I realize NIL has already crept into the game on a limited basis but next year full revenue sharing begins. So the "college football" many of us know and grew up with will disappear after this year's bowl games.
That got me to thinking that tomorrow night's game with Memphis will be the last semblance of a "WVU college football game" in the sense that many of us know it and love. The days of the senior offensive left tackle who waited three years to become a starter, the walk-on who stuck it out on special teams, the pre-med major at linebacker and the business major at QB are a thing of the past. Assembling a few boys from the hills of WV, mixed in with a larger portion from western PA, Ohio and Virginia, along with the boys from the Sunshine State, to make a WVU football team will be a art that likely will fade into memory.
I was an adult before I saw my first WVU football game. Prior to age 23 WVU football was played out in my mind fueled by the narrative of Jack Fleming and Woody O'Hara broadcast over a GE 9-Volt transistor radio held close to my ear. Finally, after venturing out on my own with my own income I was able to make it to Morgantown to see my first in person games in 1984. A lot of good memories.
I know everything changes. That's simply life. But I fear the new age of college football (including WVU football) is going to be missing something that we will never be able to get back, something precious and intangible, that will soon be a memory as opposed to the reality of an autumn afternoon in Morgantown or Anytown, WV sitting on the back porch with a radio pressed to your ear.
So, when they kick it off in Frisco, TX tomorrow night I will watch, I will cheer on my Mountaineers. I'll probably punch a pillow or two for old times sake. But I'll do so likely with a tear in my eye knowing that it's never going to be the same..........ever again.
That got me to thinking that tomorrow night's game with Memphis will be the last semblance of a "WVU college football game" in the sense that many of us know it and love. The days of the senior offensive left tackle who waited three years to become a starter, the walk-on who stuck it out on special teams, the pre-med major at linebacker and the business major at QB are a thing of the past. Assembling a few boys from the hills of WV, mixed in with a larger portion from western PA, Ohio and Virginia, along with the boys from the Sunshine State, to make a WVU football team will be a art that likely will fade into memory.
I was an adult before I saw my first WVU football game. Prior to age 23 WVU football was played out in my mind fueled by the narrative of Jack Fleming and Woody O'Hara broadcast over a GE 9-Volt transistor radio held close to my ear. Finally, after venturing out on my own with my own income I was able to make it to Morgantown to see my first in person games in 1984. A lot of good memories.
I know everything changes. That's simply life. But I fear the new age of college football (including WVU football) is going to be missing something that we will never be able to get back, something precious and intangible, that will soon be a memory as opposed to the reality of an autumn afternoon in Morgantown or Anytown, WV sitting on the back porch with a radio pressed to your ear.
So, when they kick it off in Frisco, TX tomorrow night I will watch, I will cheer on my Mountaineers. I'll probably punch a pillow or two for old times sake. But I'll do so likely with a tear in my eye knowing that it's never going to be the same..........ever again.
