificing a lot of "study time" on plane trips two time-zones away.

Maybe the good news is that this means they're not going to make that jump.

I guess that's good news.