Victor Boschini, the chancellor of Texas Christian University, bounced from airport to airport crisscrossing the country this past week, his purple gear serving as a magnet for eyeballs.
“People make comments in a way they’ve never done before,” Boschini said. “I would say, yeah, it’s incredible.”
The TCU Horned Frogs (13-1) will play for the College Football Playoff national championship against defending champion University of Georgia (14-0) Monday at SoFi Stadium just outside Los Angeles.
Across the country and on campus, TCU has been discovered. The campus bookstore apparel section, typically awash in purple, is so picked over that it looks like it’s been attacked by locusts.
“It’s kind of forgotten how much this helps the university and academics,” said senior quarterback Max Duggan, the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy. “With TCU’s brand and our logo being out there in the national spotlight, it’s getting talked about a lot. Kids now think about going to school here. They see the logo, they see the colors, they see the letters. …
“I think that’s what helps the most, and it’s great for the school.”
Simply put, this isn’t supposed to be happening. TCU’s roster isn’t loaded with blue-chip recruits like the other teams in the College Football Playoff. It’s the second-smallest school among the Power 5 conferences. Michigan, the team it beat in the national semifinals, has about 750,000 living alumni. TCU has 90,000.
The private school of 12,000 in Fort Worth and its purple colors and likable team and strange Hypnotoad meme is part of the national consciousness because of the CFP. Beyond football recruiting, the benefits could come in the form of increased enrollment and giving, mirroring the experiences of other successful athletic programs — and TCU itself.
The Horned Frogs’ win over Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl after the 2010 season made TCU a prime destination for football players and students. Admission applications soared more than 30% the first year after the Rose Bowl, Boschini said, and 40% the year after that. Interest from California skyrocketed with the Golden State comprising the second-biggest contingent after Texas.
With all due respect to its Christian roots, the campus joke is that TCU now stands for “Texas California University.”
“I do think that was a bellwether moment for TCU in that Rose Bowl victory in January 2011,” dean of admissions Heath Einstein said.
The national title game might dwarf the Rose Bowl win.
“I would say that [Rose Bowl] was a turning point for the school,” Boschini said. “This is an even bigger turning point. It puts TCU on a national stage in a way that we couldn’t pay for if we wanted to.”
Like many schools, TCU expects to see an increase in giving, both for sports and academics. Already the school announced last month that it is going ahead with a $40 million renovation of the Bob Lilly Performance Center for TCU athletes.
“That money has been coming in now for people,” Boschini said, “which is wonderful, and we’re going to be able to do that project.”
While it’s early in the admissions cycle, a school spokeswoman said the school is up more than 31% in early decision applications of students saying TCU is their top choice. The full impact of this season’s exposure and success is expected to be felt next fall and in years to come.
Brendan Healy, a junior English major, said being a TCU student feels different this year.
“I couldn’t be more proud of these Horned Frogs,” he said Friday. “Every time they manage to pull out another win, it makes me hold my head even higher when I wear my purple. I was always proud to wear TCU gear everywhere I go, but in these last few months it’s been even more empowering.”
“It’s getting our name out there for the whole world to see,” Healy continued. “Everyone in the county will be watching our Frogs play for a title on Monday. I hope they can stand tall under the spotlight.”
Since the breakup of the Southwest Conference, TCU bounced to four different conferences — the Western Athletic, Conference USA, the Mountain West and Big East, the latter without playing a game.
The Horned Frogs finally joined the Big 12 in 2012, not exactly the road of a national title contender.
While there was a near-playoff miss in 2014, from 2018 to 2021, the Horned Frogs posted a record of 23-24. Boschini kept publicly predicting a national title even as things looked grim. The school parted ways with Gary Patterson, essentially the winningest coach in school history.
TCU then hired Sonny Dykes from 30 miles away at SMU.
“He totally fits the TCU culture in that he’s humble, but he’s competent. And I love that about him,” Boschini said. “Underpromises and overachieves. I love that about him.”
The Flutie Effect
Win or lose, TCU could be on the receiving end of the Flutie Effect.
The theory that dramatic success in a high-profile sport carries major benefits for the entire university was born in 1984, when undersized Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie ingrained himself into college football history with a 48-yard Hail Mary to beat powerhouse Miami (Fla.) 47-45. Flutie went on to win the Heisman Trophy, and Boston College played in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
Applications at Boston College rose 16% that year and another 12% in 1985.
The impact is especially notable for private schools or smaller public universities, if you’re a true believer. And a quick Internet search reflects just how much of a hot-button topic the Flutie Effect is in academia. For every study declaring it gospel, another does its best to debunk the idea.
As you can imagine, Boschini is a believer, although he changed the name to reflect Andy Dalton, the 2010 Rose Bowl quarterback, and Duggan.
“It’s not the Flutie effect at TCU,” Boschini said. “It’s the D-squared effect. It was Dalton and now it’s Duggan.”
Since then, any number of schools have become handy examples, including Gonzaga, George Mason, Virginia Commonwealth and Butler in men’s basketball. Some credit the impact of Gonzaga’s rise with saving the university.
Butler official Graham Honaker told The Dallas Morning News last year how the private Indiana school’s trips to the Final Four in 2010 and 2011 changed its trajectory. It even prompted Honaker, the executive director of principal gifts, to co-author a book titled The Cinderella Strategy.
The impact on Butler included a $100 million jump in endowment, three of the best fundraising years in school history, a $25 million family gift, a doubling of applications, more out-of-state students and $45 million to renovate historic Hinkle Fieldhouse, Honaker said.
Football success stories include Boise State, Appalachian State and Oregon as well as TCU.
Boston College’s own magazine debunked the Flutie Effect in a 2003 article.
“Doug Flutie made some terrific contributions to BC but his personal impact on enrollment during this period has been exaggerated,” BC sports sociologist Michael Malec said.
Baylor’s experience
Baylor is the last Texas and Big 12 school to win a high-profile national title.
The Bears cut down the nets in Indianapolis after beating Gonzaga to win the 2021 NCAA men’s basketball tournament. For the Waco-based Baptist school, maybe the most important parts of the victory were the hardest to quantify.
The aftermath was as much about redemption as celebration. The men’s basketball program had seen tragedy and scandal, with the shooting death of player Patrick Dennehy by a teammate in 2003. An NCAA investigation revealed major infractions by coach Dave Bliss, leading to significant sanctions.
Later, school President Ken Starr and football coach Art Briles lost their jobs in the wake of the handling of sexual and domestic violence by players.
“People knew or had heard about Baylor, and maybe for the wrong reasons,” Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades said in a telephone interview. “But, now all of a sudden, people knew about Baylor for the right reasons.
“We were in a little bit different situation because we had that black cloud hanging over us and that certainly seemed to lift it.”
The school also experienced major expansion of its brand, Rhoades said, from local (Waco) and regional (Texas) to national. That translated into increases in licensing revenue and enrollment.
Baylor coaches beyond men’s basketball reported more recognition in recruiting. Baylor President Linda Livingstone was elected chairwoman of the NCAA board of governors in August 2022.
And the championship served as the impetus for the announcement of the new $185 million Foster Pavilion on the Brazos riverfront.
“I wouldn’t go as far to say that we wouldn’t have been able to build it without it,” Rhoades said. “But it certainly helped in terms of maybe it happened sooner. We were able to raise more money because of it.”
The TCU outlook
Einstein is both the TCU dean of admissions and a huge sports fan.
He said he is “a bit dubious” of the Flutie Effect, while being a big believer in the Horned Frogs. He notes that it will take time to gauge any potential impact on admissions applications. The school began accepting applications on Aug. 1 with an early deadline of Nov. 1. Currently, the number is up 8% year over year, Einstein said.
“If you think about how this particular football season unfolded, we came out of nowhere,” Einstein said. “It’s not as though we were ranked in the preseason. I don’t think we were even ranked before the Kansas game, and at that point, many students had solidified their decision on where to apply.
“It really wasn’t into late October or early November when people said, ‘Hey, this TCU team actually seems to be pretty good.’ So I think the way that the season has played out is also a factor now.”
He does expect an impact from this run to the championship game, based on anecdotal evidence and also history. That’s not counting merchandising and licensing and recruiting and everything that goes with big-time success.
“There’s truly a palpable energy on campus now. … It’s been electric here,” Einstein said, even with TCU’s students still enjoying winter break.
All-American cornerback Tre Hodges-Tomlinson is familiar with the ups and downs of TCU’s history. He played football at Waco Midway High School and is the nephew of legendary TCU running back LaDainian Tomlinson.
He’s taken special pride in restoring TCU to where he always thought it should be.
“Just to put TCU back on track,” Tomlinson said, “because TCU has had success in the past and it went away.”
Twitter: @ChuckCarltonDMN
Special contributor Charles Baggarly contributed to this report.
More TCU-Georgia national championship coverage
— TCU-Georgia CFP championship central: How to watch, news and more
— Watch: TCU football arrives in Los Angeles ahead of national championship vs Georgia
— Max Duggan still fighting for respect ahead of CFP championship against Georgia
— 5 things to know about Georgia: The Bulldogs have flaws the Horned Frogs can expose
— Why TCU fans’ singing of ‘Riff Ram’ is one of Texas’ coolest college football traditions
— ‘It makes me want to vomit’: SMU fans won’t root for TCU, Sonny Dykes in CFP title game
