BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

Right. Virginia, UNC, and Duke also don't want a school like West Virginia in their conference. All the members of the ACC rank pretty far above West Virginia academically.

Outside of geography, West Virginia is a pretty good fit for the Big 12, which isn't trying to sell the Charleston TV market, instead is trying to sell Mountaineers vs. Sooners or Mountaineers vs. Jayhawks. It would have been nice for WVU if Cincy and Louisville joined the Big 12 to put some teams in the general region, but it didn't happen so West Virginia either has to live with it or give up their TV money for the next 12 years to join a rebooted Conference USA.

 

So if West Virginia is such a terrible acquisition, why did the Big 12 go after them? Wasn't like they were the only available option and there's certainly no geographic or historical tie.

The Big 12 was NOT going to breakup. All the chatter about Texas and/or Oklahoma going to the Pac-12 was complete nonsense, as I wrote almost two years ago. It was simply leverage to get --- what else? --- more money out of the current league.

I'm with Mizzougrad on this one. College sports needs a true commissioner with enough power to make or prevent things from happening.

 

WVU was the best program that could promise in 2011 that it would play in the Big 12 in 2012.

The reason Louisville isn't in the Big 12 is because its lawyers balked when they were asked if they could get out of the Big East immediately. WVU knew the Big East's 27-month purgatory was punitive and assured the Big 12 as much.

And as much as it would have been a natural and competitive fit, WVU was never getting into the ACC. Say Louisville had gone to the Big 12 -- the ACC would have taken UConn over WVU in a heartbeat.

 

By holding out, Louisville ultimately ended up in a better spot for what it offers.

 

Uhhh... The NCAA never had that right.

 

I also think the rest of the schools did have any other options. Baylor, Texas Tech and Iowa State did have any other suitors.

 

As far back as the mid-1990s, when I was a freshman at WVU, there were discussions that WVU was angling to get away from the Big East and into the ACC. Twenty years and three BCS bowls later, that still hasn't happened.

 

So fine. W. Virginia is a piece of shit.

It still doesn't make sense geographically anymore than Dallas in the NFC East.

 

Boston College wonders what the fuss about geographic fit is about.

 

Last I checked, Boston was on the Atlantic coast.

 

:

 

Nobody is arguing that West Virginia and the Big 12 are a great geographic fit, the point is that geography got tossed to the side a long time ago and that's not changing so it's pointless to talk about West Virginia going to the ACC just because it borders Virginia.

And considering maps go both north-south and east-west, West Virginia isn't that far flung compared to other conferences. It's about a 12 hour drive to Kansas or Iowa State. Boston College is about 10 hours from UVa if you don't hit any traffic jams. Louisville is 15 from Miami.