TCU accepts invite to Big 12 Conference

Texas Christian accepted an invitation to join the Big 12 on Monday night, seizing an opportunity to be a part of a conference with natural geographic rivals despite the league’s recent instability.

The board of trustees unanimously approved the move and Chancellor Victor Boschini Jr. made the expected announcement in front of a packed room of more than 200 people. Athletic Director Chris Del Conte fought back tears as he recalled receiving the phone call from the Horned Frogs’ new conference last week.

“This is living proof that dreams do come true,” he said.

The move could provide some much-needed stability for the Big 12, which lost Nebraska (Big Ten) and Colorado (Pacific 12) over the summer and will lose Texas A&M to the Southeastern Conference next year. Missouri is also exploring a move to the SEC.

The Horned Frogs were 13-0 in football last season and won the Rose Bowl.

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Big East schools gave a go-ahead for the conference to expand to as many as 12 teams for football, a move that could involve adding six members.

The schools’ presidents and chancellors gave approval for the league to talk with outside schools. The Big East said in a statement that it’s “considering moving to a model that includes 12 football-playing schools.”

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Michigan State announced a $1-million donation from men’s basketball Coach Tom Izzo and his wife, Lupe.

The East Lansing school said most of the money will go to the Spartans’ football program, with the rest divided among other projects.

Izzo, 56, came to Michigan State as an assistant in 1983 and became head coach in 1995, succeeding Jud Heathcote.

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About half of the USC men’s basketball team’s 31 games during the 2011-12 regular season are scheduled to be televised, according to a release from the school.

Sixteen USC games are scheduled to be telecast: six nationally on Fox Sports Net, seven regionally on Prime Ticket or FS West and one each on the Big Ten Network, the Mountain West Sports Network and Comcast SportsNet.

Four of USC’s games are listed as “wild-card” games under consideration to be televised.

For the full television schedule, please go to latimes.com/sports.

—Baxter Holmes

DISTANCE RUNNING

Runner has baby after race

Amber Miller felt contractions just minutes after crossing the finish line at the Chicago Marathon. A few hours later, the suburban Chicago woman — who slogged her way through 26.2 miles while nearly 39 weeks pregnant — delivered a healthy baby girl.

“For me, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. I was running up until that point anyway,” Miller told the Associated Press in an interview from the hospital where she was recovering Monday. “I am crazy about running.”

Sunday’s marathon was the eighth for the 27-year-old, who has been running for more than a dozen years. She found out she was pregnant with her second child days after signing up for the Chicago race and decided to play it by ear on whether she would run.

When the baby hadn’t been born by Sunday, she received clearance from her doctor to run half. She completed the race with a half-run, half-walk approach, drinking lots of fluids and eating a lot along the way. She finished in 6 hours 25 minutes 50 seconds, much slower than her usual marathon time, but still content.

The British men will have to take the long route to the London Olympics.

China finished a surprising third in qualifying at the world gymnastics championships Monday night, the first time they’ve finished anywhere but first at a major competition since the 2004 Olympics. Still, it was enough to bump Britain’s men down to 10th place -- and out of the running for the eight spots at next summer’s London Olympics that are available during competition in Tokyo.

Japan finished first in qualifying with 364.291 points, followed by the United States.

Britain will have another chance to qualify at a January test event at the O2 Arena, the Olympic venue. But no team wanted to avoid that more than the British, who haven’t qualified to send a full team to an Olympics since 1992.