I guess everyone taking credit but Ollie did not get that done by himself that is for sure. Now Ollie had to cross the T's and dot the I's
More than one individual had a hand involved in the process.
Rockefeller and Manchin only stepped in to assure McConnell was doing nothing under the table.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that U.S. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, had lobbied Big 12 officials -- including Boren, a former U.S. senator -- to include Louisville in expansion plans.
Texas Tech chancellor Kent Hance said McConnell called him two weeks ago to lobby for Louisville, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported.
The Democratic senators from West Viginia shot back later Wednesday.
"If these outrageous reports have any merit -- and especially if a United States Senator has done anything inappropriate or unethical to interfere with a decision that the Big 12 had already made -- then I believe that there should be an investigation in the U.S. Senate, and I will fight to get the truth," Sen. Joe Manchin said in a statement. "West Virginians and the American people deserve to know exactly what is going on and whether politics is interfering with our college sports."
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which has oversight of sports, also responded to the reports, saying in a statement: "The Big 12 picked WVU on the strength of its program -- period. Now the media reports that political games may upend that. That's just flat wrong. I am doing and will do whatever it takes to get us back to the merits."
Now Don Nehlen...He had a role in getting WVU to the Big 12.
Nehlen’s contributions to WVU that got hm into the College Football Hall of Fame which included a pair of undefeated seasons and rebuilding the program so that it could remain a collegiate power, this might have been the most crucial.
Luck and Clements had an especially valuable ally in their fight to land in the Big 12: Don Nehlen. Clements asked the Mountaineers’ Hall of Fame football coach to reach out to Big 12 interim commissioner Chuck Neinas and help make their case. They’d been great friends for decades, dating back to when Neinas was executive director of the College Football Association and Nehlen was chairman of the CFA’s coaches committee and the two worked closely together on a variety of national issues.
“Big-time,” Clements said. “That was key. That relationship was critical.”
One must remember that at the time WVU and Louisville were pushing to get into the Big 12 along with TCU as it expanded to fill its final vacancy created by the departure of Missouri and it was hardly a foregone conclusion that the Mountaineers will fill the spot.
“Chuck and I were really good friends. We had worked together for five or six years. He was the executive director of the College Football Association and I was the representative of the Football Coaches of America,” Nehlen began.
“We would meet three or four times a year and we were very instrumental in getting some sanity in the recruiting rules.”
The most important thing they did with recruiting was manage to put together a proposal to get alumni and boosters out of the recruiting process, which was not an easy sell for Nehlen to the coaches.
Luck and Clements had held negotiations with Neinas but hadn’t yet reached a deal.
“When going to the Big 12 rolled around, President Clements called me and said, ‘Hey, Don, Chuck Neinas says he’s not going to do anything unless he talks to you. So, I called Chuck,” Nehlen said.
Neinas had been the commissioner of the Big Eight for a decade before leaving and was serving as interim commissioner at this time in 2011.
Nehlen reports the conversation went like this, or something close to it;
NEHLEN: Hey, Chuck, what’s up?
NEINAS: Do you want in the Big 12?
NEHLEN: Yes we do.
NEINAS: Well, I’ll tell you what. If you want in, you are going to have to play next year and you’ve got to get an airport so we can land in Morgantown.
And that was that.
“I left the airport up to Dr. Clements. I said, ‘You handle that one,’” Nehlen said.
Let’s just say that’s still ongoing.
Certainly Nehlen was ready to make the move.
“I knew the Big East was crumbling. I’ll be honest. I was kind of disappointed. I thought we’d get into the ACC. It kind of made sense geographically. The Big 12 didn’t make sense geographically,” he said.
“When Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech pulled out, the Big East became just an average league. It was starting to fall apart.
“I thought we had to do something but Ollie and Dr. Clements really wanted to get into the Big 12 ... so, whatever little I could do I did.”
And what he could do was convince Neinas that WVU was ready to play at that level right away.
“I told him, Chuck, we could be competitive right away .. maybe not with Oklahoma. But Texas had slipped and was going through some tough times,” Nehlen said.
Neinas was receptive and Nehlen knew the deal would get done.
MORGANTOWN — A week ago, The Athletic sportswriter Max Olsen wrote a solid look back on West Virginia’s departure from the crumbling Big East to join the Big 12 and
www.wvnews.com
