Post by elp525 on Sept 23, 2011 4:53:42 GMT -5
September 22, 2011
By Mitch Vingle
The Charleston Gazette
IF YOU'RE SEEKING news on the WVU football front, you've come to the right place.
The latest is, Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr., winner of "America's Got Talent," will perform the national anthem at Saturday's LSU-WVU game. Ronald Reagan will be remembered via a "Flip One for the Gipper" coin toss, which will happen nationwide. And reader Suzy Warman writes she's hoping to start a trend by imploring Mountaineer fans to paint a W on right hand fingers and a V on left hand fingers. (There ya go, Suzy.)
Otherwise, well, there's not much to report. TCU said it plans to stick with its agreement to join the Big East - for now.
Also, Navy and Air Force are indeed targets for Big East membership. As for East Carolina, which made it known it's expressed interest in joining? That probably will not happen. One insider said the league is not focused on any Conference USA school and suggested the Big East will play to its strength and zero in on top-flight hoops schools.
Otherwise, there's a lull in conference expansion news. Know, however, the machinations are not over. The Southeastern Conference won't stay at 13 schools. The Big 12 won't stick at nine schools. The Atlantic Coast Conference most likely has moves to make.
There's no evidence, however, that suggests any of the above will have an effect on WVU, except in a negative fashion. If Connecticut and Rutgers leave for the ACC, for instance, that will only hurt the Mountaineers' current Big East status.
Insiders insist there are still options for WVU out there. If any of the aforementioned conferences expand to 16, the Mountaineers are on short lists.
They also claim the service academies are nice additions and that, more than likely, the Pitt-West Virginia rivalry will continue, although no talks have taken place. So the only matchup the Mountaineers are losing is that with Syracuse.
The glass-half-full group says the Big East is still in fine shape as an AQ, or BCS automatic qualifying, league. They say Navy is better than Syracuse in football.
But both of those points speak to the situation as it currently stands. The BCS setup will almost certainly change in the near future. And football recruiting will certainly pick up at Pitt and Syracuse.
Will the Big East hold Pitt and Syracuse to the contracted 27-month exit? Well, it seems WVU wishes the schools to do so. But league officials, who spent much of Thursday at the funeral of conference founder Dave Gavitt, believe the decision will depend on what happens with the league and how fast it happens.
The question exists because long-term exits can be ugly. Tom O'Brien, now the North Carolina State football coach, was asked about such a departure on this week's ACC teleconference. He was the coach at Boston College when the Eagles went through a one-year exit from the Big East. He relayed a story about playing at Syracuse the day after the move was announced.
"They were throwing dollar bills at us as we exited the stadium," O'Brien said. "It wasn't fun, I can promise you that."
Back to WVU though. And the serious long-term concerns. First and foremost is staying relevant nationally playing within a conference that's struggling now for respect and will struggle mightily in the future.
Toward that end, consider WVU's schedule. Adding Air Force and Navy won't help a Mountaineer program reach a national title game during a terrific season. Not when voters, computers, etc., factor in the strengths of schedule and respect, deserved or not, of those in the power conferences.
WVU will have to build a reputation like that of Boise State, which is very difficult to do, and defeat respected non-conference opponents. If, that is, non-conference opponents will play the Mountaineers. With 12- to 16-team major conferences, schools may opt to scale back the difficulty of non-conference games.
Currently, WVU has marquee non-conference games set against Florida State for 2012-13. It has a similar setup with Michigan State for 2014-15. The Mountaineers play BYU in 2016. There's the extended series with Maryland, including an appearance at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore in 2013, that runs through 2017.
That's as far as WVU has scheduled out. One wonders how that aspect of the football program will be affected.
Likewise recruiting. If West Virginia doesn't land in one of the power conferences, how will it recruit against, say, Pitt in, say, western Pennsylvania?
Anyway, the hope in Morgantown is there are still opportunities out there for the Mountaineers. We are in a lull, but word is the wheels are still turning in regard to expansion/realignment.
WVU fans simply have to be patient and hope for the best. And, for now, enjoy Landau Eugene, watching the Mountaineers against LSU and the flip for the Gipper.
By Mitch Vingle
The Charleston Gazette
IF YOU'RE SEEKING news on the WVU football front, you've come to the right place.
The latest is, Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr., winner of "America's Got Talent," will perform the national anthem at Saturday's LSU-WVU game. Ronald Reagan will be remembered via a "Flip One for the Gipper" coin toss, which will happen nationwide. And reader Suzy Warman writes she's hoping to start a trend by imploring Mountaineer fans to paint a W on right hand fingers and a V on left hand fingers. (There ya go, Suzy.)
Otherwise, well, there's not much to report. TCU said it plans to stick with its agreement to join the Big East - for now.
Also, Navy and Air Force are indeed targets for Big East membership. As for East Carolina, which made it known it's expressed interest in joining? That probably will not happen. One insider said the league is not focused on any Conference USA school and suggested the Big East will play to its strength and zero in on top-flight hoops schools.
Otherwise, there's a lull in conference expansion news. Know, however, the machinations are not over. The Southeastern Conference won't stay at 13 schools. The Big 12 won't stick at nine schools. The Atlantic Coast Conference most likely has moves to make.
There's no evidence, however, that suggests any of the above will have an effect on WVU, except in a negative fashion. If Connecticut and Rutgers leave for the ACC, for instance, that will only hurt the Mountaineers' current Big East status.
Insiders insist there are still options for WVU out there. If any of the aforementioned conferences expand to 16, the Mountaineers are on short lists.
They also claim the service academies are nice additions and that, more than likely, the Pitt-West Virginia rivalry will continue, although no talks have taken place. So the only matchup the Mountaineers are losing is that with Syracuse.
The glass-half-full group says the Big East is still in fine shape as an AQ, or BCS automatic qualifying, league. They say Navy is better than Syracuse in football.
But both of those points speak to the situation as it currently stands. The BCS setup will almost certainly change in the near future. And football recruiting will certainly pick up at Pitt and Syracuse.
Will the Big East hold Pitt and Syracuse to the contracted 27-month exit? Well, it seems WVU wishes the schools to do so. But league officials, who spent much of Thursday at the funeral of conference founder Dave Gavitt, believe the decision will depend on what happens with the league and how fast it happens.
The question exists because long-term exits can be ugly. Tom O'Brien, now the North Carolina State football coach, was asked about such a departure on this week's ACC teleconference. He was the coach at Boston College when the Eagles went through a one-year exit from the Big East. He relayed a story about playing at Syracuse the day after the move was announced.
"They were throwing dollar bills at us as we exited the stadium," O'Brien said. "It wasn't fun, I can promise you that."
Back to WVU though. And the serious long-term concerns. First and foremost is staying relevant nationally playing within a conference that's struggling now for respect and will struggle mightily in the future.
Toward that end, consider WVU's schedule. Adding Air Force and Navy won't help a Mountaineer program reach a national title game during a terrific season. Not when voters, computers, etc., factor in the strengths of schedule and respect, deserved or not, of those in the power conferences.
WVU will have to build a reputation like that of Boise State, which is very difficult to do, and defeat respected non-conference opponents. If, that is, non-conference opponents will play the Mountaineers. With 12- to 16-team major conferences, schools may opt to scale back the difficulty of non-conference games.
Currently, WVU has marquee non-conference games set against Florida State for 2012-13. It has a similar setup with Michigan State for 2014-15. The Mountaineers play BYU in 2016. There's the extended series with Maryland, including an appearance at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore in 2013, that runs through 2017.
That's as far as WVU has scheduled out. One wonders how that aspect of the football program will be affected.
Likewise recruiting. If West Virginia doesn't land in one of the power conferences, how will it recruit against, say, Pitt in, say, western Pennsylvania?
Anyway, the hope in Morgantown is there are still opportunities out there for the Mountaineers. We are in a lull, but word is the wheels are still turning in regard to expansion/realignment.
WVU fans simply have to be patient and hope for the best. And, for now, enjoy Landau Eugene, watching the Mountaineers against LSU and the flip for the Gipper.
