Post by elp525 on Oct 7, 2011 5:11:14 GMT -5
Friday October 7, 2011
by Jack Bogaczyk
Charleston Daily Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The silence from West Virginia University after the latest conference realignment bomb was dropped on the Big East is telling.
In this case, silence isn't golden. There really isn't much Athletic Director Oliver Luck can say. He already has said his alma mater will remain what it is:
"We are, and will remain, a national player in college athletics."
However, it appears that that's testing optimism by the day.
As Coach Dana Holgrosen tries to rally the Mountaineer fan base with tough talk, what's happening around a program that has
averaged 10 wins over the past six seasons is anything but
encouraging.
The backdoor decision by TCU to bolt a Big East future to join the Big 12 puts a hole in a lot more than the Mountaineers' home football schedule next season.
Without TCU, Big East football is in the ICU.
Following the impending moves of Syracuse and Pitt to the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Horned Frogs' decision almost surely jeopardizes the Big East as a Bowl Championship Series automatic-qualifying conference in the next round of computations.
For WVU, the options remain the same:
It can stay in a Big East that will have to rebuild a football side as much as it did when Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College left in 2003 and '04. Where the Big East then landed Louisville, Cincinnati and USF for football, this time it's looking at some combination of Navy, Temple, UCF, East Carolina and Villanova as possibles.
WVU will be the marquee football program, especially with the Frogs picking geography over uncertainty. As a football league, the Big East will play very good basketball still ... and Marquette, DePaul, Seton Hall, St. John's, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Villanova and Providence are just fine.
The Mountaineers can hope the Big 12 decides it really needs 12 members again, and TCU's new league comes calling.
It can keep its fingers crossed that the Southeastern Conference doesn't take Missouri - after some Mizzou official said the SEC is "all that's left" - and opts for the Mountaineers.
Yes, it's as bad as it looks.
The Big East, on the football side, is crumbling by the day, it seems.
Temple, once booted for being weak on the field and in the seats, may become a savior of sorts soon.
That's how dire it is.
Privately, the folks at WVU seem to think Missouri is headed to the SEC. If the Tigers do that, the Big 12 is at nine (including TCU), and an expansion to 10 will likely bring in only BYU. Some think Boise State is then next in line.
If the league goes to 12, West Virginia has a good shot at getting an invite. That's obviously the Mountaineers' best option right now ... but there's no guarantee that will materialize.
You can be sure that WVU, Luck and President Jim Clements are trying with all their might. They're not sequestered in their offices, wringing their hands. Everyone everywhere who needs to know what WVU has been, is and can be in this beauty contest and poker game has all of the information they need.
They've talked to the right people, at all levels, presidential, athletic director, governing boards. They've campaigned, just not publicly, which is wise. You have seen how well that worked for Connecticut with the ACC, right?
The Huskies have toned things down a bit, I'd say:
"Conference realignment continues to be a very fluid situation as we have seen developments and new rumors nearly every day," UConn President Susan Herbst said in a Thursday statement. "It is important that none of us here at UConn become too anxious over this situation.
"We will continue to monitor the national landscape and be in communication with officials from other schools and leaders from around the country. UConn has always competed at the high level of collegiate athletics and will continue to do so in the future."
It's a statement that says nothing everyone didn't already know. It doesn't make anyone among the Big Easters feel any better or worse, as they remain the pinata among the BCS leagues.
It doesn't do much good to comment when whatever you say won't say much or make anyone feel better - other than the fact WVU, if it remains in the Big East, would share in the exit fees of $5 million apiece due from the three departing members.
Anything Luck might say would just appear like he's going out for ice on the Titanic.
Yes, at the moment for WVU, it's as bad as it looks.
by Jack Bogaczyk
Charleston Daily Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The silence from West Virginia University after the latest conference realignment bomb was dropped on the Big East is telling.
In this case, silence isn't golden. There really isn't much Athletic Director Oliver Luck can say. He already has said his alma mater will remain what it is:
"We are, and will remain, a national player in college athletics."
However, it appears that that's testing optimism by the day.
As Coach Dana Holgrosen tries to rally the Mountaineer fan base with tough talk, what's happening around a program that has
averaged 10 wins over the past six seasons is anything but
encouraging.
The backdoor decision by TCU to bolt a Big East future to join the Big 12 puts a hole in a lot more than the Mountaineers' home football schedule next season.
Without TCU, Big East football is in the ICU.
Following the impending moves of Syracuse and Pitt to the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Horned Frogs' decision almost surely jeopardizes the Big East as a Bowl Championship Series automatic-qualifying conference in the next round of computations.
For WVU, the options remain the same:
It can stay in a Big East that will have to rebuild a football side as much as it did when Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College left in 2003 and '04. Where the Big East then landed Louisville, Cincinnati and USF for football, this time it's looking at some combination of Navy, Temple, UCF, East Carolina and Villanova as possibles.
WVU will be the marquee football program, especially with the Frogs picking geography over uncertainty. As a football league, the Big East will play very good basketball still ... and Marquette, DePaul, Seton Hall, St. John's, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Villanova and Providence are just fine.
The Mountaineers can hope the Big 12 decides it really needs 12 members again, and TCU's new league comes calling.
It can keep its fingers crossed that the Southeastern Conference doesn't take Missouri - after some Mizzou official said the SEC is "all that's left" - and opts for the Mountaineers.
Yes, it's as bad as it looks.
The Big East, on the football side, is crumbling by the day, it seems.
Temple, once booted for being weak on the field and in the seats, may become a savior of sorts soon.
That's how dire it is.
Privately, the folks at WVU seem to think Missouri is headed to the SEC. If the Tigers do that, the Big 12 is at nine (including TCU), and an expansion to 10 will likely bring in only BYU. Some think Boise State is then next in line.
If the league goes to 12, West Virginia has a good shot at getting an invite. That's obviously the Mountaineers' best option right now ... but there's no guarantee that will materialize.
You can be sure that WVU, Luck and President Jim Clements are trying with all their might. They're not sequestered in their offices, wringing their hands. Everyone everywhere who needs to know what WVU has been, is and can be in this beauty contest and poker game has all of the information they need.
They've talked to the right people, at all levels, presidential, athletic director, governing boards. They've campaigned, just not publicly, which is wise. You have seen how well that worked for Connecticut with the ACC, right?
The Huskies have toned things down a bit, I'd say:
"Conference realignment continues to be a very fluid situation as we have seen developments and new rumors nearly every day," UConn President Susan Herbst said in a Thursday statement. "It is important that none of us here at UConn become too anxious over this situation.
"We will continue to monitor the national landscape and be in communication with officials from other schools and leaders from around the country. UConn has always competed at the high level of collegiate athletics and will continue to do so in the future."
It's a statement that says nothing everyone didn't already know. It doesn't make anyone among the Big Easters feel any better or worse, as they remain the pinata among the BCS leagues.
It doesn't do much good to comment when whatever you say won't say much or make anyone feel better - other than the fact WVU, if it remains in the Big East, would share in the exit fees of $5 million apiece due from the three departing members.
Anything Luck might say would just appear like he's going out for ice on the Titanic.
Yes, at the moment for WVU, it's as bad as it looks.
