By sequencing tens of millions of TCRα transcripts from naive mouse CD8 + T cells, Genolet et al (2012) show that the TCRα repertoire is at least as diverse as the TCRβ repertoire. This overturns a long held view in the field that recombination of the Tcra locus occurs in a co‐ordinate sequential bidirectional manner that relies on proximity of Vα and Jα gene segments. The observation that rearrangement of all possible Vα‐Jα combinations can occur is consistent with an alternative model in which intralocus loop formation/locus contraction enables an opportunity for all Vα gene segments to recombine with Jα gene segments.