Quote:
Originally Posted by ChiTown
West Virginia top Big 12 candidate
By Kirk Bohls | Sunday, October 23, 2011, 01:44 PM
Two high-level Big 12 school administrators said on Sunday the conference expects Missouri to leave and will act quickly to replace the Tigers, focusing primarily on West Virginia with Louisville as a strong second candidate.
“I think that’s accurate,” one school official told the American-Statesman. “I’d say West Virginia is the leader in the clubhouse. I think we’ll come out better than before. I’d rather be with someone who wants to be with our conference than anybody who doesn’t.”
Asked why the Big 12 would be upgraded, the official said, “West Virginia has better football than Missouri, better basketball than Missouri, a better budget than Missouri and more passion among its fans than Missouri. They’re better, anyway you turn ‘em. The travel’s not good (to Morgantown, W. Va) but that’s it.”
He added there is support for Louisville, but said a lagging football program hurts its appeal.
The well-placed administrator said Missouri would probably have to remain in the Big 12 next school year because it’s getting so late in the process to find a replacement quickly and an early Missouri exit could lead to financial liability for that school.
The Big 12 board of directors meet on Monday to discuss conference membership. Missouri’s board of curators on Friday authorized its chancellor, Brady Deaton, to negotiate and execute contracts with other conferences interested in the school.
A second Big 12 school official told the Statesman he prefers Louisville because of its closer proximity and said travel to West Virginia would make for too big a burden on the athletes.
“The only place where there’s an advantage for West Virginia is better football,” the second official said. “Their academics is not as strong. If there’s any thought about what’s best for the student-athlete, we’ll go with Louisville.”
Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione told reporters on Saturday that “our intent would be to move as quickly as we could. There may be other issues that hinder our ability to move as fast as we want.”
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/conte...irginia_t.html |
Love the two bolded statements above.
The first one: West Virginia has had a pretty easy road in the Big East over the past decade. I think you could put a number of Big 12 teams (Missouri, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, obviously Texas and Oklahoma, Nebraska) in that league over the past 10 years, and they'd do just as well as West Virginia (which fell off considerably after losing Rich Rodriguez and Pat White). I would have loved Missouri to be playing in that league in 2007. It would have been undefeated and in the national title game.
So I don't place much stock in the whole "West Virginia is better than Mizzou because it has been to the BCS."
Missouri and West Virginia have nearly identical athletic budgets (around $56 million). West Virginia is filling its stadium this year (with a new, exciting coach, mind you) at 92 percent of capacity. Right around what Missouri does (though they'd be around 95 percent if the GA hill seats were not counted). So those statements are also unfounded speculation.
West Virginia is better at basketball, I won't dispute that. But that's not what is driving the bus on this issue (in fact, the fact that this comment was included makes me wonder if, perhaps, it was a KU official who said this).
On the second statement...
Again, Missouri probably would have won the Big East in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010 (and been right there in 2003, when WVU won it despite going 8-5, and 2009).
Also, does anyone else find it ironic that the official made a grammatical error in his comment about academics? "academics is"
