West Virginia University football fans can breathe a sigh of relief now that the prolonged legal battle over which league the Mountaineers will play in this fall has finally been resolved. Football, after all, should be played on the gridiron, and not in the courts.
Now that the dust has finally settled, we know that the Mountaineers will officially become a member of the Big 12 in July — just in time for the fall football season. But securing the early release from the combative Big East has apparently come at a hefty price. In fact, a person familiar with the agreement told the Associated Press Tuesday the settlement totaled $20 million but he did not know how much money would come from the university and how much the Big 12 may contribute. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because financial terms were not announced with the agreement.
The whole debacle led to a delay in the release of the official Big 12 schedule, and left loyal Mountaineer fans wondering if their 2012 Orange Bowl champs would be forced to spend another year in a league they were attempting to leave.
The uncertainty has, fortunately, been resolved. The Mountaineers are heading to the Big 12, and we believe this is a good move for WVU. The Big 12 is a league that WVU Coach Dana Holgersen is already very familiar with and the move is a chance for the Mountaineers to shine in a strong conference with top-notch talent.
The new WVU schedule already sounds intriguing. Home matches in Morgantown include showdowns with Oklahoma, Kansas, TCU, Kansas State and Baylor. And the Mountaineers will hit the road to battle Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Iowa State. Non-conference games include the Friends of Coal Bowl with Marshall University, long-time regional rival Maryland and James Madison.
Athletic Director Oliver Luck said the new relationship puts WVU among peers that are also large, public, flagship institutions for their respective states and have strong academic and research programs. Athletically, he said it is a “challenging and competitive” group populated by schools with “tremendous legacies, passionate fan bases.” That sounds a lot like WVU.
The university also stands to make more money — about $18 million to $19 million in television payouts — in the Big 12. That’s about double what the university got from the Big East.
Will the move to the Big 12 be easy? Absolutely not. It’s a step up — a big step up — in competition for the Mountaineers. But under Holgerson, the Mountaineers appear to be heading in the right direction. After all, their 70-33 victory over Clemson at the Orange Bowl shattered countless Bowl Championship Series records.
If the Mountaineers can continue to play like they did at the Orange Bowl they could prove to be a real force to be reckoned with in the Big 12.
Good-bye Big East. It was good while it lasted. Hello Big 12. We are glad to see this long-awaited move is finally official.
College football shouldn’t be played out in a courtroom. And WVU certainly deserves better than that.
Editorials
February 16, 2012
Big 12 bound WVU moving on to bigger, better games
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