With the move to the Big East in 2012, TCU will become more familiar with a life in the national spotlight, a university official said.

Athletic Director Chris Del Conte said becoming an institutional member of the Big East will bring significant exposure to the university.

The Big East has been a conference that is highly publicized in media, he said. TCU will become the topic of discussion among a large media market and in homes of millions of viewers.

“The opportunity to be on ESPN national television and the exposure for our program is phenomenal,” Del Conte said.

The level of potential recognition for all TCU athletic teams will be off the charts, he said. After being a part of the Mountain West Conference and now expanding to the Big East, TCU will be known coast to coast.

“We are very fortunate to be in this position today,” he said. “It’s the right thing for our program.”

Big East Commissioner John Marinatto said TCU will be positively affected from the increased national exposure and the Big East’s automatic bid to a BCS bowl for football.

However Chancellor Victor Boschini said the generated publicity the conference change will cause was not the driving force behind the switch.

“It will get us more notice, but that’s not why we did it,” he said.

Multiple factors came into play while making the decision to move conferences, but the opportunities TCU will be given in the Big East was one of the biggest, Boschini said. Moving to a conference such as the Big East was a goal for TCU.

Marinatto said adding TCU to the Big East’s current 16 member institutions benefits the conference as well, in both athletics and media representation.

In football, the conference is set to play in the Northeast, Midwest, Florida and Texas, Marinatto said. This type of representation would be something no other conference can claim.

Also the Big East will profit from the increased presence in the Texas media market, he said.

“The addition of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the fifth-largest media market in the country, furthers the Big East conference footprint reaching over 25 million U.S. households, more than 25 percent of the United States.” Marinatto said.