When Syracuse and Pitt announced they were departing the BEAST back in September, the remainder of the conference, including WVU, was thinking, "Here we go again". Thankfully, we have a proactive AD who called the ACC and SEC a number of times. He even used his connections w/ Deloss Dodds (AD at Texas.....Oliver Luck went to law school at UT) and inquired about the Big XII. While the former 2 weren't interested in adding an emerging football school, the Big XII was very interested and extended the invite. WVU fans were ecstatic because this meant a safe landing place (in a conference that just signed their media rights over to the conference for 6 years thus a guarantee of conference stability) from the dread of the Big East. However, AT THAT TIME WVU fans would have preferred the SEC (#1) and ACC (#2) before the far away land of Grapes of Wrath. Man, talk about how things change.

It all started earlier this week when Dennis Dodd(s)? of CBS reported that the Big XII had signed a 2.6 billion/13 year agreement that included only the T1/T2 rights. College football pundits were very impressed. This guaranteed 20M annually per school....and there's only 10 schools!! Therefore, the ability to grow this number is significant when you're talking about expansion (adding teams increases the annual amount per team if it's the right teams), conference championship game, etc. This conference could feasibly expand to 12 for a few years and then to 14, etc. and head back to the table w/ each step of expansion (w/ idea of added $ at each step). What great news if you were a Mountaineer fan, Sooner fan or Horned Frog fan. Then within 2 days the ACC announced the jaw-dropping deal with ESPN that unbelievably wasn't roundly ridiculed from the beginning. The press release made it sound like the ACC had kept up w/ the Big 4........hardly. In addition to the deal including the T3 rights the deal is extremely backloaded and there will not be an increase in $$ from the prior deal until 2021.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--florida-state-trustee-sparks-firestorm-with-desire-to-join-big-12.html;_ylt=AqbhxMYKJFDfTTK34wMIDF8LcykA;_ylu=X3oDMTFsYmxwdDFlBG1pdANCbG9nIEluZGV4IGJ5IEF1dGhvcgRwb3MDMQRzZWMDTWVkaWFCbG9nSW5kZXhUZW1w;_ylg=X3oDMTFrODdzYXZuBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANhdXRob3IEcHQDc2VjdGlvbnM-;_ylv=3

How did this all go wrong? The ACC was the source of stability. It had academics. It had metro/research universities. It had large TV markets. It had the best b-ball conference in the land. Turns out, none of this mattered. The only thing that mattered is the one thing that has mattered all along...........football. If you want to be a great b-ball school/conference that is absolutely fine. Just don't complain when you have conference instability ala the Providence Gang/Big East. College basketball doesn't matter in terms of conference stability.....not even a little.

WVU fans/alum are thanking our lucky stars we landed in the Big XII and not the ACC. I still think the conference will be absolutely fine. Great academics, great b-ball and its football is better than the Big East. It's just that it won't have the earning capacity of the Big 4. They still have room to grow (with Pac and B1G at 12 and Big XII at 10) and most importantly have great football.

One thing is for certain......As of right now, WVU fans would NOT rather be in the ACC than the Big XII. Our fans don't mind being grouped academically w/ Iowa St, Oklahoma and Texas Tech. We are content with playing Kansas, Texas, and KState in basketball. And we REALLY are looking forward to our football Saturdays beginning in 3-4 months.

When Syracuse and Pitt announced they were departing the BEAST back in September, the remainder of the conference, including WVU, was thinking, "Here we go again". Thankfully, we have a proactive AD who called the ACC and SEC a number of times. He even used his connections w/ Deloss Dodds (AD at Texas.....Oliver Luck went to law school at UT) and inquired about the Big XII. While the former 2 weren't interested in adding an emerging football school, the Big XII was very interested and extended the invite. WVU fans were ecstatic because this meant a safe landing place (in a conference that just signed their media rights over to the conference for 6 years thus a guarantee of conference stability) from the dread of the Big East. However, AT THAT TIME WVU fans would have preferred the SEC (#1) and ACC (#2) before the far away land of Grapes of Wrath. Man, talk about how things change.

It all started earlier this week when Dennis Dodd(s)? of CBS reported that the Big XII had signed a 2.6 billion/13 year agreement that included only the T1/T2 rights. College football pundits were very impressed. This guaranteed 20M annually per school....and there's only 10 schools!! Therefore, the ability to grow this number is significant when you're talking about expansion (adding teams increases the annual amount per team if it's the right teams), conference championship game, etc. This conference could feasibly expand to 12 for a few years and then to 14, etc. and head back to the table w/ each step of expansion (w/ idea of added $ at each step). What great news if you were a Mountaineer fan, Sooner fan or Horned Frog fan. Then within 2 days the ACC announced the jaw-dropping deal with ESPN that unbelievably wasn't roundly ridiculed from the beginning. The press release made it sound like the ACC had kept up w/ the Big 4........hardly. In addition to the deal including the T3 rights the deal is extremely backloaded and there will not be an increase in $$ from the prior deal until 2021.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--florida-state-trustee-sparks-firestorm-with-desire-to-join-big-12.html;_ylt=AqbhxMYKJFDfTTK34wMIDF8LcykA;_ylu=X3oDMTFsYmxwdDFlBG1pdANCbG9nIEluZGV4IGJ5IEF1dGhvcgRwb3MDMQRzZWMDTWVkaWFCbG9nSW5kZXhUZW1w;_ylg=X3oDMTFrODdzYXZuBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANhdXRob3IEcHQDc2VjdGlvbnM-;_ylv=3

How did this all go wrong? The ACC was the source of stability. It had academics. It had metro/research universities. It had large TV markets. It had the best b-ball conference in the land. Turns out, none of this mattered. The only thing that mattered is the one thing that has mattered all along...........football. If you want to be a great b-ball school/conference that is absolutely fine. Just don't complain when you have conference instability ala the Providence Gang/Big East. College basketball doesn't matter in terms of conference stability.....not even a little.

WVU fans/alum are thanking our lucky stars we landed in the Big XII and not the ACC. I still think the conference will be absolutely fine. Great academics, great b-ball and its football is better than the Big East. It's just that it won't have the earning capacity of the Big 4. They still have room to grow (with Pac and B1G at 12 and Big XII at 10) and most importantly have great football.

One thing is for certain......As of right now, WVU fans would NOT rather be in the ACC than the Big XII. Our fans don't mind being grouped academically w/ Iowa St, Oklahoma and Texas Tech. We are content with playing Kansas, Texas, and KState in basketball. And we REALLY are looking forward to our football Saturdays beginning in 3-4 months.

When Syracuse and Pitt announced they were departing the BEAST back in September, the remainder of the conference, including WVU, was thinking, "Here we go again". Thankfully, we have a proactive AD who called the ACC and SEC a number of times. He even used his connections w/ Deloss Dodds (AD at Texas.....Oliver Luck went to law school at UT) and inquired about the Big XII. While the former 2 weren't interested in adding an emerging football school, the Big XII was very interested and extended the invite. WVU fans were ecstatic because this meant a safe landing place (in a conference that just signed their media rights over to the conference for 6 years thus a guarantee of conference stability) from the dread of the Big East. However, AT THAT TIME WVU fans would have preferred the SEC (#1) and ACC (#2) before the far away land of Grapes of Wrath. Man, talk about how things change.

It all started earlier this week when Dennis Dodd(s)? of CBS reported that the Big XII had signed a 2.6 billion/13 year agreement that included only the T1/T2 rights. College football pundits were very impressed. This guaranteed 20M annually per school....and there's only 10 schools!! Therefore, the ability to grow this number is significant when you're talking about expansion (adding teams increases the annual amount per team if it's the right teams), conference championship game, etc. This conference could feasibly expand to 12 for a few years and then to 14, etc. and head back to the table w/ each step of expansion (w/ idea of added $ at each step). What great news if you were a Mountaineer fan, Sooner fan or Horned Frog fan. Then within 2 days the ACC announced the jaw-dropping deal with ESPN that unbelievably wasn't roundly ridiculed from the beginning. The press release made it sound like the ACC had kept up w/ the Big 4........hardly. In addition to the deal including the T3 rights the deal is extremely backloaded and there will not be an increase in $$ from the prior deal until 2021.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--florida-state-trustee-sparks-firestorm-with-desire-to-join-big-12.html;_ylt=AqbhxMYKJFDfTTK34wMIDF8LcykA;_ylu=X3oDMTFsYmxwdDFlBG1pdANCbG9nIEluZGV4IGJ5IEF1dGhvcgRwb3MDMQRzZWMDTWVkaWFCbG9nSW5kZXhUZW1w;_ylg=X3oDMTFrODdzYXZuBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANhdXRob3IEcHQDc2VjdGlvbnM-;_ylv=3

How did this all go wrong? The ACC was the source of stability. It had academics. It had metro/research universities. It had large TV markets. It had the best b-ball conference in the land. Turns out, none of this mattered. The only thing that mattered is the one thing that has mattered all along...........football. If you want to be a great b-ball school/conference that is absolutely fine. Just don't complain when you have conference instability ala the Providence Gang/Big East. College basketball doesn't matter in terms of conference stability.....not even a little.

WVU fans/alum are thanking our lucky stars we landed in the Big XII and not the ACC. I still think the conference will be absolutely fine. Great academics, great b-ball and its football is better than the Big East. It's just that it won't have the earning capacity of the Big 4. They still have room to grow (with Pac and B1G at 12 and Big XII at 10) and most importantly have great football.

One thing is for certain......As of right now, WVU fans would NOT rather be in the ACC than the Big XII. Our fans don't mind being grouped academically w/ Iowa St, Oklahoma and Texas Tech. We are content with playing Kansas, Texas, and KState in basketball. And we REALLY are looking forward to our football Saturdays beginning in 3-4 months.

When Syracuse and Pitt announced they were departing the BEAST back in September, the remainder of the conference, including WVU, was thinking, "Here we go again". Thankfully, we have a proactive AD who called the ACC and SEC a number of times. He even used his connections w/ Deloss Dodds (AD at Texas.....Oliver Luck went to law school at UT) and inquired about the Big XII. While the former 2 weren't interested in adding an emerging football school, the Big XII was very interested and extended the invite. WVU fans were ecstatic because this meant a safe landing place (in a conference that just signed their media rights over to the conference for 6 years thus a guarantee of conference stability) from the dread of the Big East. However, AT THAT TIME WVU fans would have preferred the SEC (#1) and ACC (#2) before the far away land of Grapes of Wrath. Man, talk about how things change.

It all started earlier this week when Dennis Dodd(s)? of CBS reported that the Big XII had signed a 2.6 billion/13 year agreement that included only the T1/T2 rights. College football pundits were very impressed. This guaranteed 20M annually per school....and there's only 10 schools!! Therefore, the ability to grow this number is significant when you're talking about expansion (adding teams increases the annual amount per team if it's the right teams), conference championship game, etc. This conference could feasibly expand to 12 for a few years and then to 14, etc. and head back to the table w/ each step of expansion (w/ idea of added $ at each step). What great news if you were a Mountaineer fan, Sooner fan or Horned Frog fan. Then within 2 days the ACC announced the jaw-dropping deal with ESPN that unbelievably wasn't roundly ridiculed from the beginning. The press release made it sound like the ACC had kept up w/ the Big 4........hardly. In addition to the deal including the T3 rights the deal is extremely backloaded and there will not be an increase in $$ from the prior deal until 2021.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--florida-state-trustee-sparks-firestorm-with-desire-to-join-big-12.html;_ylt=AqbhxMYKJFDfTTK34wMIDF8LcykA;_ylu=X3oDMTFsYmxwdDFlBG1pdANCbG9nIEluZGV4IGJ5IEF1dGhvcgRwb3MDMQRzZWMDTWVkaWFCbG9nSW5kZXhUZW1w;_ylg=X3oDMTFrODdzYXZuBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANhdXRob3IEcHQDc2VjdGlvbnM-;_ylv=3

How did this all go wrong? The ACC was the source of stability. It had academics. It had metro/research universities. It had large TV markets. It had the best b-ball conference in the land. Turns out, none of this mattered. The only thing that mattered is the one thing that has mattered all along...........football. If you want to be a great b-ball school/conference that is absolutely fine. Just don't complain when you have conference instability ala the Providence Gang/Big East. College basketball doesn't matter in terms of conference stability.....not even a little.

WVU fans/alum are thanking our lucky stars we landed in the Big XII and not the ACC. I still think the conference will be absolutely fine. Great academics, great b-ball and its football is better than the Big East. It's just that it won't have the earning capacity of the Big 4. They still have room to grow (with Pac and B1G at 12 and Big XII at 10) and most importantly have great football.

One thing is for certain......As of right now, WVU fans would NOT rather be in the ACC than the Big XII. Our fans don't mind being grouped academically w/ Iowa St, Oklahoma and Texas Tech. We are content with playing Kansas, Texas, and KState in basketball. And we REALLY are looking forward to our football Saturdays beginning in 3-4 months.

Reader WVUColumbus offers some thoughts on the ACC's new deal. To write your own FanPost, use the links over to the right.

When Syracuse and Pitt announced they were departing the BEAST back in September, the remainder of the conference, including WVU, was thinking, "Here we go again". Thankfully, we have a proactive AD who called the ACC and SEC a number of times. He even used his connections w/ Deloss Dodds (AD at Texas.....Oliver Luck went to law school at UT) and inquired about the Big XII. While the former 2 weren't interested in adding an emerging football school, the Big XII was very interested and extended the invite. WVU fans were ecstatic because this meant a safe landing place (in a conference that just signed their media rights over to the conference for 6 years thus a guarantee of conference stability) from the dread of the Big East. However, AT THAT TIME WVU fans would have preferred the SEC (#1) and ACC (#2) before the far away land of Grapes of Wrath. Man, talk about how things change.

It all started earlier this week when Dennis Dodd(s)? of CBS reported that the Big XII had signed a 2.6 billion/13 year agreement that included only the T1/T2 rights. College football pundits were very impressed. This guaranteed 20M annually per school....and there's only 10 schools!! Therefore, the ability to grow this number is significant when you're talking about expansion (adding teams increases the annual amount per team if it's the right teams), conference championship game, etc. This conference could feasibly expand to 12 for a few years and then to 14, etc. and head back to the table w/ each step of expansion (w/ idea of added $ at each step). What great news if you were a Mountaineer fan, Sooner fan or Horned Frog fan. Then within 2 days the ACC announced the jaw-dropping deal with ESPN that unbelievably wasn't roundly ridiculed from the beginning. The press release made it sound like the ACC had kept up w/ the Big 4........hardly. In addition to the deal including the T3 rights the deal is extremely backloaded and there will not be an increase in $$ from the prior deal until 2021.

Here's a good link.

How did this all go wrong?

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With the Tier 1 & 2 rights included in the recent (unofficial) announcement of the ESPN/FOX deal each Big XII school stands to earn 20M annually over the 13 year extension. If one assumes that the RFP from Mr. Luck will fetch 5-10M annually in additional T-3 revenues for WVU we could be looking at annual revenues approaching 30M.

If today's news that the ACC 3.6 billion deal/15 year extension (for 14 TEAMS!!!!!) for T1-3 rights is accurate, then I would be quite critical of that conference's commissioner if I were an ACC school. The going rate for PAC, B10, SEC will likely be in the neighborhood of 30M for T1-2 rights only.

http://www.gq.com/sports/lists/201104/worst-sports-fans-in-america#slide=14

I've been on record stating that our fans are some of the worst in college football. I don't think we're 3rd worst in America, however, for ALL sports.

My guess is that we get dinged for burning couches (rightfully so), leaving games early (rightfully so) in student section, not attending games (rightfully so), and also having a Cleveland sports fan mentality of "Here we go again....this could only happen to WVU" (although I think this has improved since Nehlen left) etc. Little surprised that we would rank that high simply because we're not as relevant as other sports fans. I would vote Ohio State football just as high as WVU, if not higher.

I hate Pitt (love the Steelers, Pens, and Buccos)! I absolutely hate that part of Pittsburgh called Oakland. In my heart, Pitt is a school that has a severe identity crisis in the best city in America. To me, it doesn't epitomize the city at all. I hate it. (Did I make myself clear?). I truly feel that Pitt fans have turned into more of a "wine and cheese" crowd ala 3/4 of the universities in the ACC and feel this shift has steadily occurred over the past 20 years.

I love beating Pitt...at anything. We once had a charity walk in my academic department and I remember personally turning it into a competition and wanting to beat my Pitt counterpart, which I did. (How sad!) I can't imagine NOT beating Pitt. I can't imagine not hating them. My hatred would start to wane (like it has Penn St....Once hated them as much, if not more, but now I'm indifferent to that school).

Hating, in this case, keeps me healthy! And Pitt is the perfect medicine.

I'm on a mission to spread the word to as many ears as possible to keep the Backyard Brawl in football (it will remain in b-ball) on AT LEAST an every other year basis. However, if I have my way it will be EVERY year.

At least one WVU fan thinks the Backyard Brawl should continue. Write your own Fanpost using the link to the right and we may publish it in the main section.

Losing the PITT game is a travesty. Every fan of PITT and WVU should be encouraging the AD’s to schedule this game ANNUALLY in football and b-ball. I can only imagine what Jack Fleming (WVU/Steelers legend) is thinking from above.

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Here's my take:

5. Jack Lambert

4. Troy Polamalu

3. Joe Greene

2. The Bus

1. Hines Ward

There are certainly many others that could be placed on this list but the rationale for this specific fanpost is that many Steeler fans' #1 player would be Hines Ward. He is everything that embodies not only Steeler football but the general identity of the region's people: hard work, perseverance, toughness, and resiliency. It would certainly be a day of mourning when he isn't wearing Black n' Gold.

As a WVU alum excited to enter the Big XII conference in 2012, I tried to think of a school that portrayed the "when expansion can be bad for a program" model. To be honest, I couldn't think of any until I realized that Boston College was still around. You guys were always solid in b-ball and football and had quite a history w/ Flutie, Ryan and others. Obviously things haven't worked well for your 2 major athletic programs. Also, you are in relative geographic isolation from the rest of the ACC.

These are a couple of things that COULD face WVU in the coming years. I wanted to get your take on a couple of things. Are you happy you made the switch to the ACC? Is holding a warm spot in both sports in the soft underbelly of the ACC standings better than being a top program in a really, really, really bad conference? (I truly am wanting to know....don't read into my snarkiness)

This is something that WVU could face in the coming years and wanted to get the take of a school where it clearly hasn't worked out from an on-the-field standpoint (but likely has worked out in terms of $$). Any input would be appreciated?

With all of the uncertainty surrounding conference expansion, many begin to wonder what will happen to his/her alma mater.  When the music stops will there be a chair available or will it be left standing?

I have often advocated a restructured Big East that would still qualify for BCS participation.  I felt this would be the least difficult path to earning a BCS National Championship, which is my ultimate goal for WVU in the present.  However, the more I think about it the more I realize that it's not just about the end result, but also about the journey while getting there.  Hear me out.

I admittedly haven't been to a Mountaineer game in about 2 years (mostly due to busy schedule but also due to lack of featured opponent).  Even the PITT rivalry hasn't quite been what it used to be for whatever reason, mostly because they haven't been viable for the better part of the past 15 years.  This is not a valid excuse though because I still would like to watch the Mountaineers play regardless of unattractive opponent, whether UCANT, Rutgers, Louisville, etc.  However, I am not a die-hard ATTENDING alum.  I can only imagine the look on the faces of the season ticket holders when they get their tickets in the mail.  They instantly hold the LSU ticket and throw all the others to the side.  They think of great thoughts of yesteryear when Mountaineer Field was electric.  They think of Miami in '93, Penn State in '84, Syracuse in '88, and they can't help but feel how excited they were for WVU to simply win the game.  Their satisfaction wasn't based on whether we blew out the opponent like it is now to many fans.  They dream of a scenario where Mountaineer Field will once again come fully alive and capture the hearts of the Mountaineer faithful.

To that end, it is time for WVU fans to re-capture that energy and turn Mountaineer Field into what we all know it can be.  How do we do it?  The SEC, period.  I understand that this isn't necessarily in our hands but what I'm advocating is that this is the pathway for Mountaineer football to truly feel as special as it can.  The ACC?  Just doesn't cut it.  I feel that college football will inevitably arrive at a playoff and therefore make it more possible for WVU to also gain that elusive crown no matter the conference.  Can we compete in the SEC East?  Florida, Tennessee, UK, Vandy, Georgia, USC...........You tell me. 

However, the SEC slate would return the overall Mountaineer "experience" on Saturdays to legendary proportions.  Like having 1 game a year where the atmosphere is palpable?  Try having 4 home games where the stakes feel like they couldn't get any bigger.

The feeling of Miami in '93, Syracuse in '88 or PITT when the stakes are high brings a level of anticipation that unites us as one.  I don't know about you but I love that feeling.  It would truly return if we replace UCONN with Georgia, Rutgers with LSU and Louisville with Alabama.

Will it happen?  I don't think it's as far-fetched as many believe, but a guy can certainly dream.

I have heard from contacts who have close ties to the university (in the past few days) that Clements/Luck are being VERY proactive with regards to securing a "bright and stable future" (as he put it).  Are you guys hearing anything?  It doesn't surprise me in the least that they would sell the university in a low-key manner.  I am curious to know if you've also heard that they're actively reaching out, despite no dominoes falling just yet.  

that a buddy and me were talking about the other day.

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WVU played a near perfect 1st quarter, excluding Austin's fumble.  Then, things changed.

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read from the PG......http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10253/1086443-144.stm

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So I actually watched an entire college football game (other than WVU) and realized why I don't make a habit of it.

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Just found this article from the AP!

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The Big East conference wouldn't hire Paul Tagliabue to reign in 3rd tier college football programs from C-USA to join a, yet again, "Big East" Conference.

I believe this is what's happening.

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For Bill Clinton interviews tonight during the Big East Championship Game on ESPN. 

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Here is a link to a great article on how Huggins perceives WVU basketball.

http://www.wvgazette.com/Sports/WVU/201001150873?page=2&build=cache

jumpingggggggggg....

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After coming onto this blog today I was very surprised.  Of course, we should have beat USF and their team led by 2nd string QB.  There have been many on this blog that have stated........

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He certainly knows how to ruffle feathers, especially of middle America, as he is quite known to have a West Coast bias (1st and foremost) followed closely by an SEC crush, which is understandable.

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I remember not long ago the absolute shear adrenaline rushing through this tired body on Saturday mornings knowing that WVU football equaled one of the best programs in the country playing yet another game in 12 "one game seasons".  We knew our talent level was better than our competitors and that the coaching staff would do just enough to lead the "Old Gold and Blue".......

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I got to thinking immediately after I roundly ridiculed Dr. Charley West for posting yet another story about Rich Rod earlier today, and I've reconsidered.  I want to add my 2 cents right now......

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It has been confirmed by Coach Stew that the WVU QB position will be Jarrett Brown's as the 'Eers take the field against Liberty (Not the Mountaineers in Clarksburg nor the one in Raleigh County), that of the Jerry Fallwell or Eric Green, former TE of the Steelers, variety.  However.......

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After watching the Senior Bowl through the power that is DVR, I have come to the confident conclusion that Pat White will be an NFL quarterback.  He absolutely demonstrated poise, pocket presence, and confidence in all of his throws, w/ the only error being the overthrow to the receiver on the post route.  He showed a nice touch on two screen tosses, excellent accuracy combined w/ nice velocity on all of his passes and good decision making w/ going down prior to getting out of bounds at the end of the game.  On top of that, he is clearly a class act and answered all questions appropriately by the sideline reporter.  I feel that the Senior Bowl was a great tool for Pat White to showcase his talents.  Not only those that are well known to college football fans, but also arm strength, accuracy, and clear pocket presence.  If the draft was tomorrow, I would be confident that White would be a 4th rounder.