A title on the line for TCU, Fort Worth

For a city devoted to the TCU Horned Frogs, Saturday is a very important day.

The Frogs, ranked No. 4 in college football polls and No. 3 by the committee planning a national playoff, will be playing for one goal above all: to win their first Big 12 Conference championship.

For TCU, a Big 12 championship would make the Frogs one of a select few teams to win titles in six different leagues, and this in only their third season in the Big 12 after replacing Texas A&M University.

In the past 15 years alone, TCU has joined and won the Western Athletic Conference (twice), Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference (three times), where the last three Horned Frogs teams went 36-3 and won a Rose Bowl.

Basically, whenever TCU joins, TCU wins.

But it will take a victory over the Iowa State Cyclones Saturday morning for the Horned Frogs to accomplish that goal.

That should be the sole focus for TCU’s players and fans, and for the Fort Worth and Tarrant County leaders who have made the Horned Frogs every resident’s “home team.”

For one last time Saturday morning, with a championship on the line, one of the winningest Horned Frogs teams in history will take the field at Amon G. Carter Stadium.

When they leave the field, wherever fate takes them, they will be leaving Fort Worth behind.

No matter what the future brings when playoff and bowl pairings are announced Sunday, this is TCU’s last home appearance and the last chance to thank the Frogs and Head Coach Gary Patterson for a season of incredible thrills.

TCU has beaten four ranked teams in the last eight games, two of them in the Top 10.

At home, the Frogs have delivered victories over Samford and Minnesota, along with conference victories over Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and Kansas State, the last four by an average score of 50-22.

In Patterson’s 14th season as head coach, his teams have won 67 home games. This is fans’ last chance to cheer him for bringing the Frogs to this steppingstone.

There might or might not be yet another steppingstone ahead.

But for TCU and Fort Worth, this is the one for the championship.

This story was originally published December 4, 2014 at 5:59 PM with the headline "A title on the line for TCU, Fort Worth."