re: Gary Patterson out at TCU. Thanks for the memories.

Not to belabor this, but the Fort Worth community does consider TCU its hometown team. Patterson didn't have to drum up support. But he did have to shake a lot of hands to get local business people to donate to improve the stadium (can you imagine Saban doing that?).

TCU only has 11,000 students but a stadium with 50,000 capacity. Tiger Stadium is twice that size, but has three times the number of students. TCU draws well when they're winning, but sellouts depend on the opponent. Games against Texas, Oklahoma and Baylor are usually sellouts.

Other than these last couple of years, the football program has been decidedly better than Boise State. Patterson's team beat Texas regularly, and he's beaten some good non-conference teams, like Oregon and Ole Miss.
No, they're not SEC-caliber, but who is?
They, like most of the Big 12, are likely to get left behind when the expected major reorganization of college football occurs.
And it will be because their small student, alumni and fan base can't bring enough eyeballs to the new TV package.

Lastly I lived in Fort Worth for a few years and I can assure you the city doesn't have a little brother complex about Dallas. It's proud of its distinct personality.

It may be "small potatoes" in sports, as you said, but the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers both play on the Fort Worth side of town.