Attention TCU: Welcome to the Big Show. Now Act Like You Deserve It.

I'm only writing this because I've heard multiple TCU friends complaining/grumbling over the past 24-hours about the BCS selection process.

They're saying...
"We got robbed."
"We should be in the big game."
"The BCS is afraid of us."
"The system sucks."

OK. For the record? I totally agree with the last statement. Yes, absolutely, the system sucks. Yes, absolutely, we need a playoff system. Right with you on that, baby. Power to the people.

In fact, if you're really interesting in a playoff system, check out this idea. I came up with this last year, when my team, the Texas Longhorns, seem to be one of the teams that got "screwed" by the system. Please remember that last year, the Horns *beat* Oklahoma. Yet Oklahoma went to the national championship game. In fact, we beat Missouri too, and the Sooners and MIzzou played for the Big 12 Championship.

Was that fair? Of course not.

So, it made me again consider the grail-like quest for a playoff system. But that's not gonna happen this year. In fact, it's not gonna happen next year either. In fact, the earliest it seems to me like it will happen could be 2015, but personally, I don't even think it will happen then.

So, that leaves us with the system we have now. The BCS. And you can love it, or you can hate it, but it is what it is.

So, to my TCU friends, let me say the following as lovingly and with as much care as I can:

Get over yourselves. Grow up. Welcome to the BIG SHOW. You've made it. Now act like you deserve to be here. Barring a *loss* by Texas, there was no way you were going to the National Championship Game this year. No way. (Sorry anybody told you differently...)

You're mad to be playing Boise again? Get over that too. I can give you a list of 100 other teams that would *kill* to play Boise in the Fiesta.

Please see that this is a totally different game. Nobody's "afraid" of TCU. Promise. You were not the only team in the top ten that needed to be placed in a big bowl. Given the way all the other chips fell, you ended up with Boise again. It wasn't because anybody is *afraid* of you. It's just how the whole system works.

You're playing in one of the five biggest games of the bowl season. Millions of people will put aside everything they are doing that day and enjoy watching your team. I hope you *crush* Boise. Seriously. That should put you in the top five, pre-season next year. (Possibly even #2) This is a good thing.

Almost NO team *ever* goes from never having played in a BCS game to playing in the championship game. Very few ever have. If you hope to be in the big time, play with the big boys, you've got to be play with them year after year after year. And you've got to get used to the fact that, now and then, your team will get "screwed." Some other year, your team won't get screwed. That's the way it works.

When I was in college UT lost a national championship because some guy dropped a punt. Was that fair? In the past few years, LSU has definitely been "screwed" by the system. Bama feels like they got "screwed" last year.

But, LSU has also won the whole thing in the recent past, and Bama now has a chance this year. That's the way it works.

Did you really think this year was your only shot? I hope not. I hope you'll be competing at the top for some time. College football needs the Boise's, the Cincy's, and you. Your emergence may be the thing that finally breaks up the BCS for good.

But it's not gonna happen without yall knocking at the door year after year after year...just like Texas does...just like Oklahoma, Florida, LSU, Oregon, and USC do. (BTW, since my Dad went there, Cincy is actually my personal favorite "Cinderella" this year. I think they are at least as deserving as TCU, but they're not getting a shot this year either...and their coach is definitely positioning the Orange Bowl as a step on the road to the Big Game....)

A win in the Fiesta Bowl will be a great next step for TCU, and it matters not that you're playing the same team you played before. Hate to tell you, but nobody watched that other game. (Yes, I know *you* did...) This year, we'll all be watching.

Finally, how pitiful that you say you'll cheer for Bama over UT. Again, this shows a lack of class and make me argue that you really don't yet belong at this level yet.

When OU goes to the championship game, I cheer for OU!! No kidding. If A&M went to the big game (hey, pigs could fly...) I would absolutely cheer for them. The same for Texas Tech or Oklahoma State. (Yes, I am now officially on record...)

Especially if the opponent is from the SEC, Big 10, or Pac 10, it makes sense to cheer for the team from your region. If TCU had gone to the National Championship game, I would *totally* be cheering for TCU over Alabama.

It's good for every team in this region if a team in this region wins.

But you're so "hurt" by the BCS this year that you can't see that. Which is really sad to me.

But I'm also trusting that, over the next few years, you'll grow into your role as a big-time program. To get mentioned by the media, to finally get to the big game, takes years and years.

Get over yourselves. Buy your tickets to Arizona. Cheer like hell.

And welcome to the Big Time.