Source: WVU heading to Big XII
More conference drama.
http://twitter.com/BryanDFischer/statuses/128852785985884162
"RT @TeddyGreenstein: Source just confirmed: West Virginia headed to B12. Big East weakened again."
So apparently WVU is replacing Mizzou, who's out.
West Virginia to Big 12 w/in 24-48 hours after Missouri withdraws from Big 12, sources tell @CBSSports bit.ly/vPPq77
October 25th, 2011 at 11:28 AM ^
strengthens them sports-wise, and weakens them academically. about a wash, IMO.
October 25th, 2011 at 11:29 AM ^
Weakens them by a lot in terms of footprint/viewership. They lose St. Louis and half of KC, they gain...Charleston? What is the biggest city in West Virginia?
October 25th, 2011 at 11:37 AM ^
WVU actually getsa good chunk of the Pittsburgh and even some of the DC market. I know, really surprising.
October 25th, 2011 at 11:40 AM ^
Well, a minority slice of Pittsburgh and DC still results in a net loss.
October 25th, 2011 at 11:46 AM ^
Other than ND what teams are out there that would bring a good number of TV's? Not many at all. No one from the SEC, Big 10, Pac-12 and the ACC is going to leave for the Big 12. The Big 12 is left to pillage the Big East and the mid-major conferences.
October 25th, 2011 at 11:45 AM ^
with Va Tech, MD and Georgetown (for bball)? Plus DC is pretty diverse college wide, because of its economy.
October 25th, 2011 at 11:50 AM ^
Not much. WVU doesn't pull anymore than any other mid-size college football team that has had a decent recent history. I see more Michigan State fans here than West Virginia fans. And that says something.
October 25th, 2011 at 11:57 AM ^
DC? I've never seen a WVU fan here... I see more WVU fans (all janitors though, seriously) in Blacksburg (Virginia Tech) than up in northern VA.
October 25th, 2011 at 2:12 PM ^
October 25th, 2011 at 1:26 PM ^
Maryland doesn't get much coverage in the DC market. There was a piece in the Post about rating DC as a sports town. The talk on the drive-home sports show was a discussion of DC's pro fandom vs. other Eastern cities. In a comparison to Detroit Czaban mentioned briefly college football there, but that was it. And that's the point. College football is far removed from the conscious of the town. Sure the ABC affiliate dutifully shows whatever lame ACC game is in the rotation, but I'll bet it wishes it could run some infomercial instead. DC gets you nothing.
Oh, and Pittsburgh is tiny.
October 25th, 2011 at 2:26 PM ^
Baltimore, Philly, NYC, and Boston aren't big college football towns, either. But, they are so populated, they will still get a decent number of viewers and if you happen to have a big year, who knows. Interestingly enough, from the college standpoint, DC is may be a bigger sports town than the other four due to having crappy pro teams and demographics. It is a pretty fickle pro-sports town depending on success, outside of the Redskins.
October 25th, 2011 at 11:44 AM ^
Agree WVU doesn't exactly add to many TV's but at this point I think the Big 12 is just trying to stay afloat. With all the uncertainty about the Big 12 over the last year, I doubt they have to many teams knocking on their door to come to the Big 12. They kind of have to take what they can get.
WVU's academics are pretty bad but athleticly they aren't bad in either football or basketball.
October 25th, 2011 at 12:20 PM ^
Is footprint that important if they don't plan on having their own network?
October 25th, 2011 at 12:31 PM ^
Yes, B/C of the TV contracts with the networks. Bigger Market, Bigger Dollars.
October 25th, 2011 at 1:40 PM ^
They have 4 teams in the second largest state in the country
I don't think TV contracts hinged on having Missouri, especially since the St. Louis and KC markets are both largely split between Mizzou and Illinois/Kansas
October 25th, 2011 at 3:33 PM ^
Helping local purveyors of Red Bull on game days.
October 25th, 2011 at 11:29 AM ^
I don't even know who is in the Big 12 anymore. Texas, Baylor, Tech, Oklahoma, OSU, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, TCU in 2012, WVU in 2012...?
October 25th, 2011 at 1:18 PM ^
invite Houston, Rice, and SMU and pretend it's the old Southwestern Conference? Only difference really would be losing A+M and Arkansas to the SEC while gaining the Oklahoma schools and a few others.
October 25th, 2011 at 1:36 PM ^
October 25th, 2011 at 1:39 PM ^
Aren't they really already independent? I mean, what's really the difference between being independent and having a conference that you pretty much control? Texas doesn't have the same incentives for going independent as ND does. ND is all about playing a "national" schedule and playing in front of their fan bases all across the country. Texas doesn't have the same concerns. Sure they have alumni/fans everywhere, but their base is centrally located. The only reason to go independent is to make more money. If they can make lots of money through LHN without having to give up the comforts of a conference, why would they do anything differently?
I also think that you have it backward. The stronger LHN gets, the less likely they are to move to another conference. Nobody wants to deal with Texas and the LHN now, what incentive to people have to deal with them if the LHN is stronger making Texas stronger and more stubborn?
Texas is in this conference until someone else kills it.
October 25th, 2011 at 2:20 PM ^
October 25th, 2011 at 2:40 PM ^
First, take out Louisville and add TCU.
Second, they've basically traded Texas A&M, two of Missouri/Nebraska/Colorado for TCU, WVU, and whoever they would have been missing from Kansas, Kansas St. and Iowa St. Some years that could be worse than where they were at two years ago, other years it could be fine or even better. Texas can and will still schedule a real OOC game. Seems like a fine schedule to me.
If they eventually go to 12, Texas will be looking at practically the same intra-division match-ups and slightly weaker inter-division opponents. I don't see the big deal. And if they go back down to 8 conference games, and are really worried about schedule strength, they could try and schedule two real OOC opponents per year.
I think it's tougher than you imply to fill an independent schedule. How many big schools schedule a real OOC opponent anymore? How many would want to line up Texas on a regular basis? They could probably get A&M and Oklahoma on a yearly basis, and maybe Notre Dame fairly regularly. But then you're scrambling to fill up the rest of your schedule. Notre Dame even has to enter a scheduling agreement (with the Big East) to get to a reasonable schedule, and they have 6 or 7 built in "rivalry" games. I think Texas would struggle to do any better than their current scheduling opportunities as an independent.
October 25th, 2011 at 5:52 PM ^
October 25th, 2011 at 11:33 AM ^
the Skoal Conference
October 25th, 2011 at 12:33 PM ^
Long Cut, Pouches, Bandits or Snuff? Mint, Straight, Wintergreen or Cherry?
October 25th, 2011 at 11:34 AM ^
And now UConn is hung out to dry in the Big East. They need to move to the ACC asap.
October 25th, 2011 at 11:39 AM ^
I'm not sure the ACC wants UConn. Pitt and Syracuse made sense because they are big basketball schools with a solid football programs with tradition. UConn is as good of a bball program as those two, and lacking greatly in football. And they don't bring a dynamite lax team like Syracuse does.
October 25th, 2011 at 1:32 PM ^
UConn wants the ACC like Mizzou wanted the Big Ten, but I think the ACC sees tham as a 16th team rather than a 15th.
October 25th, 2011 at 11:40 AM ^
Their piss-fuckery of an offense will never work in the Big XII Conference.
Too many midgets racing around with misdirections and hamshammery for my liking. I say! Gimmickery and trickery will get you no where, fine sirs.
Good day!
October 25th, 2011 at 11:56 AM ^
they don't run RR's offense in WV anymore. They hired Dana Holgerson who was Oklahoma State's offensive coordinator.
October 25th, 2011 at 12:12 PM ^
Thanks for the update, chap!
October 25th, 2011 at 1:48 PM ^
They beat Georgia in the sugar bowl with that pissery offense
October 25th, 2011 at 5:01 PM ^
The sun even shines on a dogs ass once in a while.
October 25th, 2011 at 11:40 AM ^
Well WVU had to do something, but they better pray that realignment stops at 5 conferences. The Big East is clearly dead and it looks like the B12 is the new zombie conference with a weird geographic footprint that is lurching forward.
We're pretty much at the point where only UT, OU, and ND are the football powers that lack a home in one of the 4 stable conferences. A little more movement and two sixteen and two fourteen team conferences could split off from the rest of NCAA D1.
October 25th, 2011 at 12:43 PM ^
as a major conference just ceased to exist. It will be an absolute crime if they retain an auto BCS bid. I would take the Mountain West any day now in terms of talent over the Big East. Beetter yet, keep 5 conferences with auto bids and let the highest ranked school of the rest (currently Boise) get an auto-bid.
October 25th, 2011 at 11:41 AM ^
Notre Dames fault.
October 25th, 2011 at 12:37 PM ^
October 25th, 2011 at 11:42 AM ^
I like this move a lot. West Virginia just got a pretty decent schedule and Texas/OU got a little more competition compared to what Mizzou usually brought in year to year. Was thinking about if WVU loses a rivalry game but isn't their only rival Marshall?
October 25th, 2011 at 11:46 AM ^
The Backyard Brawl is their big game.
October 25th, 2011 at 11:47 AM ^
Pitt's their big rival.
October 25th, 2011 at 11:49 AM ^
You're forgetting about Pitt. WVU's big rival in the Big East was Pitt. Marshall is an in-state rival that they don't play annually anymore.
October 25th, 2011 at 11:53 AM ^
I'm not sure West Virginia fans are going to enjoy playing a pretty decent schedule. They have gotten a little too used to winning eight or nine games a year. On the flipside, they can start truly cupcaking out their schedule like (most of) the rest of the Big 12 does.
October 25th, 2011 at 12:00 PM ^
October 25th, 2011 at 12:44 PM ^
Yep, pretty much. I just don't think WVU can be accused as much of it this past year, what with playing LSU. Not trying to be a conference superior-type.
October 25th, 2011 at 2:16 PM ^
sometimes it's just more. TCU, Utah, Boise, BYU, Air Force.... any one of those schools would've made more sense for the Big12. Even another Big East school like Cincy would''ve been a better geographic fit and a bigger market/recruiting territory to open up.
October 25th, 2011 at 11:47 AM ^
Pitt is thier big rivalry.
This is way off on the geography.
October 25th, 2011 at 1:20 PM ^
will never be the same, but we'll still have Thursday nights, right? RIGHT?!!
October 25th, 2011 at 11:58 AM ^
Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and UConn with Oklahoma, Texas and Oklahoma State. To say nothing of TCU/Baylor/Kansas State.
Me thinks we'll be finding out just how terrible the Big East really is when a moderately succesfull Big East school gets pounded in their first year in the Big 12.
October 25th, 2011 at 11:59 AM ^
the Big East is dead as a doornail if this happens.
WVU sure has fallen though...at the beginning of the year, they were the front funner to join the SEC.
And I am still unconvinced that long run the Big 12 survives either. Going from one sinking ship to another.