(02-25-2013 07:56 AM)Vewb1 Wrote: After watching the 13-13 WVU Mountaineers lose to Oklahoma State at home, one has to wonder what is going on. ESPN reported that the school travel 32K miles to date for basketball games. The costs are mounting. Also, after talking with two WVU supporters, both are concerned that football will fall off dramatically this year. It could be a long, long year in 2013 for WVU. So the realignment question returns, was this best for WVU?
People say things like this all the time but really, what alternative did WVU have? Their only alternative would have been to stay in the Aresco League and hope for the best. How's that strategy working out for Cincinnati?
Look, WVU would obviously rather be in the ACC playing against all of their former rivals as well as some of their aspirational rivals. Some of their fans deny that fact but who are they kidding?
Why do you think almost all of these rumors about the demise of the ACC/Pitt pop up out of the Mountain State? This is DEFINITELY psycho ex-girlfriend bullschitt and anyone who doesn't see that simply doesn't want to see it.
It is not remotely coincidental that in almost all of these rumors, Pitt and the ACC - WVU's two arch enemies - end up dead in a ditch somewhere along the side of the road while WVU and the B12 end up profiting beyond their wildest dreams. That's how most folk stories go.
With that in mind, the rumor part has never surprised me. Their motives are incredibly transparent. What has long surprised me is that people are gullible enough to continue to buy into them? Again though, the people who seem to push them the hardest tend to be those with the largest ax to grind and/or the most to gain. College athletics is a lot like most other forms of politics in that way.
The shame of it from my standpoint is that with Maryland going to the B1G, had WVU waited a year - or if the timing had been better - they, not Louisville, would almost certainly be in the ACC.
Unfortunately, it didn't work out so now they're in a league in which they are the clear outlier both geographically and culturally. However, in fairness, I should also point out that they were something of a cultural outlier in the Big East too so they're relatively used to it. Trust me when I tell you that as someone who has lived all over the country - including West Virginia - that state is unlike any other I have ever encountered. As such, they would be a cultural outlier in any league - even the SEC.
Still, I continue to come back to the question, what other choice did the Mountaineer brass have but to accept the B12's offer for league membership? Had they turned that down, they would have been destroyed by everyone and their leadership all would have been forced to resign.
To me, the real killer for WVU was the B12's decision to not expand. That hesitation allowed the ACC to snatch up Louisville after that league lost Maryland. That basically took away WVU's last best chance at having a legitimate competitive/geographic rivalry within their new league. Now, the ACC almost has to crumble or they are completely hosed and they know it. So, in other words I guess what I'm saying is prepare for more rumors coming out of By Gawd that all center around the imminent demise of the ACC and Pitt. That's because if the ACC survives in or near its current state, WVU will become marginalized.
This stuff is not exactly rocket science.