Welcome, to the Friday Feedback, which had a decision to make: Gold-Blue Game or Willie Nelson? Well, a coin was flipped and the night is planned. I’ll probably never tell which won … but if you’ve got the money, I’ve got the time.

Looks like the weather will cooperate for the first Friday-night spring game so there are just a few other things to monitor. Some have to do with the actual game.

Five concerns

1) Center, RG, RT
2) Second cornerback
3) Second slot receiver
4) Nos. 6-7-8 on offensive line
5) Spur safety

Five curiosities

1) Shawne Alston/Daquan Hargrett
2) TE play
3) How to use The Poet
4) Pass rush from the defensive front
5) Depth on defense

I’m also curious about the crowd. The new toy appeal of the Friday-night thing may speak to many, but it may deter just as many from coming from far away to see the game after a normal day at work. The Mountaineers may have made some progress in the spring, but enough to inspire a large crowd? It may turn out fine. It might miss. I don’t know, but given the slightly lagging sales of season tickets, it’s something to monitor, especially since WVU absolutely plans to make this an annual thing.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, mind your python.

Mack said:

Random question to chew on. WVU has a stadium that seats approximately 60,000 and if it stays relatively competitive, it will fill it up.

If WVU got left completely out of every conference and had no choice but to play as an independent… couldn’t it still survive?

Given that WVU usually draws well at its away games, travels well, and fills up its own stadium… wouldn’t teams like Pitt, USF, UConn (and I’m sure many others) be happy to play a home-and-home series with WVU? Obviously, LSU, Mississippi State, Maryland and others have been happy to schedule WVU when under no conference obligation to do so. Also, if WVU plays those games, they are likely to be televised by one national TV channel or another.

I understand that not being in a conference makes scheduling a lot more difficult, but my main question is whether this issue is exaggerated at all.

I read that the Big East gets $7 million annually for televising its games, which would break down to less than $1 million per school. I find it hard to believe that losing the $1 million from television would kill WVU football. If you factor in BCS money and bowl payouts, perhaps that is what kills WVU, but I would again have to think that some sort of alternative deal would be worked out.

This is interesting and it’s about the only angle that hasn’t been covered with much detail. The negative — and this presumes the BCS would continue to exist, in some form or by some name — is WVU wouldn’t have an association with the “BCS” or “TBA” mega bowls bowls or a map to a national championship. I think. WVU would also have to accept making far less money from football, which means giving less to other sports. Take away the mega bowl payday. Now pay seven guarantees for all the home games every year — right now, it’s three or four, depending on the number conference home games, which alternated between three and four every year. You even lose the revenue sharing as a conference member. Now there is money to be made off of television, as mentioned, but also in bidding out broadcast rights, but that’s another topic for another day … and in all honesty, it’s not a reality. Independence is, at the very least, fun to think about.

Spot the Ball said:

mack – i’d like to think we could go it alone but the reality is we need to be on TV and we need to have a legit path to the national championship (ie, BCS). being an independent won’t give you those 2 things with any kind of certainty (unless you’re Notre Dame).

so yes we may be able to still fill a stadium with competitive teams and could probably line up some attractive home-and-home series and in the short run have some success. but if recruits don’t see us on TV regularly and envision themselves playing for championships, then in the long run we’re doomed.

call me a Benedict Arnold, but i say ACC or bust baby!

See? Just enough positives, or possible positives, to make you give it some consideration. Yet just enough negatives and detractors to make it kind of scary, especially if this expansion ushers in a whole new era of college athletics and business.

glibglub said:

If there is a consolidation of schools into 5 superconferences, each with megabuck TV deals, perhaps their own networks, their own bowl tie-ins, and revenue sharing even approaching what the Big 10 and SEC have right now, I would not want to be out there as an independent hustling for scraps. WVU and other schools have been independent in the past, but that was a very different world in which a lot less was at stake.

Bingo.

Mack said:

I guess my thinking is this… Miami, Florida State, LSU, Georgia, Ohio State, etc. are all attractive schools because of many things that have nothing to do with the conference they are affiliated with. If LSU was independent, WVU would jump at the chance to play LSU and TV networks would want to show it. Why? All of the revenue that comes from fans packing stadiums in Morgantown and Baton Rouge as well as all of the built-in fan bases that would watch the game on tv.

If you’re Syracuse or UConn or Vanderbilt, then I’d say you NEED your conference so you can get in on the TV contracts and built-in conference scheduling which requires good teams to come to your otherwise empty stadiums and TV to be contractually obligatedto show it.

Yeah, it makes sense with regard to WVU, which could probably take the challenge on while others could not, but it brings up another question that may blow some minds: What if there were no conferences?

The Artist Formerly Known as EER96:

I think the all of the dominoes fall and WVU ends up in a depleted ACC. The ACC will be the new bastard child that everyone sits back and bashes about its automatic BCS bid.

WVU isn’t getting invited to the SEC – no way, no how. The SEC will expand by taking the best ACC (perceived) football schools. This means Miami, FSU and possibly VT all get invited to the SEC leaving the ACC with ? The ACC quickly moves to replace those schools – WVU will be added much to the dismay of the bluebloods in C’Ville and Durham. That’s my 2 cents…

This is the outcome I see as most likely — and that assumes something happens. It’s a proper fit for WVU and the ACC … and for the bashers.

Mike4352 said:

WVU Should work to position it’s self for an invite into the SEC. That should be our first choice.

I don’t know why anyone would say WVU doesn’t bring anything to the table there. We would be a solid addition to football, making the conference that much tougher(and hence still king in light of a big 10 expansion)…, and likely raise the stock of SEC basketball.

Also, If you look at schools that change conferences, to a better conference, it doesn’t take long before the schools recruiting improves to be on par with their new status…. the same would happen with WVU and SEC football.

IMO however, the Big 10, SEC, ACC Allready KNOW exactly what is going to happen. IMO, this whole entire charade is merely to give the public the impression that this is’ all “reactionary” to the Big 10’s desire to expand, and not the pre-planned extermination of Big East Basketball that it in fact is.

That’s just my opinion though … I may just be wearing my tin-foil hat …but I don’t think so. I just hope their plans keeps WVU in a BCS auto-bid conference.

I’d agree with that, too, but I think there are going to be better options available for the SEC. It’s nothing against WVU and what the Mountaineers (and their fans) could bring to the league. You’re looking at the Big 12 collapsing, too, and the SEC would be inclined scoop up some of those teams — as well as some ACC teams — before WVU.  

Dave said:

BTW – does anyone see anything good coming from re-alignment and the superconferences?

The current situation, with no playoffs, conferences who cannot play round-robins, and dubious choices for the MNC, is really bad from a fan point of view. Larger conferences and more dysfunction is not going to make it better.

I have thought about it, but I really cannot think of a worse way to destroy the game than what the Big 10 has/is doing by expanding. It’s bad enough they tend to back-in 2 BCS teams each year and block a playoff system, but going to 12 or more teams and disrupting much of what was a traditional rivalry package with what has been discussed might turn me completely off of the entire sport.

The only thing worse might be for the football programs to disband altogether from the NCAA and over-saturate the market to absurd levels.

It’s a major change, for sure, and I don’t particularly like the  implications. I still think we have to keep our minds open to the possibility it doesn’t happen. There are some variables out there not yet in play that might make it a very difficult maneuver, like tradition and geography, but also taxes and litigation. There’s also this …

Drew said:

The assumption some are making regarding expansion that other conferencees would expand past 12 schools simply to follow suit with the Big Ten makes no sense to me.

Perhaps the Big Ten expansion will be large enough to include schools outside of the current Big East, but the likelihood of that scenario leading to an invitation from another BCS conference for WVU seems to be nothing more than wishful thinking.

I don’t see any team leaving the SEC for any reason. What they have right now is basically the best case scenario for each memeber. They just singed a lucrative television deal and currently have the most competitive product on the field.

If the Big XII has to replace any schools, I don’t see them being able to lure anyone away from the SEC and I don’t see any reason why they would want an ACC team if for nothing else than simple geography. TCU seems to make more sense to me than any SEC or ACC team if they only had to replace one school.

If this is all about the money (and it is), what do either the SEC or ACC have to gain from expansion beyond 12? Both already have TV deals and championship games. Neither has its own network that would stand to create extra revenue from further expansion or currently seems in a position to start one. Why would they want to share their current revenue stream any more than they already do?

I know people are trying to be optimistic, but the way I see things, if the Big East football conference ceases to exist then I’m afraid WVU will be out in the cold. And you’re fooling yourself if you think WVU can survive as an independent. WVU must have a conference for it’s other sports and wouldn’t have the bargaining power that Notre Dame does with the Big East to exclude the football program from any conference membership.

Excellent points, though the ACC’s television deal expires soon and I’m certain that league will watch the Big Ten + ? and monitor the results.

roopoo said:

The Big Ten makes so much more money than all the other conferences in large part because of their TV network. ALL the conferences would like to have their own networks…it is very lucrative. Once you have the networks, you need to have cable carriers offer your network, which puts markets in play more than football prestige. If you add 4 more cities to your conference market, that will increase the amount of revenue you can generate through your network because more cable companies will carry the product, which means the conference will get more money from the cable companies. It IS all about money, and having your own network, and more TV sets to watch your network means more money. If the SEC or ACC starts a network and sees an advantage to adding teams…they will do it, because it isn’t about competiveness of the conference, it’s about making money.

Point, meet counterpoint.

Drew said:

That’s a big if. The SEC had an oppotunity to go that route last year, but decided not to.

The ACC’s current contract is up sometime next year. They could create their own network, but that doesn’t mean they would expand. Why would they add WVU if they did? If it’s about money, what do we bring to the table? We carry a small market do we not? I just don’t see the ACC gaining much if anything by adding WVU and that’s the bottom line.

If they do expand, would it not be after they see how the Big Ten’s
expansion goes? What would we do in the mean time?

Karl said:

I still believe there’s a very good chance this “seismic change” goes the way of the 96-team NCAA field. All of the media discussion has been accepting the best case scenarios for the Big 10 as givens, as if everybody will continue making $22 million+ with the new members and as if the huge legal hurdles to these scenarios don’t exist. If things look too uncertain, the conference presidents are going to play it conservative and take the one team they need to do a conference championship game. For the Big 10 — a league famously slow to change — this would still represent a major leap forward.

If the Big 10 only needs one or even three teams, given the many rich, established and willing mates for them out there (Nebraska, Texas, A&M, Missouri and Kansas, to name a few), I don’t see them choosing Rutgers, Pitt, Syracuse or UConn. If the Big 12 loses a few teams and the Pac 10 wants to expand, they, too, will have plenty of options. While there are no 2005 Louisvilles left here out east, but there are a number of programs that look ready and deserving to join BCS leagues located in the Midwest — Utah, Brigham Young, Boise State, Texas Christian, Air Force and even UNLV have a lot to offer.

If they go to 12, then they probably go for a slam dunk like Texas or Nebraska or someone from that group, but Pitt’s a player there in that “if we go to 12” group. If the league goes to 14 or 16 teams, then they have to grab someone from the Big East, and maybe two or three teams counting Pitt, because it expands the market/audience for the Big Tsomethingorother Network. You mentioned the wild card, though. The Pac Ten is going to have a major chance to alter things. Texas will give that league serious consideration for the Olympic sports alone, especially if the Big 12 starts to shake. The Pac Ten (it has 10 teams!) can go to 14 and pull some of those midwest teams, which would really, really hurt the Big 12 if it loses Missouri and/or Nebraska and thus make the Texas thing more plausible.

ccteam said:

ND in the Big East bowl picture has been good for the conference overall. However, it may now be time to force them out. It could force them to the Big 10 and that might stop all the conference realignment activities. It’s a risky strategy, but it might work.

I remain fascinated by this: How many times have people derided Notre Dame for independence or for rumors it might join the Big Televen? And now I think people would be perfectly fine with Notre Dame exiting the Big East and joining the expansionists because, as unlikely as it still seems, it’d probably stop the growth at 12 teams.

Mack said:

The quote seems to imply that we should kick Notre Dame out while we have two years left on our TV contracts. I’m no lawyer, but I’m pretty sure that the Big East would be in breach of contract if that were the case because the TV contracts (for basketball anyway) surely include Notre Dame.

Hmmm, that was spoken like a lawyer, but my guess is the Big East would attach a caveat that Notre Dame leaves at the end of contract.

jtmountaineer said:

The Beef O Brady Bowl? Come on.

John Radcliff said:

 

With bowls like that, we should petition the Big Televen to go ahead and take who they want so we can get on with joining the ACC.

Dr Love said:

 

Beef O’Brady’s is a very marginal pub themed restaurant ala Applebee’s. However, it may be the worst pub themed restaurant of all time! I suspect any sponsorship will soon disappear into the ether like Bennigan’s fried cheese sticks.

jtmountaineer said:

 

A curious move…

Good offense is a start, and Hugs has a knack for packing a defensive game onto players with pre-existing scoring skills. Like you, Mike, I am thrown for a loop because I’d not heard his name even once. Anywhere. Thought it was going to be Todd Mayo. Any idea whether TM said no or we said yes to Mr. Curry?

jjefbocc said:

 

Todd Mayo is going to prep for a year, then come out with the 2011 class. Nyarsuk is likely to do the same thing. We will probably bank Ebank’s scholarship until next year.