I was talking to some people during this ceremony last night and our conversations headed in the direction I was planning to write my story for today’s papers. I quipped, I thought, to someone that, “I’m just surprised the Big 12 didn’t cancel the party and bring us all back Tuesday!”

Crickets.

Again, WVU’s road to this occasion was an unusual one, but I don’t think you can really overstate how big a story the Big 12’s rejuvenation is during a very tumultuous time that nearly left the conference for dead. Twice!  Even Bob Bowlsby, who was on the outside looking in and aboard the Pac-10 pirate ship that tried to raid the Big 12, admitted it truly is something else.

“It’s kind of ironic,” he said. “I don’t know that I care to get into talking too much about the details – I obviously have information on both sides and I don’t think it’s appropriate to share – but I think there were a lot of conferences scratching around to find out what’s the right size and I think the Pac-12 was in that situation, too.

“There seemed to be some opportunities with that list of schools and there were certainly some conversations, but beyond that, I’m glad the Big 12 stayed together and that I’m here to work with them and I’m glad the eight remaining members added two quality schools.”

Believe that WVU is, too, for it is a far better life than what would exist in the Big East.

President Jim Clements took a moment Sunday to reflect on the time in the Big East and acknowledged it was “huge” for WVU to gain entry in 1991. “It was great fur us as it was great for the Big East, but we’re looking forward now and we’re in a true power conference,” he told me in about as verbose as he tends to get when it comes to talking about the Big East — and settlement terms of the lawsuit have more than a little to do with that.

Still, it’s impossible to ignore how much things are changing and how much they will and must continue to change for the Mountaineers if they are to be successful in the Big 12. In fact, here’s a line from a Mountaineer Athletic Club fundraising appeal being mailed around to its supporters.

“This move to the Big 12 will require updated facilities, increased travel expenses, and additional scholarship funds and we cannot be successful without your continued support.”

For so long now — really, for the entire time Oliver Luck has been the athletic director, but in particular the past 10 months — the major focus in the athletic department has been on realignment issues. Who’s going where? How does it affect the Mountaineers and the Big East? What are he options? Why won’t John Marinatto make a move? Remember that part, please. WVU was doing a lot of this with a commissioner who was eventually fired by his membership.

The clouds have cleared now and while Sunday was significant on a calendar only, it did underline perhaps the most meaningful conclusion: WVU can get back to the business of, you know, WVU athletics. The days are now spent on things they should be spent on when, for far too long, that wasn’t the case.

“What gets me exited is that this allows us, and really, almost in a sense forces us, to really raise the bar – and not that we weren’t trying hard before,” Luck said. “But as we go into the Big 12, I think all of our programs, from football on down to rowing, are in a position now to where we look at everything we’re doing and try to decide how we can do it even better.

“That covers everything from infrastructure to salaries to operations, the whole nine yards. There are some competitive sports in the Big 12 and we have a few sports, quite honestly, that haven’t been competitive, baseball being one example and even volleyball, which is a massive step up from what we were experiencing previously. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but the great thing now is that we can focus on that and we don’t have to worry about extraneous stuff.”

Can you say $100 million budget? Luck can and he sees a day, six, eight, maybe 10 years from now, when that is the reality. It’s a startling number, but he believes it’s attainable. Oh, they’ll have to squeeze some stones and turn over some others to find some money, but there are more and greater revenue streams than ever before: Tier 3 rights, better bowl alliances, the Champions Bowl (I’m hearing $30 million or so to the conference for that one), the four-team playoff, even the television contract, which still needs some finalization about some minor scheduling details.

It is, according to every available insight, for 13 years and $2.6 billion. At 10 teams, that’s $20 million per season. And it’s going to be 10 teams, if you choose to believe Bowlsby. He likes having 10 teams and said “the majority of our members like 10.”

And then he hedged.

“Is that to say what we would foreclose on any consideration of other schools? No, certainly not, and I think conference expansion is going to be on everyone’s list of agenda items at every conference meeting in the Big 12 and also every other league around. I don’t think that’s going away anytime soon.

“But is it important to add schools? No. I’d say we’re very comfortable at 10 and we can stay comfortable for a while.”

One argument for growing to 12 or 16 teams — by the way, people seem to laugh at the idea of 14 because of the logistical problems it causes — is  introducing the conference championship game. Bowlsby said, “I actually like not having it.” Remember, this  is a league that lost four spots in the BCS title game because of the Big 12 title game. A conference championship game would have the league’s two best teams playing one more game, but Bowlsby said it leaves the loser as “damaged goods” and that that could impact a spot in the four-team playoff.

In fact, the only negative that can be associated with not having a conference championship game is, as Bowlsby said, “not having the additional revenue that comes from that.” I heard a while back that’s generally a touch more than $1 million per school, but figure that’s grown a bit with all the latest waves, additions and marketing availabilities. I hear now that the sting of leaving that money behind is soothed by the Champions Bowl and the playoff.

In short, people in the league at least seem, and at least for now, to agree on 10 and on this 10. In the strongest showing of solidarity possible, Bowlsby said the league presidents have agreed to extend the recently signed grant of media rights from six years to 13 years. That is, in essence, a gigantic buyout because if a team leaves the Big 12, it has agreed to leave its television rights to the league. Imagine Texas peeling out, but dropping all of its television rights off at the league office on the way to the interstate.

The extension is not signed — and that worries a lot of people who have seen the Big 12 come to blows over this stuff before — but Bowlsby said a “memorialized” deal is strong and significant.

“It’s the difference between marriage and living together,” Bowlsby said. “You want to be mutually committed. The presidents have agreed in principle and I have every expectation we’ll sign a formal document. These people are all involved in enormous organizations and they know stability is priority No. 1 for us and they are all mutually committed to moving forward with it.”