TCU to the Big 12: What's Changed Since the Southwest Conference Went Kaput

​Earlier this week, Texas Christian University officially accepted an invitation to join the Big 12 Conference, which sort of models the old Southwest Conference, a division that the Horned Frogs competed in from 1923 to 1996.

We gotta tell you, horny toads, compared to '96, the league is going to look a lot different when you come aboard for the 2012-2013 season.

For one, Mountain West Conference gooey donuts like New Mexico will be replaced by Big 12 softies Iowa State and Kansas. Also, old SWC members like Rice, Houston, Southern Methodist and Phillips University (yes, Phillips, the now defunct Christian institution in Enid, Oklahoma, was in the conference in 1920) are playing football, kind of, in non-automatic-qualifying divisions.

As far as game day environments, your Amon Carter Stadium, which is currently undergoing a $164 million renovation, will still feel like a Texas high school stadium compared to Oklahoma's Owen Field or even Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium.

There's more to be hip to, TCU. Here's a team-by-team, football-centric look at what has changed in the past 15 years since the Southwest Conference called it a day.

Kansas football

​Baylor
The off-campus Floyd-Casey Stadium, an appropriate facility for a pedestrian high-school team (but not as bad as Amon Carter), still doesn't sell out despite the presence of Heisman contender Robert Griffin III. Oh, and Waco, aside from Cameron Park, is still a hole.

Iowa State
The Cyclones changed their uniforms to look like a spitting image of the USC Trojans. Sometimes they play like it's 1892, the year they started participating in competitive football.

Kansas
Still in Kansas and still a basketball school.