MU88 Wrote:

Wilkie01 Wrote: The football schools have to split and form an all-sports conference or this will happen to the Big East football schools every year!

Come on. Salaries are by-product of attendance. Michigan averages what, 40,000 more fans per game than WVU. Multiply that by 7 home games and you have 280,000 more tickets sold per season. What do Michigan tickets cost? $25? That's $7,000,000 more per season. Penn State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Iowa all sell over 75,000 tickets per game. Even doormats like Minnesota and Inidiana sell between 35,000 and 50,000.

Sorry, splitting will not help the BE keep its coaches. You could argue that eventually, the schools in the BE may earn more tv money as an all sports conference, that may or may not be true. Although, during the last round of negotiations that wasn't true. However, the increase in money won't be significant enough to prevent a school like Michigan from cherry-picking the best coaches for almost any school in the country.

There are no $25 tickets at Louisville, now! Maybe in 1995!

Wilkie01 Wrote:Well, I live in SEC and Big 10 country. All there fans are making fun of how the Big East is set up. My son was living in Big 12 country and they feel the same way. And we all know how ACC fans feel about us. Next year is very dangerous year for BE football. WE had better go 5-0 on the bowls! God, I hope the WVA tram does not suffer a nuclear meltdown in their BCS Bowl game! We are still fighting for our collective football life as a conference.

I hate to say I told you so but I told you so. I just read what Ohio States fans are saying about our auto bid! Purdue fans are doing the same! We have to split and stabilize this conference as a 12 member all=sports conference!

I wish tickets were $25, try more like $40 and I am looking to pay a pretty penny next year for season tickets.

Wilkie01 Wrote:

Wilkie01 Wrote:Well, I live in SEC and Big 10 country. All there fans are making fun of how the Big East is set up. My son was living in Big 12 country and they feel the same way. And we all know how ACC fans feel about us. Next year is very dangerous year for BE football. WE had better go 5-0 on the bowls! God, I hope the WVA tram does not suffer a nuclear meltdown in their BCS Bowl game! We are still fighting for our collective football life as a conference.

I hate to say I told you so but I told you so. I just read what Ohio States fans are saying about our auto bid! Purdue fans are doing the same! We have to split and stabilize this conference as a 12 member all=sports conference!

Ohio State fans are the most arrogant fans in the world, their opinion means nothing. As for Purdue fans, they were saying a few months ago how much their program is far superior to Cincinnati's program, even right now. That tells you all you need to know about them. Big Ten arrogance isn't any different then SEC arrogance. They just hide behind being more "educated".

goodknightfl Wrote:It is more than just $$$$... when U are talking about Mich.. U are talking about 1 of 10 or so truly top jobs in college football. WV is a good job... Mich like USC, Oh state, Olk, Nebraska, Penn st., UF, Ala, Lsu.. are great jobs...

I wouldn't put LSU and Nebraska quite as "great" jobs. Especially since the only reason Miles didn't leave LSU was because of in-fighting in the Michigan administration. Penn State isn't necessarily a great job either, no one wants to follow Joe Paterno. Nebraska also isn't a great job, they're having trouble finding coaches who want that job. It's hard to recruit to Nebraska, former players even say that.

goodknightfl Wrote:It is more than just $$$$... when U are talking about Mich.. U are talking about 1 of 10 or so truly top jobs in college football. WV is a good job... Mich like USC, Oh state, Olk, Nebraska, Penn st., UF, Ala, Lsu.. are great jobs...

I would actually say Michigan is in a class of its own. Its probably the best job in North American Sports. USC and Florida do come close and the rest are a bit below those two.

Wilkie01 Wrote:

Wilkie01 Wrote:Well, I live in SEC and Big 10 country. All there fans are making fun of how the Big East is set up. My son was living in Big 12 country and they feel the same way. And we all know how ACC fans feel about us. Next year is very dangerous year for BE football. WE had better go 5-0 on the bowls! God, I hope the WVA tram does not suffer a nuclear meltdown in their BCS Bowl game! We are still fighting for our collective football life as a conference.

I hate to say I told you so but I told you so. I just read what Ohio States fans are saying about our auto bid! Purdue fans are doing the same! We have to split and stabilize this conference as a 12 member all=sports conference!

I can't help but echo your fears Wilkie. At what point and to what degree do the sentiments of the fans and posters reflect that of the inner workings of other BCS schools and their admins? We are still fighting for respect and this next years may be absolutely vital. With a new review period beginning, I don't feel we can have any slip-ups.

CatsClaw Wrote:Ohio State fans are the most arrogant fans in the world, their opinion means nothing. As for Purdue fans, they were saying a few months ago how much their program is far superior to Cincinnati's program, even right now. That tells you all you need to know about them. Big Ten arrogance isn't any different then SEC arrogance. They just hide behind being more "educated".

It is as much a matter of ignorance as arrogance for many of these types. They come from all schools and for whatever reason buy into the mantra of the "Big Least". You even see this quote in "respected" media sources. It is scary but I'm sure many poll voters, media type and other school administrators have the same attitude.

Giving them facts when comparing conferences makes no difference. They have a pre-conceived notion that the BE is not worthy. The BE may not be the equal of some of these other conferences but certainly are not that far behind in team quality and does not need to worry about their BCS autobid.

The bottom line is that the BE just needs to keep winning. It takes time to overcome ignorance and hate.

CatsClaw Wrote:

goodknightfl Wrote:It is more than just $$$$... when U are talking about Mich.. U are talking about 1 of 10 or so truly top jobs in college football. WV is a good job... Mich like USC, Oh state, Olk, Nebraska, Penn st., UF, Ala, Lsu.. are great jobs...

I wouldn't put LSU and Nebraska quite as "great" jobs. Especially since the only reason Miles didn't leave LSU was because of in-fighting in the Michigan administration. Penn State isn't necessarily a great job either, no one wants to follow Joe Paterno. Nebraska also isn't a great job, they're having trouble finding coaches who want that job. It's hard to recruit to Nebraska, former players even say that.

The point of my statement is U can have 100 fans of college football put down the top 10 programs in the country.. and 90% of them will have at least 7 or 8 of the same names in there.. the other 3 spots will be filled from a pool of about 10.. WV is a good job.. Louisville is a good job.. but very few will have them in that top 10 group... most will have Oh state, Mich, USC, UF, Penn state, olk. there is a clear top tier of 15 schools that will fill those 10 spots.. then there is another group of 10 or so just below them.. then there is a 3rd group of 15 to 20 that are top notch jobs but not part of the elite ... WV is in that group..

WVU out of the top 25 coaching jobs? I don't think think so. At this point I'd think they'd be in the 15 range. Louisville and WVU are certainly in that 15-25 group. WVU was well on its way to being one of those teams that a few might put in as top ten. The coaching hire and the next 5 years will answer that question.

Michigan certainly is a top program and RR must have wanted a challenge. He will be in the fire at Michigan. But...if he succeeds they will build statues. It would have been easier in regards to job security for him to stay and continue to build a program like Schiano is doing at Rutgers. It is a shame that we will never know if he could take it up a notch and keep building at WVU. As a WVU fan what irritates me the most about RR leaving is that it leaves me the impression that RR thought that perhaps WVU has gone as far as they can go. I am still hopeful that they can gain that level where a national championship is a reasonable goal.

WVU's current problem is that there are not too many top coaching choices out there.