Oh, the move from the soccer strong Big East to the “Hey, we’ve got Akron! It’s a power!” Mid-American Conference was one thing. It robbed the men’s — and the women’s — soccer team of a bunch of guaranteed RPI games against conference opponents. It also left strength of schedule with a bunch of so-so conference opponents — and that, too, includes women’s soccer.

But a critical period of indecision in the winter of 2012 left Marlon LeBlanc in scheduling limbo.

He wasn’t sure he’d be  in the Big East or not in the 2012 season. There was a plan to play as an independent with a Big East schedule while not being eligible for the Big East tournament, but that came off the rails.

The uncertainty made for just a really difficult time scheduling games against opponents who wouldn’t and couldn’t commit knowing WVU might have to re-arrange things after the fact. Once it was clear WVU was in the Big 12 and, a while later, that men’s soccer was in the MAC, the Mountaineers were left with a diminished schedule that more or less left them out of the NCAA Tournament.

“I knew what was going to be the problem going in,” LeBlanc said. “The real problem for us was I didn’t have any time to solve it. In a normal year, that 9-6-2 record makes us an at-large NCAA Tournament team.”

Well, the MAC isn’t looking much better in 2013 than it was in 2012. LeBlanc was conditioned to a certain type of schedule in the Big East and he came to realize there’s a magic number of RPI games that he has to have. Most of those RPI helpers were within the league, which means he now  has to find those games.

He’s trying to use the non-conference schedule to reach that number. And that’s why he maybe lost his mind when he put together his 2013 schedule, which, by the way, nearly had a third team from the 2012 Final Four.

There are only seven MAC teams and six conference matches. WVU is playing exhibition matches against Ohio State and Villanova, which gives LeBlanc a dozen non-conference opportunities.

He wanted to be aggressive, which led to the unique arrangement WVU has early in the season. The team will bus to Washington, D.C., Sept. 5 to play the Hoyas a day later. That’s a 4 p.m. match, which lets WVU fly to Indianapolis that night, bus to Bloomington, Ind., rest the following day and play the eight-time national champion Hoosiers at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 8.

“Look at it this way,” LeBlanc said. “That’s an NCAA Tournament run. That’s how we’ll approach it with our guys. It’s survive and advance. Unless you get a first-round bye, you have to play five matches to win a national championship. That stretch is a pretty good simulation for survive and advance.”

WVU also plays at St. John’s (No. 24 in final 2012 RPI) and at home against Penn State (No. 49) and Michigan (No. 21) in succession a week after the Georgetown-Indiana sequence. That precedes the MAC opener against Akron.

Conference realignment gave LeBlanc another problem when Florida Atlantic left for Conference USA and left the Mountaineers without a MAC match for two weeks. He filled that gap with three matches, including one at home against High Point and one at American, Nos. 76 and 85 in the final 2012 RPI, respectively.