It might not mean anything, but it could mean something: The TCU Horned Frogs intend to play 12 games this college football season.

They don’t have the final say over whether they will get to play 12 games. The Big 12 will soon (one would assume) announce its planned schedule for the 2020 season. Yet, TCU is going about its business with an eye on playing a full schedule, as reported by Drew Davison of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

TCU football is going forward with plans of playing 12 games this fall. Finalizing agreements with new opponents in Week Zero and Week 2.https://t.co/eG42c6SpH2

— Drew Davison (@drewdavison) July 23, 2020

One would be inclined to think that if a Big 12 member school is trying to play 12 games, the Big 12 would be trying to play 12 games as well.

This inclination is justified by other reports from the college sports world:

Bob Bowlsby says that Big 12 is still focused on playing a 12-game regular season. Acknowledges that "plus-one" model has been discussed. Bowlsby: “Yeah, we’ve talked about that and any other model you could name.”https://t.co/1t6sg3roFL

— Chuck Carlton (@ChuckCarltonDMN) July 23, 2020

It is fascinating to see the various Power Five conferences operate on such different wavelengths.

A lot of the reportage from ACC and SEC markets has pointed to the adoption of a conference schedule plus one or two nonconference games.

The Pac-12 and Big Ten, of course, have committed to conference-only schedules.

The Big 12 is acting aggressively, trying to play 12 games. Alabama of the SEC has also tried to replace early-season opponents, including USC, which suggests that the Crimson Tide — like TCU — are making robust efforts to play a 12-game slate as well.

Teams and conferences are going in all sorts of directions, with little uniform direction or sense of purpose. This is the reality we inhabit in college football.

Which teams is TCU trying to replace? Davison’s story notes that UNLV — originally scheduled to play California on Aug. 29 in Las Vegas at the new Allegiant Stadium — could be TCU’s new opponent. The Horned Frogs have already started their walk-throughs and other activities which would normally precede the beginning of training camp, so TCU is not behind schedule in that regard.

TCU’s September 12 date — vacated by Prairie View when the SWAC shut things down for the fall — will reportedly be filled by a team within driving distance of the TCU campus.

Again, none of these efforts by TCU might ultimately matter, but the story here is that schools and conferences are hardly on the same page. Will there be lasting effects of this particular lack of cohesion in the college sports community, or is all of this a one-off which — when the pandemic lifts — will fade away?

We won’t know the answer to that question for some time.

At first glance, a report that a college football program is trying to find replacement games after two Power Five conferences backed out of nonconference games doesn’t seem like a huge story.

TCU was scheduled to play California on September 5 of this year, but when the Pac-12 moved to a conference-only game schedule, that game was canceled. Of course TCU would want to replace that game…

Well, in a normal situation, it would, but as we keep reminding ourselves, this is NOT a normal situation.

It’s a big deal that TCU, according to reports on Wednesday, is talking to Alabama (whose game against USC was canceled) and a few other schools about replacing the California game.

Why is it such an important story that TCU is at least entertaining the possibility of replacing this one game on its schedule, and talking to Texas A&M, BYU, and Liberty in addition to Bama?

Let’s realize that the Big 12 — whose schedule plans haven’t been revealed yet, and whose future we explored on Wednesday — shares a nine-game conference schedule with the Pac-12. If TCU is even CONSIDERING a replacement nonconference opponent for Sept. 5, that means, at the very least, the Horned Frogs are hoping to play at least 10 games this season.

TCU has a home date against Prairie View of the FCS plus its annual “Iron Skillet” rivalry game against SMU.

The mere EXISTENCE of rumors about TCU discussing a game with other nonconference opponents allows for the possibility that Big 12 teams are thinking about playing a full 12-game season. The mere existence of rumors of Alabama and Texas A&M being involved in talks with TCU similarly suggests that the SEC is thinking of going beyond a conference-only format and playing 10 or more games this season.

If you look at the bigger picture, it becomes apparent that a seemingly dry — and maybe, to some, utterly predictable — report about TCU exploring a replacement game with Alabama or Texas A&M is a really big story.

If the SEC and Big 12 aren’t just intent on playing nonconference games, but are intent on playing a FULL SEASON, while the Big Ten and Pac-12 have committed to conference-only schedules with reduced-length seasons, that has huge implications for many different issues:

1. The College Football Playoff
2. The way Group of Five schools view the different Power Five conferences as future scheduling partners
3. The ways the different Power Five conferences relate (the ACC being removed from this discussion since it is the one conference which hasn’t been mentioned in this article).

No one knows if the Big 12 and SEC can in fact play a full season, but if TCU is talking to Bama and A&M, it certainly leaves that as a possibility, which creates a gulf between the Big 12 and SEC on one hand, and the Big Ten and Pac-12 on the other.

That could certainly shake up college football in the future, in ways we can’t even appreciate now.