(Disclaimer: Apparetly things are not entirely fixed with our wheel/hampster. The spellcheck engine is not working … and I’m just not very good at that in general. Apologeez in advance.)

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which no one says has to go first … but will, nevertheless. Yesterday’s haywiredness prevented the apppropriate discoure for the quizzical “Who said the Big Ten had to go first?” 

It’s obtuse, I admit, but aren’t all these angles as they relate to expansion? At least initially? I would argue yes and admit over time they make more and more sense. Isn’t that right, Bill Stewart? 

Anyhow, throughout the annual conference meetings you’d have to believe every one of the major conference and all of the second-tier — and their top-shelf members — have kicked around all the ideas. So what if the oh so silent Pac 10 invited Texas and BYU? Or Colorado and BYU? 

Well, now the Big 12 has to move and perhaps it lands Boise State and, in the meantime, organizes and gets its current members to commit to the long term. Suddenly Missouri and/or Nebraska is off the table for the Big Ten.

The Big East is reading the tea leaves and scoops up … oh boy, um … ECU, UCF, Memphis and Buffalo and gets Rutgers, UConn, etc. to commit.

And this is just the domino apocalypse for teams getting to 12. Imagine if the Big Ten didn’t have to be first and someone — SEC — jumped off and went to 16 by acquiring, say, Miami, Georgia Tech, Memphis and Florida State. Imagine then the ACC’s reaction and, subsequently, the Big East’s. 

If the expansion is so imminent and all these people in all these other conferences acknowledge, if even silently, they’re going to have to do something in response, why not be first and get what they actually want to be dominant/competitive/with the Joneses as opposed to what they need to do to stay in line. 

Again, it might sound crazy, but in a few months, it might not. 

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, check your deductible.

Jeff in Akron said:

It is refreshing, and endearing, to realize that our basketball coach that just took us to the final four, and the Big East title, isn’t screaming for a raise because so and so just got one. Plus, he isn’t screaming from the proverbial mountain top how he has saved the university just by dong his job.

Further, he and his agent don’t seem to be that concerned about the whole process. Simply put, he seems to trust the powers that be at WVU to do that for him and adjust it accordingly. I’m sure there are checks and ballances built in somewhere. But Huggins doesn’t seem to be that overly concerned.

What a difference a couple of years makes.

Absolutely. I feel good for Ed Pastilong, too. He can go to the Big East meetings without having his peers make fun of him…

Karl said:

Hmm. Totally hypothetical, but what happens if WVU leaves the Big East?

 Then Huggins’s mean salary is going to need some examining. I wish someone could explain this better than I can.

SheikYbuti said:

That’s called a “bilateral mistake,” in that a material condition assumed by both parties to exist throughout the contract ceases to be the case. In such an instance, the contract itself could specify the remedy (including the termination of the agreement), but more likely the implied duties of good faith and fair dealing inherent to all contracts would simply require Huggs to be reasonably compensated in accordance with the spirit of the agreement. The coaches in whatever remains of the Big East could continue to provide the barometer (even if WVU is no longer a member), as could the coaches in whatever new conference the school decides to join, or there might be some more imaginative solution. It’s also entirely probable that the parties would immediately renegotiate the entire compensation package.

 … OK, that’s a much better job.

overtheSEC said:

Jim Delany : Big Ten expansion talks::_____________:__________

a) a HS kid who is enjoying the recruiting “attention” : Letter of Intent speculation
b) Brett Favre : retirement announcement
c) this girl I know : letting the guy she had been stringing along for three freaking years finally off the hook

 The guy fits perfectly as the head of that conference, yes?

StraightOuttaNorthCentral said:

You know what’s really not crazy? the idea of just blowing up the whole conference structure as it currently exists and starting from scratch. Yeah, yeah, i know, tradition, yada yada. Screw that. You’re telling me Northwestern really belongs in the same conference as Ohio State? You’re telling me Vanderbilt really fits with Alabama? Iowa State and Baylor with Texas? Duke (in football) with Florida State and Miami? Florida State and Miami (in basketball) with Duke? It’s ridiculous. It’s so 20th century. If you’re gonna throw a few cups of tradition out the window to expand the Big Prime Number, why not just throw out the whole tub of water and do it in a way that makes sense

 SONC was just kidnapped by six masked men … a seventh guy wearing a MWC facemask was trying to keep up as the others fled.

Karl said:

When Stew first blurted this out, I thought, where the hell did that come from? So much has changed since then, I kind of feel bad for feeling a little annoyed about it. At the time, he sounded like a loose-lipped loose cannon. Now, he looks like a guy who has his ear to the street more than some of us believe.

 Bill Stewart, purveyor, conveyor, protector of logic and common sense.

The Artist Formerly Known as EER96 said:

“Ask me about confrence expansion! Ask me about about expansion!”

 One of these days …

Foul Shot said:

I saw the Cleveland sports teams going up in flames feature on the game last night. If you were a Cleveland fan it must make you feel the same as when every time we play Pitt now we have to relive 13-9. Enough already. How about some 19-16 next Backyard Brawl?

I’d be OK with that.

Mike Casazza said:

…but seriously, where do I find ramps now? Anyone?

 Anybody?

Mack said:

I’m sure Rodriguez is chomping at the bit to have Rutgers and Syracuse added to the Big Ten. While they’re at it, he would also like Akron and Western Michigan included.

 Excellent.

The 25314 said:

I wonder where “teams of value” rank on The Product’s “f-special”-scale.

 Good question. Better question: Where do WVIAC teams rank?

Josh24601 said:

How is Stew’s stated strategy of targeting yearly recruiting classes of 18-or-so going to work? Assuming no attrition, which doesn’t happen anywhere and ain’t happening at WVU, consistent recruiting classes of this size will mean that WVU will have significantly fewer than 85 scholarship players, the NCAA maximum. Where are the extra 10-15 players going to come from? Are there really that many walk-ons who will earn scholarships? Even though WVU has made considerable hay out of the walk-on-made-good sort of player, has there ever been enough walk-ons with D1 talent to merit more than ten scholarships per annum? To my knowledge, no one has asked Bill Stewart any of these questions. I suppose a knee-jerk retort would be that he intends to multiply 17 or 18 by _five_ years instead of four, but, like assuming no attrition, that projection is wobbly too. Where are the players going to come from?

 I don’t really get it, either, but it’s an idea they coaches have been crafting for a while now. We need to observe it before we judge it. I think, in its base, the idea is to prevent situations where there are years where four linemen or four receivers graduate and WVU is constantly reloading certain positions. In the past — and again, this is what I gather — with 25 or so players in a class, certain positions got crowded. Attrition depleted other positions. Four years later, WVU was looking to replenish a position that had remained crowded. The goal, I suppose, is to recruit smaller and to be more exact. Then after a year or a few more, WVU can plug in the holes that appear in the presence of this new plan. The concern, as you state, is pretty obvious. What if it doesn’t work (at all, perfectly, whatever)? What if attrition occurs to smaller numbers? I guess we have to wait and see.

SheikYbuti said:

Although my ignorance of (and disdain for) the irritating oxymoron known as “rap music” is well documented on this blog, even I recognize an overworked writer’s subconscious Freudian desire to imbue the staid coaching profession with a certain degree of urbanity, for shizzle.

 It’s cool when you cause a cozy conditionin, which we create, because that’s our mission.

overtheSEC said:

Ain’t nuthin’ but a typo

 Daily Mail is the paper that pays me.

Big Al said:

Reminds me of the old Cosby shows where Bill Cosby would appear in every scene wearing a sweatshirt from a different college. Maybe Leo is just updating an “old school” look?

 Something like that, I’m sure.

StraightOuttaNorthCentral said:

I get the feeling that Leo arranges to shop at the mall hat store after hours and then just stands there in the middle of the room pointing at all the hats he thinks are cool looking, whether or not he knows what they are. Which is, I should say, exactly what I would do if I could afford to buy an unlimited number of hats. Seriously, all every hat he’s wearing in that article has an interesting looking logo. We should all chip in and buy him a hat with the logo the WVU baseball team uses. I think that’s an awesome hat.

 I think Leo can afford it, but otherwise it’s a great idea.

glibglub said:

Somewhere in Leo’s tony L.A. manse, there surely is some kind of huge custom hat closet. Perhaps a hat butler or hat database to keep track of the hat rotation and determine when it is time to replace gently worn ones with new. The man just flat out has a lot of caps. And his surname is DiCAPrio. Lamely, I took valuable seconds out of my day to Google the significance of this:

The French, Italian and Spanish surname of DICAPRIO was originally derived from the Old French word ‘chape’ meaning a hooded cloak, cape, hood or hat, and was applied as a metonymic occupational name for a maker of either cloaks or hats, or as a nickname for a habitual wearer of a distinctive cloak or hat.

So in a way, he’s being true to his roots. ‘Course, he can’t very well go around wearing hooded cloaks in public.…

I have no reply for that. But thank you.

StraightOuttaNorthCentral said:

 The legend of Da continues to grow.

I heard before graduation, he rescued a kitten from a tree with one of his crutches.

And that after graduation, he beat Clinton in a game of H-O-R-S-E even after he spotted the Prez two letters.

And that, as they were leaving the gym, Da and Bill parted by doing a complicted multi-part handshake followed by a double-back-pat bro hug. 

That didn’t happen. Did it?

tim said:

i think i spotted them coming out of a cigar store

 Enjoy the weekend!