SpitBlood Rumor Mill

If Mario says it, it MUST be true!

With the great Snowpocalypse of 2011 having finally left town - at least until tomorrow - along with the North Texas Superbowl, it is officially the off season. Well, I suppose it's been the off-season since the Rose Bowl ended for the majority of us, but for the sake of being official, it was over when Ben Roethlisberger raped an incomplete pass to, meh, who cares? And while baseball season is just around the corner, as lyle said in an earlier post, most of us are football junkies first and foremost no matter if the games are still being played or no, so what better time to fire up the 2011 schedule rumor mill?

We've talked it to death on this site, but here is what we can more or less confirm. TCU will play Baylor and SMU in non-conference games next year 100% set in stone.

But, with the absences of Utah and BYU on the schedule next year, that leaves 2 more games to be played. One is that long rumored game against BYU at Jerryworld that makes sense, but at the same time you can't underestimate the will of Gary Patterson is being against this happening. There has also been talk of a game against Lamar University, which makes sense because we're surely going to toss a Division I-AA underling into the mix. It has not been confirmed whether or not a wager has been placed with Lamar AD Billy Tubbs requiring the coach to return to Fort Worth to assume his old duties on the pine with a TCU win.

However, using our EXCLUSIVE spitblood moles, three other games have been mentioned as possible candidates, and one that you may not have heard of before. One could be an away game against Cal, which has been mentioned before. Another could be an away game against UNC in Chapel Hill, which has been rumored due to Danny Morrison's presence in Charlotte. And the third would be a home game against UTEP.

Clearly the most attractive scenario would involve BYU, Cal and UNC in some order, but it's unlikely we'll be able to get all of those teams to agree. Regardless, just a little more fuel for the schedule fire to tide you over until the final announcement is made - if you read this week's Notes on a Scorecard, it should be soon.

Five Frogs headed to Combine

Five Horned Frogs were invited to the 2011 NFL Scouting Combine, which will be held February 23 through March 1 in Indianapolis:

-Andy Dalton
-Marcus Cannon
- Jeremy Kerley
-Jimmy Young
-Wayne Daniels

I have to say, I'm kind of surprised to see Rimington Award winner Jake Kirkpatrick as well as Jason Teague left off the list. Also, just because I know a lot of you are constantly trying to one-up your coworkers- you can claim scoreboard on just about anyone in this region. Texas and Oklahoma State also had five players invited, but OU only had four, Baylor and A&M two apiece and Tech and SMU just one.

Pre-March Madness

Jimmer Fredette and his legion of blonde-haired, blue-eyed zombie BYU fans have already sold out the Cougars' February 19th game against TCU in the un-sellout-able Daniel-Meyer Coliseum, which will be another clear illustration of just how far the Frogs' basketball program has fallen.

With football now over and baseball still a few weeks away, college basketball is where it's currently at. Unfortunately, as we've documented extensively on this blog, TCU is...not good at it. But, as was the case last year (and the year before, and the year before, etc...), the Frogs still stand to make some money when their conference brethren (bot current and future) advance in the postseason.

The Mountain West is, according to ESPN's bracketology, currently a three-bid league. I'm not sure how the NCAA Tournament money will be distributed amongst the array of teams coming and going from the conference, but you'd have to think TCU will get at least a small taste. BYU and San Diego State are currently projected as 2-seeds, with UNLV a 7-seed and both New Mexico and Colorado State among the eight teams just on the outside looking in.

Over in the Big East, who will be sending NCAA checks to TCU yearly starting in 2012, they currently have a staggering ELEVEN teams projected to make the Big Dance. That's Pitt as a 1, Notre Dame as a 2, Villanova, Georgetown and UConn as 3s, Louisville and Syracuse as 4s, West Virginia as a 6, Marquette as an 8, Cincinnati as a 9 and St. John's as a 10. I'm no mathmetician (nor am I sure I spelled that correctly), but I'd have to say the chances of a Big East team reaching the Final 4 in Houston are pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.

Morning Dump

TCU adds to signing class GoFrogs.com

Pair of Frogs named Baseball America preseason All-Americans GoFrogs.com

Spring QB competition: Mountain West ESPN

TCU Freshmen ESPN

For Patterson, TCU's 'Rose Bowl bounce' sounds like progress CBS Sports