Biggest winners, losers five years after realignment hell broke loose -- WVU listed...

[Vernon]

Biggest winners, losers five years after realignment hell broke loose

Five years ago this week, college athletics lost its mind. Or at least it seemed that way in the moment.

On June 10, 2010, Colorado left the Big 12 for the Pac-12 and Boise Statejoined the Mountain West. The next day, Nebraska officially accepted a Big Ten invitation. And all the while, the entire industry waited for one school,Texas, to decide whether it would follow through on a stunning development that would radically transform one conference, the Pac-10, while rendering another, the Big 12, extinct.

Finally, on the morning of June 14, word came that Texas had decided at the 11th hour to stay put, halting the expected exodus of four other Big 12 schools. College sports' conference missile crisis ground to a halt, but the game of musical chairs it touched off would continue for several years. The industry has finally stabilized itself again only now.

Today, 43 FBS schools -- 33.6 percent of the current membership -- compete in a different conference than they did five years ago. Along the way, one league (the WAC) died, while another (the former Big East) lost its name (it's now the American Athletic Conference) and its privileged postseason status. All 10 remaining conferences include at least one team they did not claim in 2010.

More: http://www.foxsports.com/college-fo...rs-sec-big-12-pac-12-realignment-chaos-061115

WVU mention:

3) West Virginia. By late 2011, then-AD Oliver Luck knew he had to get WVU out of the Big East, but landing an invite from the SEC or ACC proved unrealistic. Instead, the school began a clunky marriage with the Big 12, where it's nowhere near any of the other members. The Mountaineers, which went to three BCS bowls their last six years in the Big East, have gone 16-18 in four seasons of Big 12 play, with coach Dana Holgorsen running a similar Air Raid offense as half the league but without the same recruiting benefit of having the state of Texas in its backyard.

 

[Bubbamanwv]

Let's check this poll after a couple more years and I would bet it will be different for us-plus no mention of monetary benefit which we need to compete at that level-not like we had a choice at the time![WVU]

 

[Nipsy Hussl]

Let's check this poll after a couple more years and I would bet it will be different for us-plus no mention of monetary benefit which we need to compete at that level-not like we had a choice at the time![WVU]

West Virginia = NCAA's Kardashians

"but the money is good........"

 

[KeatonsCorner]

West Virginia = NCAA's Kardashians

"but the money is good........"

Guess that would make Penn St = NCAA's Duggers then, huh?

 

[Vernon]

Guess that would make Penn St = NCAA's Duggers then, huh?

Ouch.

 

[wbgvwbgv]

Biggest winners, losers five years after realignment hell broke loose

Five years ago this week, college athletics lost its mind. Or at least it seemed that way in the moment.

On June 10, 2010, Colorado left the Big 12 for the Pac-12 and Boise Statejoined the Mountain West. The next day, Nebraska officially accepted a Big Ten invitation. And all the while, the entire industry waited for one school,Texas, to decide whether it would follow through on a stunning development that would radically transform one conference, the Pac-10, while rendering another, the Big 12, extinct.

Finally, on the morning of June 14, word came that Texas had decided at the 11th hour to stay put, halting the expected exodus of four other Big 12 schools. College sports' conference missile crisis ground to a halt, but the game of musical chairs it touched off would continue for several years. The industry has finally stabilized itself again only now.

Today, 43 FBS schools -- 33.6 percent of the current membership -- compete in a different conference than they did five years ago. Along the way, one league (the WAC) died, while another (the former Big East) lost its name (it's now the American Athletic Conference) and its privileged postseason status. All 10 remaining conferences include at least one team they did not claim in 2010.

More: http://www.foxsports.com/college-fo...rs-sec-big-12-pac-12-realignment-chaos-061115

WVU mention:

3) West Virginia. By late 2011, then-AD Oliver Luck knew he had to get WVU out of the Big East, but landing an invite from the SEC or ACC proved unrealistic. Instead, the school began a clunky marriage with the Big 12, where it's nowhere near any of the other members. The Mountaineers, which went to three BCS bowls their last six years in the Big East, have gone 16-18 in four seasons of Big 12 play, with coach Dana Holgorsen running a similar Air Raid offense as half the league but without the same recruiting benefit of having the state of Texas in its backyard.

Mandel is clueless as usual. WVU finally gets into a power conference with great schools, fan support, exposure, money, and stability, and Mandel doesn't think it was a good move for our school. Pitt has all of the things being touted by Mandel and their athletic department is now on life support. IMO, the Big 12 was a marriage made in heaven and WVU is a big winner in realignment. The competition is as good as it gets, and the fact that it is so much better than the Big East is another positive.

 

[LowFatMilk]

I wouldn't consider WVU an expansion loser....ANY team that moved to ANY Power 5 conference has to be considered on the plus side of expansion.

I suppose you could argue (and we have) that we ended up in the the fourth preferred conference and that's somehow a negative.....but that would be like telling a neighbor that just won thirty million in the lottery that he's really a loser because Lucky Johnson from across town once won fifty million.

 

[HurdyGurdyEer]

Hilarious.

 

[skygusty]

What a moron. He thinks we should have stayed in the American Conference where we would now be number 1 on his list of biggest losers ahead of Cincinnati and Connecticut instead of Number 3. You can't fix stupid.

 

[topdecktiger]

What a moron. He thinks we should have stayed in the American Conference where we would now be number 1 on his list of biggest losers ahead of Cincinnati and Connecticut instead of Number 3. You can't fix stupid.

Except he didn't say that.

 

[wbgvwbgv]

What Mandel didn't say was WVU had some of the biggest games in college football played in Morgantown last year ( include ESPN college gameday ). He forgot to mention that WVU also made the Sweet 16 in basketball and had a great game during the regular season over Kansas. He probably isn't aware that the athletic department generated a 4 million dollar profit last year and increased revenues close to $80 million. And having just about every football & basketball game on TV isn't that important to him. WVU also built a new baseball park and had some of the top teams in the country play here. Mandel has always taken potshots at WVU especially when we were stuck in the Big East.

Considering that he is a Big 10 Northwestern snob, any surprise that he picked Rutgers and Maryland and the biggest winners in realignment. LOL. Always got to consider the source.

 

[3xWVUenginEER]

What Mandel didn't say was WVU had some of the biggest games in college football played in Morgantown last year ( include ESPN college gameday ). He forgot to mention that WVU also made the Sweet 16 in basketball and had a great game during the regular season over Kansas. He probably isn't aware that the athletic department generated a 4 million dollar profit last year and increased revenues close to $80 million. And having just about every football & basketball game on TV isn't that important to him. WVU also built a new baseball park and had some of the top teams in the country play here. Mandel has always taken potshots at WVU especially when we were stuck in the Big East.

Considering that he is a Big 10 Northwestern snob, any surprise that he picked Rutgers and Maryland and the biggest winners in realignment. LOL. Always got to consider the source.

A very intelligent response to a very narrow view of WVU in the Big XII. If being a member of the Big XII makes WVU a loser in the expansion and conference turnover / moving, I only wish we'd have been a loser 20+ years back.

The SEC would have been a better move by only the razor thinnest of margins due to geography for some people hung up on it.. Honestly though I like Big XII round robin play over Mega conference divisions that the SEC has.


The ACC is a 90s version of the Big East plus FSU with ND being the growing cancer that will be the death nail there too. And no I don't miss Pitt, BC, Cuse, or Louisville.

 

[GoWVU]

I can see how many people didn't actually read the link. The columnist explicitly stated it was a football-only viewpoint.

His math skills are a bit suspect, though. WVU football is 18-20 in three seasons since joining the Big 12, not 16-18 in four seasons.

 

[wbgvwbgv]

Mandel can explicitly state whatever he wants and the rest of us can comment as we want on the whole picture of realignment which involves mores than just football.

You need no other proof of how difficult it is to transition from a conference full of patsies to one of the five power conference than to look at WVU's record. IMO, WVU is much better off competing against schools like Texas & Oklahoma rather than schools like UConn and Cincinnati.

Even a conference championship in the Big East Conference wasn't much of an accomplishment. Those who want a great record every year obtained by playing an embarrassingly weak schedule should just become Marshall fans.

 

[skygusty]

Except he didn't say that.

No, he didn't, you are correct. A gold star for you sir. I am still free to draw inferences though, and I choose to do so. I see mostly good things stemming from our membership in the Big12 and wouldn't put us on the biggest loser list at all. Actually, you were the one who long ago said we should be content to be a big fish in a little pond and stay in the Big East. You insisted that we were foolish to pursue SEC membership, and that we should be content to stay in the Big East. If you had been in charge or our fortunes we would be losers and fools indeed.

 

[topdecktiger]

No, he didn't, you are correct. A gold star for you sir. I am still free to draw inferences though, and I choose to do so. I see mostly good things stemming from our membership in the Big12 and wouldn't put us on the biggest loser list at all. Actually, you were the one who long ago said we should be content to be a big fish in a little pond and stay in the Big East. You insisted that we were foolish to pursue SEC membership, and that we should be content to stay in the Big East. If you had been in charge or our fortunes we would be losers and fools indeed.

And your inferences would be wrong. The author didn't come close to suggesting West Virginia should have stayed in the Big East. There is absolutely nothing in his article that you could use to justify that assertion.

I have never said West Virginia was "foolish" to pursue SEC membership, and I never said West Virginia should have stayed in the Big East. Never at all. That's simply a fabrication on your part.

In fact, I've never said West Virginia should have done anything. My comments relating to expansion were that Florida St and Clemson wouldn't join the Big 12, and I was 100% right about that.

 

[skygusty]

And your inferences would be wrong. The author didn't come close to suggesting West Virginia should have stayed in the Big East. There is absolutely nothing in his article that you could use to justify that assertion.

I have never said West Virginia was "foolish" to pursue SEC membership, and I never said West Virginia should have stayed in the Big East. Never at all. That's simply a fabrication on your part.

In fact, I've never said West Virginia should have done anything. My comments relating to expansion were that Florida St and Clemson wouldn't join the Big 12, and I was 100% right about that.

Wrong on all counts. What course could WVU have taken to have a better option than the BIG12? None. How is WVU a loser in comparison to other options? In no way. How is WVU a loser in any capacity? Other than the loss of regional hate fests with has been programs who have no loyalty to us, None. With regards to the SEC and what you said about WVU I remember clearly. When I asked you why it was reasonable for Syracuse and Pitt to want to leave the BE and not WVU you had no answer. This is why I have no respect for your opinions. Why are you here anyway? Is the Clemson sports program too dull for you? I have never been so pathetic as to have made even 1 post on the Clemson board. You are here all the time. Go follow your own teams. We have enough idiots without importing more from South Carolina.

 

[Woody in Helvetia]

Wrong on all counts. What course could WVU have taken to have a better option than the BIG12? None. How is WVU a loser in comparison to other options? In no way. How is WVU a loser in any capacity? Other than the loss of regional hate fests with has been programs who have no loyalty to us, None. With regards to the SEC and what you said about WVU I remember clearly. When I asked you why it was reasonable for Syracuse and Pitt to want to leave the BE and not WVU you had no answer. This is why I have no respect for your opinions. Why are you here anyway? Is the Clemson sports program too dull for you? I have never been so pathetic as to have made even 1 post on the Clemson board. You are here all the time. Go follow your own teams. We have enough idiots without importing more from South Carolina.

I many ways WVU is the loser in conference expansion because it is now in a conference that it is a geographical misfit. Just like Miami was in the Big East. He did not say WVU was in a bad place - he did not say WVU was name making money and surviving in the new world of college football. One of two things will happen in the next decade. Either WVU will move to a more geographically realistic conference(like Miami did), of the Big 12 will geographically move towards WVU(like what happened to BC with the addition of Pitt and Syracuse)

Vernon will has stated several times that the Big 12 is not WVU's final destination.

 

[TheEERS]

I many ways WVU is the loser in conference expansion because it is now in a conference that it is a geographical misfit. Just like Miami was in the Big East. He did not say WVU was in a bad place - he did not say WVU was name making money and surviving in the new world of college football. One of two things will happen in the next decade. Either WVU will move to a more geographically realistic conference(like Miami did), of the Big 12 will geographically move towards WVU(like what happened to BC with the addition of Pitt and Syracuse)

Vernon will has stated several times that the Big 12 is not WVU's final destination.

Miami was at their best during the Big East days and then slide after joining the ACC.

 

[skygusty]

I do not know the future, but I don't see us in another conference anytime soon. I don't see how we are a loser at all, let alone the third biggest loser in the country. We are far better situated now than we were before. If we had been forced to wait it out in the American Conference until the NEXT seismic shift, I'm not sure we would have survived as a healthy program. I am not among the group that thinks the ACC would certainly have taken WVU over Louisville. I think the positives of the move to the BIG12 far outweigh the negatives of where we were. Maybe not enough positives to be a clear winner like TAM and Mizzou and Rutgers and Maryland, but lots of good things have happened for WVU as a result of joining the BIG12. I don't think that Pitt, Syracuse, Miami or BC have thrived since going to the ACC and I doubt they will. There are very few schools in that conference that share our mission as a land grant state institution. They also now have ND hanging around their neck. I would not want to leave the BIG12 for the ACC the way things are now. I don't see the BIG10 or the SEC coming for us. If those two expand I think they will go after FSU, Clemson, maybe VT and UNC. If any those teams leave, the ACC would be even less attractive as a destination for us.

 

[Woody in Helvetia]

Miami was at their best during the Big East days and then slide after joining the ACC.

Miami cheated the entire time in the Big East and breezed through the Big East due to location, weather and coaching. They were the only member of the conference located in a high school football hotbed.

 

[wbgvwbgv]

Miami was at their best during the Big East days and then slide after joining the ACC.

Miami's best days were certainly in the Big East. And if we are talking about realignment losers then Miami IMO would win the crown. They had one of the best programs in the country and now are totally irrelevant and play in an empty stadium (like Pitt).

The geographical argument seems silly to me. Having one or two schools closer to WVU wouldn't really have that much of an impact on travel expenses or travel time. WVU was in the center of a dysfunctional conference surround by schools and almost every single member bolted for the very first offer from a power conference (geography be damed). Rutgers is now in a conference with Nebraska. Syracuse is in a conference with FSU. Missouri is in a conference with Florida. Penn State was a so called geographical misfit when they joined the Big 10 and most people consider that to be the best decision that the school has ever made.

Without question WVU was a big winning in realignment ( just ask the folks from UConn & Cincinnati and/or take a close look at the finances ) and there will always be a few fans that long for the old days where geography really mattered. WVU's athletic future is as bright as it has ever been.

 

[doctom4]

I still have this nagging feeling that the Big XII as currently constituted is a temporary marriage until Texas and/or Oklahoma decide they want to do something else. Failing to include BYU, Houston and one other team (it almost doesn't matter who it is) to get to 12 and have a playoff is going to be a huge albatross for this league in football unless it produces an unbeaten every year. The extra game now means everything for power ratings and things that the committee looks at. It's an extra game to prove yourself that the Big XII doesn't have. Basically, there'll be no one-loss Big XII teams in the football championship game. Granted, TCU's schedule on the whole proved to be nowhere near that of Ohio State or Florida State if you take a hard look at it. TCU was only a smidge better than Baylor's. In both cases, if the lack of a conference title hadn't tanked them, the non-league schedule would have. Together, it's almost impossible to get in if you lose a game.

 

[doctom4]

And I hold hard to the factual truth that Big East football was better than the Big XII; they won the majority head to head, especially in bowl games through the duration of the league. Anytime the Big East lost a bowl game to them big - which was all of twice in 20 years (OK/CT; KSU/SU), the wolves were out, but when it was reversed (WVU/OU, RU/KST), the Big XII was never deemed to be somehow inadequate or in trouble. Go back and watch. Truth is, when Big East teams ran the football, they dominated most of those games. And that's what WVU should have continued to do instead of trying to ape the Big 12 and run the offense that they see every day. This notion that Big XII football is somehow superior to what WVU had in the Big East for 20 years should have been crushed by last year's bowl season. The rest of the country is well ahead of the Big XII. The best thing about the Big XII is round-robin play, but the way the system's set up - we really don't need to do that. I'd prefer it for all conferences instead of conference title games, which sometimes put inferior teams in higher places, but that's not going to happen.

 

[skygusty]

The OLD Big East was pretty good. Could have been even better. I think the Big12 is right to take a wait and see attitude. If the Conference ends up with a Top 4 team and makes the playoffs in 2 out of 5 years, then we are good. No need to sacrifice all the benefits of a 10 team league. Once you go to 12, you are committed. Now if 4 or five years go by and the BIG12 NEVER gets in, and if during that time the playoffs have not been expanded to 8 teams, then yeah. Invite Cincinnati and UConn or a directional Florida team or some other warm body and see if that makes a difference. But man, I don't want to go down that road until it is absolutely clear that there is no other alternative. And there is no sense worrying about what Texas and Oklahoma might do, nobody can stop them anyway.

 

[wbgvwbgv]

And I hold hard to the factual truth that Big East football was better than the Big XII; they won the majority head to head, especially in bowl games through the duration of the league. Anytime the Big East lost a bowl game to them big - which was all of twice in 20 years (OK/CT; KSU/SU), the wolves were out, but when it was reversed (WVU/OU, RU/KST), the Big XII was never deemed to be somehow inadequate or in trouble. Go back and watch. Truth is, when Big East teams ran the football, they dominated most of those games. And that's what WVU should have continued to do instead of trying to ape the Big 12 and run the offense that they see every day. This notion that Big XII football is somehow superior to what WVU had in the Big East for 20 years should have been crushed by last year's bowl season. The rest of the country is well ahead of the Big XII. The best thing about the Big XII is round-robin play, but the way the system's set up - we really don't need to do that. I'd prefer it for all conferences instead of conference title games, which sometimes put inferior teams in higher places, but that's not going to happen.

I can't help but believe that you are in a very small minority who actually think that The Big East Football Conference was in anyway better than The Big 12 especially after losing VT, Miami, and BC. Upon close examination, WVU's record in the Big East drastically improved after the first great exodus. You can choose to believe that it was due to RR's superior coaching abilities or great recruiting or the most obvious conclusion that the conference was much weaker. A conference compromised of Syracuse, Pitt, Rutgers, WVU, a transitioning 1AA school ( UConn ), and 3 CUSA schools doesn't look all that competitive to me. Not sure how anyone can seriously compare it to a conference with members like Texas, OSU, KSU, and Oklahoma.

 

[topdecktiger]

Wrong on all counts. What course could WVU have taken to have a better option than the BIG12?

None. That's the author's point. The better fits (SEC, ACC, even Big Ten) were not available, because for one reason or another, those conferences took other teams. The author's point is that West Virginia had only one option, Big 12 or bust.

How is WVU a loser in comparison to other options?

Again, that's the point. There were no other options. That's the point the author is making. For example, being in the SEC East with a conference network would have been great, but it wasn't even an option.

How is WVU a loser in any capacity?

I disagree with the author's assessment that anyone who is in a P5 conference is a "loser," but I do agree that within the P5 level, West Virginia did not end up in an ideal situation. They were taken out of their natural recruiting area and put in a conference where it will be difficult to land recruits from the conference's recruiting hotbed.

With regards to the SEC and what you said about WVU I remember clearly.

No, you don't. We've seen just in this thread that you twist and misrepresent other people's comments (like with this author), so your memory and interpretations are already suspect. I simply never said West Virginia should have stayed in the Big East. Much like with the author, you imagined something that I never said.

When I asked you why it was reasonable for Syracuse and Pitt to want to leave the BE and not WVU you had no answer.

Another perfect example of you reading what you want to read, instead of what someone actually wrote. What I told you was why the ACC would choose Syracuse and Pitt instead of West Virginia, not that West Virginia should stay in the Big East. I never said West Virginia should stay in the Big East. I just told you why the ACC would choose other teams instead of them.

See, this is exactly my point. You took something I said, and twisted it around. This is exactly what you did with the author's piece. You get so upset when someone says something that's even vaguely critical of West Virginia that you don't clearly understand what they are saying, and draw the wrong conclusions.

This is why I don't respect your opinion, because it's based on inaccuracies.

Why are you here anyway?

If you notice, I only comment on issues regarding expansion (which this is), or general college football stories. I do this on several boards. When it's strictly a team-specific issue, I don't comment because I don't know/care about the issue. When it's a more broad issue, such as expansion, those are topics that interest me, so in those instances I comment.

 

[pittengineer75]

I wouldn't consider WVU an expansion loser....ANY team that moved to ANY Power 5 conference has to be considered on the plus side of expansion.

This. Cincy being the biggest loser because of how they were producing in the years leading up to Pitt/WVU/Cuse and the Louisville leaving the conference.

Expansion is probably not over, but stalled for potentially a decade. If and when that happens though, the FSU/Texas/Oklahoma/etc will be the ones likely up for poaching. SEC and B1G will be the likely movers to cause this, with the PAC10 having to make a decision whether to go into another region (east/south/both). But expansion is very likely to come at the expense of the ACC and B12 if it happens for all the conferences.

 

[skygusty]

Tigerman I have to smile. I'm just a biased, partisan WVU fan, not paid to be objective, fair, balanced or accurate. I state my opinions, sometimes clearly, sometimes not, on one message board in what can only be described as a pointless, and time wasting endeavor. Nobody, (other than you) probably cares what I have to say. I should be flattered. You could be patrolling Congress, the halls of justice, law enforcement, news reporting, fraud schemes or some other socially worthwhile endeavor, but you are here to correct an anonymous poster on a sports message board of a team not even in your own conference who fails to live up to debate team standards. I find it amusing and somewhat odd. You are a unique weirdo, but I guess it takes all kinds. WVU was a significant winner in the realignment. Nothing was lost by joining the BIG12 - it was already gone. The shift in our fortunes after Pitt and Syracuse left and now is enormous. I can't imagine being stuck in the American Conference. How we are a loser by escaping that fate is beyond me.

 

[topdecktiger]

Tigerman I have to smile. I'm just a biased, partisan WVU fan, not paid to be objective, fair, balanced or accurate. I state my opinions, sometimes clearly, sometimes not, on one message board in what can only be described as a pointless, and time wasting endeavor. Nobody, (other than you) probably cares what I have to say. I should be flattered. You could be patrolling Congress, the halls of justice, law enforcement, news reporting, fraud schemes or some other socially worthwhile endeavor, but you are here to correct an anonymous poster on a sports message board of a team not even in your own conference who fails to live up to debate team standards. I find it amusing and somewhat odd. You are a unique weirdo, but I guess it takes all kinds. WVU was a significant winner in the realignment. Nothing was lost by joining the BIG12 - it was already gone. The shift in our fortunes after Pitt and Syracuse left and now is enormous. I can't imagine being stuck in the American Conference. How we are a loser by escaping that fate is beyond me.

That's just a deflection from the fact that you were wrong. You didn't think commenting on a message board was pointless before. You only say that now after you were proven wrong. You can't debate me on the merits of the issue, so you resort to personal attacks.

 

[wvmountydog]

Here's what I think is a better ranking of schools in realignment from Berry Tramel:

http://newsok.com/tcu-biggest-winner-in-conference-realignment/article/5426845

 

[skygusty]

That's just a deflection from the fact that you were wrong. You didn't think commenting on a message board was pointless before. You only say that now after you were proven wrong. You can't debate me on the merits of the issue, so you resort to personal attacks.

You actually think you know what I thought before? Now see that is just your opinion, which you have confused with being a fact. If it's any consolation, I think you are pretty pointless too, but far more earnest.

 

[topdecktiger]

You actually think you know what I thought before? Now see that is just your opinion, which you have confused with being a fact. If it's any consolation, I think you are pretty pointless too, but far more earnest.

No, that's again just a deflection. You obviously cared enough to respond to my posts (and continue to do so), so you can't just brush it off now like it doesn't matter to you. You didn't start acting like you didn't care until you were contradicted, and now you're just trying to save face on the forum.

 

[CaptainSidneyReilly]

I would have booted Wake Forest out of the ACC for WVU. Wake Forest is too small and no one would miss them in North Carolina Cable Subscribers with UNC, NCS, and Duke.

Wake Forest Student Body is one of the lowest of all Power Conference Schools:
Undergraduates 4,815
Postgraduates 2,617
NCAA Attendance: 27,210

Pitt has low Attendance too, but at least provides the Cable Subscribers, and WVU would have helped sell out more ACC Stadiums being so near to ACC Stadiums by driving distance.

I proposed and would have merged the BEC & ACC Teams in 2003 in BC, Cuse, Miami, Pitt, Wvu, and Rutgers and kept UMD under GOR Rights and dump Wake Forest like Big East dumped Temple.

This would have made a better ACC, and I would still consider adding UCincy and ULou, later to make a bigger footprint right into Big Ten Heartland . Instead of seeing the Big Ten cut into the Atlantic Coast grabbing NYC, Baltimore.DC while keeping Chicago?

Swofford ACC Expansion Plans were myopic, flawed, and his love for North Carolina Schools were poor judgment???

Additionally, Swofford saving his UNC Alumnus Friend & Son's Employer in Raycom Media Sports Company after SEC dumped them, was amistake too, in my opinion. But Topdecker has given good reasons on why that happen and not a big deal, and i respect his views.

Swofford should have been looking far better with vision and keeping Wake Forest, that is the smallest University in a Power Conference and in North Carolina that does not need 4 Teams that did not add or increase ACC Cable Footprint or Attendance as much as NY, PA, WV, NJ, MA, IN and keeping MD and add to FL.

Plus, if you added OH and KY would have made a better ACC, kept Big Ten out of Northeast & NYC, and would have had a terrific ACCN Network located in NYC, and not in Charlotte, in my opinion.

WVU and Rutgers are a better fit in the ACC than Big-12 and Big-10!

LINK:
http://pittsburgh.forums.rivals.com/threads/winners-losers-from-the-big-realignment.13449/

 

[Woody in Helvetia]

Miami's best days were certainly in the Big East. And if we are talking about realignment losers then Miami IMO would win the crown. They had one of the best programs in the country and now are totally irrelevant and play in an empty stadium (like Pitt).

Miami was on a downward path when they left the BE for the ACC. Virginia Tech was able to win three ACC titles in the first 5 years so it was not a real step up in competition for them. But Miami floundered due to NCAA issues and some really stupid coaching hires.

 

[VaultHunter]

This article should be titled....How to write an article based on opinion not fact. #3 biggest loser goes from 7 million a year in revenue to 30 million in revenue. What a shame.

 

[VaultHunter]

Basically had WVU stayed in the American (Big East) and had won 30+ games over the last 3 years we would be considered as a winner. Makes sense based on how Fox looks at things...Clay Travis should tell you all you need to know about those guys.

 

[HurdyGurdyEer]

And your inferences would be wrong. The author didn't come close to suggesting West Virginia should have stayed in the Big East. There is absolutely nothing in his article that you could use to justify that assertion.

I have never said West Virginia was "foolish" to pursue SEC membership, and I never said West Virginia should have stayed in the Big East. Never at all. That's simply a fabrication on your part.

In fact, I've never said West Virginia should have done anything. My comments relating to expansion were that Florida St and Clemson wouldn't join the Big 12, and I was 100% right about that.

Good grief.

His whole point, mistaken as it it is, is that WVU was one of the biggest losers in the conference realignment game. And when he points to the things lost he points to things pertaining to our membership in the Big East.

So .... while he did not directly say we should have stayed in the Big East he clearly uses selective data to compare our circumstances in the Big 12 versus those in the BE and then he declares us to be a big loser because we are in B12 circumstances rather than BE circumstances. Because, according to him, we are in the B12 and we lost the perceived positives of the BE he points out, we are losers.

Every loss he points to is related to a Big East conference that no longer exists. If we had stayed in the AAC do you think Syracuse and Pitt wouldn't have jumped to the ACC? I don't. And I don't think we would still be playing Pitt even in we had stayed.