WV Paper: "Is West Virginia’s move to Big 12 Conference worth the red ink?"

[zls44]

I would say yes, but interesting reading nonetheless.

http://www.register-herald.com/coll...s-move-to-Big-12-Conference-worth-the-red-ink

 

[hexlub]

A lot of the expenses should have been expected. You have a strong view into what your revenues will look like moving into the future. This should not be a surprise. The data set is not a good indicator of future returns.

This is not UMass upgrading their program where things are being done on faith of a positive outcome. If you were looking for financial security for the long term, this was a good move for WVU. I guess as long as you are not concerned with having your student athletes live on airplanes and buses.

 

[CL82]

At this point there's not much that they can do. There's nowhere to go that would help them. At least they aren't on the outside regarding the P5. They may well view that as worth the cost. If I'm an admin, I have to wonder if they beat out Louisville and end up the ACC. That would have been better for pretty much everyone, except perhaps 'ville. WVU travel is better and they are playing with natural rivals in drivable games. The BE stays together, still a hodgepodge of schools with different interests, but a better hodgepodge. Maybe NBC decides that the league has value and forces ESPN to pony up FMV for the games.

Ah well, it's a nice dream. Still we are doing what we do in March, competing for championships. We have a quality MBB coach who will be around forever. We have a very talented, savvy and energetic football coach. We have quite possibly the best WBB coach ever. We are a elite men's soccer program and I guess an elite field hockey program. Our baseball team is coming into it's own and hockey is setting itself up to be nationally competitive. We routinely send players to the pros in in the NBA, NFL, MLB and WNBA, are the home to 11 basketball national championships (plus 2 soccer, 2 field hockey and whichever others I'm missing) and have among the best football and basketball training facilities in the nation. Our current situation may not be what I would have wished for but it still very good to be Husky fan.

 

[John Greene]

I would say yes, but interesting reading nonetheless.

http://www.register-herald.com/coll...s-move-to-Big-12-Conference-worth-the-red-ink

Articles like this are maddening for their stupidity.

Lets see they could have stayed where they were and saved the exit fee. The only problem is they might end up in a conference where they get 10% as much conference payout, become frequent flyers to TX and FL and worry about how they are going to make a schedule full of directional FL schools, third level TX schools and Tulane attractive to their fan base.

Can you imagine what a ----sandwich that would be?

Oh my God! That's us!

 

[SubbaBub]

The problem in this situation is that West Virginia and arithmetic are both involved.

 

[buddy]

They are in a much better place than UConn is right now, so I wouldn't knock them.

 

[uconNYC]

If they stayed in the nBE they would have been invited to the ACC ahead of UL the last time around, but no way could they have envisioned Maryland going to the B1G and the ACC having an opening.

B12 miscalculated not taking UL and UC when they could have. That would have put them on solid footing.

 

[ASweet3781]

If they stayed in the nBE they would have been invited to the ACC ahead of UL the last time around, but no way could they have envisioned Maryland going to the B1G and the ACC having an opening.

B12 miscalculated not taking UL and UC when they could have. That would have put them on solid footing.

Whose UC? Us or Cincinnati?

 

[uconNYC]

Whose UC? Us or Cincinnati?

Cincy, We are UConn

 

[ASweet3781]

Cincy, We are UConn

Which conference do you think should snap us up?

 

[uconNYC]

Which conference do you think should snap us up?

If the ACC goes to 16 we are a logical choice for them as I cant see them poaching anyone better. As for the B1G I think ND and Mizzou would be the best choices, then maybe UConn if they cant get UVA, UNC, etc.

Personally would love to be in B1G.

 

[Antiobserver]

Bless Mickey. He is in his mid 90s and been covering WVU athletics for over 60 years... but doesn't understand the economics and the reasoning behind going to the Big 12. If it were up to him he would opt to return to the Southern Conference. To him, little ol West Virginia can do no better.

 

[okielite]

Not to break up the bashing WVU party but I am not sure this article tells the whole story. Yearly budgets can fluxuate quite a bit for many reasons like buyouts on coaches contracts, large scale facilitiy upgrade proejcts, etc... My understanding of the Big 12 is that they ultimately pay for travel expenses, not the individual schools. Many schools travel long distances in their conferences as these modern conferences span from Mssachusets to Miami, WVU to Lubbock, Jersey to Nebraska, Connecticut to Texas and Florida, etc...

Schools in C-USA and AAC have huge travel expenses as well but don't have a huge payout to show for all that travel. Clearly WVU can afford to travel to Big 12 destinations if all these other schools can as well.

Heck UConn has some pretty big travel to many of the AAC schools, is UConn having trouble affording the travel to places like DFW, Houston, and Florida? How is Uconn flying to games with TCU, Houston, UCF, USF, etc.. any different than WVY flying to games in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa? IF Uconn joined the ACC you would still have long travel to Clemson, GaTEch, FSU, Maimi. B1G you still travel to Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, etc... Ultimtely most of these long distance games are simply a few more minutes on a plane than mid distance travel destinations unless you get into multiple connections.

WVU did what any school stuck in a non power conference does when a power conference comes calling. They started nodding their head and asked when they can start playing in the Big 12. I'd like to see the Big 12 consider adding UConn and Cinci to get us back to 12 teams. Would get us some nice TV markets and recruiting in Ohio. Go back to 8 conference games and North South divisions. We would have a well balanced league in FB and BB along with strong WBB as well. Get us back to playing a CCG as well which would offset any loss from splitting the pie 12 ways.

 

[BUHusky]

If the Big XII would have made the sensible (and obvious) move to add WVU, Louisville, Cincy, and anyone else really (TCU, BYU, or maybe a FL school instead) to get back to 12 schools, then:

- The Big XII would have a championship game and all the additional revenue that comes with that.
- UConn would have gotten an instant nod from the ACC once MD bolted.
- WVU would have some local rivals and not be on a complete island.

Alas, the Big XII makes key CR decisions based on the Texas AD getting drunk (http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...xas-venerable-ad-to-thank-for-being-in-big-12), and therefore the current reality is UConn and Cincy are in non-P5 purgatory, WVU is withering away on an island, and TCU is making P5 money...

/Sigh

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Z likes to bash non-ESPN programs. The funny thing is I bet WVU's travel is less than UConn's will be in the new AAC, and WVU gets about $20MM more a year for its trouble.

 

[billybud]

Mickey Furfari (author of article and sportswriter following WVU for 50 years) has always been against WVU's move out west. He has seldom posted an optimistic article about the Eers, Holgorsen, or their move to the Big 12.

In the short term, WVU will have some red ink because of the $20 million buyout, reduced share fro the big 12, and the having to pay back borrowed money from the Big 12.

In the long term, WVU should be better off financially than if they had stayed to gto the AAC.

 

[okielite]

If the Big XII would have made the sensible (and obvious) move to add WVU, Louisville, Cincy, and anyone else really (TCU, BYU, or maybe a FL school instead) to get back to 12 schools, then:

- The Big XII would have a championship game and all the additional revenue that comes with that.
- UConn would have gotten an instant nod from the ACC once MD bolted.
- WVU would have some local rivals and not be on a complete island.

Alas, the Big XII makes key CR decisions based on the Texas AD getting drunk (http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...xas-venerable-ad-to-thank-for-being-in-big-12), and therefore the current reality is UConn and Cincy are in non-P5 purgatory, WVU is withering away on an island, and TCU is making P5 money...

/Sigh

Yep. Some smart decisions would have changed things quite a bit, especially for UConn. The Big 12 is ran by idiots with no long term plan. Now one of the head idiots is gone, Deloss. We simply react when something happens instead of being proactive or we just do what our TV partners tell us.. Honestly I think we would have been better off to stick with 8 teams instead of going to 10. 10 is just an awkward setup, kinda like 14. The big 12 does own the rights to Big 14 though.

My only problem with the scenario you described is the fans. I have noticed that Louisville and WVU fans are somewhat different, and that is being nice. It's like they have a chip on their shoulder and have something to prove. Some of the stories I have heard about throwing batteries, piss, shat, etc at opposing fans is just terrible. We have an occasional drunk idiot but for the most part Big 12 fans are pretty classy and dont' get into white trash type behavior at games.

Are the stories of Louisville and WVU fans true from a UConn perspective?