By: Dana Young

Mountaineer fans should look forward to a more competitive playing schedule, as the BIG 12 conference adds four new teams to supplement Oklahoma and Texas leaving for the SEC. 

The BIG 12 conference extends invitations to Brigham Young University, Cincinnati, Houston, and the University of Central Florida to join the conference as soon as 2023. Both Oklahoma and Texas are leaving the conference in search of better television rights, competition, and overall, more money for their athletic programs.

For teams like Oklahoma and Texas that rank in the Top 25 (Sports Illustrated, 2021) in recruiting classes year in and year out, the move to the SEC is not so much for better-recruiting opportunities but more money for athletic programs. More money helps smaller programs like track, swimming, wrestling, etc. to recruit but for football, it allows for more capital that could lead to facility upgrades.

Since joining the BIG12 the Mountaineers have been mediocre at best, they have had two 10-win seasons and the rest of the time they have managed to get between 4-8 wins. Against conference opponents, they have just under a 50%-win percentage in the 10 years that they have been in the conference. In 8 bowl appearances, they have a 3-5 record and have missed out on bowl games twice in the previous ten years. So, losing those two rivals will hurt the Mountaineer culture, but ultimately can lead to more success for the program.

For WVU this not only adds more opponents to the schedule but also allows them to shift the power balance of the conference. None of the incoming schools are moving in from other Power 5 conferences, which gives the existing BIG12 schools an advantage because of the amount of full athletic scholarships they have as opposed to the new schools.

Understand that the moves between schools will not be immediate and that there will be an adjustment period for all schools and conferences involved. The BIG12 will split into two separate divisions to house the expanded conference. The hope is that more teams do not look to leave the conference in search of new opportunities so that the BIG12 will keep its reputation as a competitive power 5 conference.

Mountaineer fans all across the country should look forward to a new BIG12 champion, as the team will return to prominence in the coming years. It’s been a while but it’s about time those country roads take us to a champion.