TITLE: Tor and flat base change
QUESTION [12 upvotes]: There is an interesting result in Rotman's homological algebra book. Let $A$ be an $R$-module, $B$ be an $(R,S)$-bimodule and $C$ an $S$-module. (All rings commutative). Then Corollary 10.61 (in the 2009 version) states

If ${}_R B_S$ is flat on either side then $$\text{Tor}^S_n(A \otimes_R B,C) \simeq \text{Tor}^R_n(A,B \otimes_S C)$$

If particular if we let $B = S$ (assuming this is also an $R$-module but not necessarily $R$-flat) then $$\text{Tor}^S_n(A \otimes_R S,C) \simeq \text{Tor}^R_n(A,C)$$
Yet if we start with a projective resolution of $A$, $P^\bullet \to A$, $\text{Tor}^R_*(A,C)$ is the homology of complex $P^\bullet \otimes_R C$. But it doesn't appear automatic that $P^\bullet \otimes_R S \to A \otimes_R S$ will be a projective resolution unless $S$ is $R$-flat. 
What am I missing?
Edit: Here is an outline argument that Rotman gives. If $A_R$ and ${}_RB_S$ satisfy $\text{Tor}^R_i(A,B\otimes_S,P) = 0$ for all $i \ge 0$ whenever ${}_S P$ is projective, then there is a spectral sequence
$$\text{Tor}_p^R(A,\text{Tor}_q^S(B,C))\Rightarrow \text{Tor}_n^S(A \otimes_RB,C)$$
Now if $B_S$ is flat and ${}_SP$ is projective (hence flat) then $B \otimes_S P$ is a flat $R$-module$^\ast$, then the hypothesis of the spectral sequence holds, and it collapses to the desired isomorphism.
($^\ast$Is this true?)

REPLY [4 votes]: This is true in general (assuming, as I'm sure was meant, that $B$ is flat "on either side" means on both sides), and I don't think you need the rings to be commutative.  If $P_* \to A$ is a free resolution, then $P_* \otimes_R B$ has homology groups $Tor^R(A,B)$, and so it's also exact above degree zero.  It's then a resolution too -- not by free or projective objects, but (since $P_*$ was free) by direct sums of copies of $B$.  This makes $P_* \otimes_R B$ into a resolution of $A \otimes_R B$ by flat right $S$-modules, and that's good enough to compute Tor.
This makes the homology of the complex $(P_* \otimes_R B) \otimes_S C$ into something that computes $Tor_S(A \otimes_R B, C)$.
On the other hand, it is isomorphic to the complex $P_* \otimes_R (B \otimes_S C)$, which more directly is something that computes $Tor_R(A,B \otimes_S C)$.
(This feels a little ad-hoc.  One perspective on Tor is that you're allowed to take a resolution of one side, or the other side, or of both sides and tensor together the resolutions; this is how you usually show that Tor over a commutative ring is symmetric.  For this problem, that means that you can take resolutions of $A$ and $C$ simultaneously, which from a certain perspective might clean this argument up.)