For the last few years, TCU has been a national power in football. The Horned Frogs won the Rose Bowl and were in discussions for a national championship berth last season alone.

And now TCU is a member of the Big 12, announcing they’ve accepted the invitation to join on Monday night.

It’s the step toward stability that the conference sorely needed, what with talk of Missouri leaving and with Texas A&M already out the door.

Some may gripe that it’s just another Texas school in the conference, but with A&M gone, TCU simply takes their place, leaving the number the same.

The TCU invitation makes it clear — as if it wasn’t already — that football is all that matters in the business of conference realignment.

Not to rain on TCU’s Big 12-joining party, but its basketball team went 11-22 in men’s basketball last season, 1-15 in Mountain West play.

Granted, they had to face BYU and San Diego State, who made deep runs in the NCAA tournament, but moving to the ultra-competitive Big 12 won’t be easy for the Horned Frogs.

We won’t dwell on the negative here. It’s great that the Big 12 seems like it will remain a legitimate conference for at least a few years, and adding TCU is a major step toward that.

If nothing changes from this point on — that’s assuming Missouri realizes the SEC would be the worst decision they could make — the Big 12 now sits at 10 teams going into the 2012-13 season.

But we wouldn’t expect — and certainly hope — that Big 12 officials will stay put with the 10 teams they have.

Now the task is to find the final two programs to fill out the conference, assuming officials only want to go to 12.

With speculation that members won’t sign off on another Texas school joining the conference, any dreams of a Southwest Conference reunion of SMU or Houston aren’t likely to happen.

One intriguing option is Arkansas, who was also a member of the SWC until 1991, but likely won’t leave the comforts of the SEC, so consider them nixed.

Notre Dame has been brought up in conversations. The Irish would make sense in an all-sports perspective, with men’s and women’s basketball being relevant along with its storied football program.

But to get the proud Irishmen to join a conference after decades as an independent isn’t likely to happen soon.

And if they do, the Big Ten will scream if Notre Dame doesn’t choose them.

So what are the logical options?

To us, it seems as though Brigham Young University and Boise State are the most viable and sensible options to fill out the conference.

Boise State would finally move into the legitimate football conference everyone wants them to be in.

BYU would hold their own in football and be very competitive in basketball.

One major question — among others — is geography, which was a key factor in bringing in TCU.

But for now, all is happy in Big 12 land. Here’s to hoping it stays that way.