West Virginia to the Big XII?
Nobody can call this a surprise. I have never quite understood why the Big XII would select Louisville–a relative newcomer to competitive football–over a school with the history of West Virginia. West Virginia has equivalent academics, an entire state fanbase with no real competition, good basketball, and football on a level to compete with anyone (except Syracuse, apparently).
The disappointing thing is that I am sure that Syracuse and Pitt would have loved to see West Virginia join Notre Dame in moving the ACC to 16 teams someday. While West Virginia’s academics are subpar, Notre Dame would make up for that. Plus, it is not hard to salivate over a conference division like this:
- North: BC, Pitt, Syracuse, West Virginia, ND, Virginia, Va Tech, and Maryland
- South: Duke, NC, Wake Forest, NC State, Clemson, Ga Tech, FSU, and Miami.
That surely would have made FSU and Clemson happy. A strong commitment to football. The single greatest threat to the ACC is either (a) the Big Ten wooing Maryland or Va Tech; or (b) the SEC wooing Florida State or Va Tech. Anything that can keep the football powers (historically, if not recently) happy is good for the entire conference. While Rutgers may have superior academics and UConn has superior basketball, it is West Virginia that is best suited to placate the football schools.
Of course, Notre Dame has not let out any suggestion that it is ready to give up treasured football independence. If they are even a few steps away from considering a conference affiliation for football, it is being done entirely behind the scenes. It sure does not seem imminent.
And… it would be naive to think that West Virginia to the Big XII would be permanent. As long as Texas and Oklahoma have wandering eyes, that conference will always be the least stable conference not named the Big East. So the ND/WVU dream scenario can always resume in 2018 or 2025 or whenever.
The Confidential 