And we’re off. Derek Redd, he of the Marshall beat at our newspaper, gets this thing going by examining a concise question and giving a response that must be anything but concise: What exactly is going on here?

The NCAA is changing — perhaps very soon — and it’s been a long time coming. There are specific issues being debated and there are specific outcomes expected. There are ramifications attached to myriad possibilities. There is concern and excitement that things will never be the same.

We get all that.

What we sometimes lose sight of, especially when we consider how long this has actually been going on and how much activity there is before what we believe to be the conclusion, is why we’re here. It’s pretty important to step back and ask that one question and to make sure we’re aware of what exactly is happening.

We solicited a number of opinions from people quoted and not quoted in the story and we got their answers, and those answers turned down another street or merged into a different area. Next thing you know, there’s a pretty thorough explanation.

So enjoy. It’s long, yeah, but it has to be long because the topic is that deep and the answers are coming at us quickly.

“It’s hard to envision it being any more tumultuous than it is right now,” Bowlsby said. “Generally speaking, it’s not an organization that changes quickly. That would lead you to think that it’s going to calm down and probably evolve more slowly in the future. But it would be very difficult to predict that with any precision right now.”

Whether change speeds up or slows down as the months progress, those associated with college athletics know that, no matter the pace, it is inevitable. And each school will have crucial decisions to make in regards to their respective futures.

“I think each school will have to pick and choose, based upon what they can afford, what they’re going to do,” Hamrick said. “The days of standardized rules of every Division I program, I think that’s over.”

Tomorrow? The widening divide between the Haves and Have-nots in Division I … and whether that applies to WVU and Marshall.