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TCU had to spend 16 seasons spread over three different conferences, then has waited an extra week before finally getting to play a game as a member of the Big 12.
When the 20th-ranked Horned Frogs play their opener against Grambling State (0-1) on Saturday, a week after all but TCU and three other FBS teams started the season, so much is going to come together on one night.
The Frogs' first game bearing the Big 12 logo will also be their debut in a $164 million completely redone stadium. And it could be the 110th career victory for coach Gary Patterson, who is currently tied with Dutch Meyer for the most in school history.
''Hopefully, all those things turn out to be positive,'' said Patterson, going into his 12th season. ''Check them off, and we can move forward and get ready to get in the season.''
TCU is the only FBS team to win at least 11 games in six of the last seven seasons, and has been to two BCS games.
FCS school Grambling is coming off a SWAC championship in the first season of its second stint under coach Doug Williams, the former Super Bowl MVP who initially succeeded Eddie Robinson at his alma mater.
While the Frogs return starting quarterback Casey Pachall, two of their top three rushers and three of the top four receivers from last season, this will still be Patterson's youngest team. There are 15 freshmen on the depth chart and only 11 scholarship seniors on the roster.
Though the Frogs are considered big favorites, Patterson is cautious.
''We better go to try to win ball games,'' Patterson said. ''Grambling, this is their Super Bowl. They're going to get up for this game. ... You better get ready to go, you better make your kids understand how important it is. The first ball game, too many crazy things happen.''
The Frogs have won 10 consecutive home openers. The last such loss was in 2001, in Patterson's first home game as TCU's coach. That was in overtime against Northwestern State, another lower-division team from Louisiana.
But they have also come a long way since under Patterson, who reached 109 wins in 62 fewer games than the 201 by Meyer, who led the Frogs to their only AP national championship in 1938. TCU won the Rose Bowl to cap a 13-0 season under Patterson two years ago.
Moving to the Big 12 - after stints in the WAC, Conference USA and the Mountain West - hasn't changed Patterson's approach.
''I haven't noticed anything different, he treats every game the same,'' senior center James Fry said. ''He tells us the same stories, he teaches us the same way. He yells at us, he teaches us, he does everything that he did since I've been a freshman. ... He does something, and I think it's worked for him. So there's no point in changing what we're doing.''
Grambling is the only tuneup for the Frogs before playing their first Big 12 game a week later at Kansas, a pre-noon kickoff.
TCU has the longest active conference winning streak, 24 in a row in the Mountain West while winning three consecutive titles without losing a league game.
''The top of the pyramid (of goals) says win a national championship,'' Patterson said. ''You still want to win a Big 12 title, so that's the level we're trying to get to. It's not any different. ... We're not out there saying we're going to do it this year, but we're not saying that's not what the goal is.''
The Frogs played last season in a half-completed stadium, and that was before the stands on the visiting side were demolished and redone during this offseason. Final touches on the new Amon G. Carter Stadium, which was first built in 1930, were being done in the days before the opener.
Grambling is guaranteed about $400,000 for the trip to Fort Worth, and is bringing its famous band.
For TCU, it's the end of a long wait that included watching most everybody else play last weekend.
''There's some upsets already, but that's college football is all about,'' Fry said. ''And I love seeing those.''
As long as there isn't one Saturday that would spoil so much for the Frogs.
