I think so, at least. There are a few things to go with, but let’s start with a little reading between the lines.

Yesterday WVU football added UNLV for a tidy $750,000 — $740K in cash, $10K in tickets — to complete the 2010 schedule. Neat, though I’m livid it’s a home game and the Mountaineers won’t return the game to Vegas. Oh well.

The bigger news came in extending Maryland two years through 2013 and then switching home dates with Florida State for 2012-13. WVU now plays host to Maryland in 2012 and travels to College Park in 2013. The series was set to expire in 2011. WVU travels to Tallahassee in 2012 and plays host to the Seminoles in 2013.

Obviously, WVU didn’t want to play both Maryland and FSU at home one year and then on the road the next, so the switch makes sense.

It also makes it easy for WVU to schedule seven home games in both 2012 and 2013. That, of course, is big.

And why? Let’s talk leverage and logistics.

WVU has two openings for 2012 and 2013 with six home games (four in the Big East, Maryland and Marshall) set for 2012 and five home games (three Big East games, Florida State and East Carolina) set for 2013. WVU wants seven home games. Period. But how about eight? It can happen.

For 2012, the Mountaineers can add a nice home game against a Division I-AA school or a so-so Division I as well as an attractive road game at a BCS league school in 2012. Or they can get two home games seeing as if they already have Florida State and Maryland. It’s really up to WVU.

Most likely, WVU will enter a home-and-home with a BCS team or a multi-year deal, a la East Carolina, in the future with the 2012 game on the road and the 2013 game at Mountaineer Field. That leaves the necessary seventh home game to be filled for both 2012 and 2013.

Now 2013, that’s interesting. WVU needs two home games out of its two openings to get to seven and already has home and road games against BCS teams. The change with Florida State isn’t made unless both these open dates will be home games and WVU was saying yesterday how it “guaranteed” seven home games that year.

WVU-Marshall expires in 2012 and if these two can ever get forced intoagree on a contract, there’s no way WVU goes to Huntington for the first game. None. Not only has WVU made that unacceptable by creating the need for two home games, but it’s fortified its stance with the Marshall series. It almost paints WVU into a corner for a 2-for-1 or at least a deal it wants.

WVU has five home games in 2014 (four Big East, Michigan State) and needs to add two among the four remaining spots, so a trip to Huntington that year is acceptable. Under any arrangement, it has to start in Morgantown. That’s not a big revelation, I know.

If a deal doesn’t get done, so what? WVU can add any two teams it wants for home games in 2013 or even begin other series to take care of future scheduling.  It almost seems as if Marshall wants the series, Marshall needs to make it happen.