Basketball. Even then that’s a debatable topic. It’s essentially a school similar to Oak Hill or IMG that churns out recruits from all over but it doesn’t really serve as a pipeline to anywhere.
Football drives the bus in the SEC and West Virginia has to pull recruits from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Florida, etc to be successful. That’s one of the reason Texas A&M was so attractive. Add in that UK already has a presence in the Huntington/Charleston area and WVU is a secondary team in the Pittsburgh markets and outside of fan support what do they offer?
WVU would always have made a nice fit with the SEC, the silly "they are hillbillies" excuse doesn't work, look at some of the other schools in the conference, and academics? the SEC is doubled down in the state of Mississippi.
Won't happen now though, unless there is a run to 16 and there is nobody else left.
Go Gators!
Revering4Blue (03-20-2020)
If WVU was a good fit for the SEC it would have happened in 2012.
Just like WVRed said, the TV market isn't strong enough for the SEC.
Geographically and style wise they would fit extremely well but it's not enough to step into the big time SEC. They landed in the Big12 in a domino effect anyways with Nebraska, Colorado, and Texas A&M all leaving.
For the record, I think WVU would have been more competitive than what Missouri has been and likely would have been an interesting matchup with some teams in the conference. Missouri brought the St Louis and Kansas City market with them though.
As a UK fan though, I refuse to consider WVU a border rival when the two campuses are a five hour drive. With Marshall being in Huntington and WVU fandom really not starting until you get further away from I-64, the border rivalry really doesn’t exist.
Again, West Virginians watch more sports than any other state.
That's a lot of eyeballs.
As for 16 teams, I can get there rather easily:
South Division
Florida
Alabama
Georgia
Auburn
North Division
Kentucky
West Virginia
Missouri
Arkansas
Central Division
Tennessee
Vandy
Memphis
South Carolina
West Division
Texas A&M
LSU
Ole Miss
Mississippi State
Last edited by Bourgeois Zee; 03-16-2020 at 09:40 AM.
Revering4Blue (03-20-2020)
The only way the SEC expands any time soon is if they can get one of the ACC schools from NC or VA.
Dream scenario would be NC State and UNC leaving the ACC for the SEC. That would acquire the Charlotte and Raleigh markets for the SEC.
I think its a 50 million exit fee. The SEC is distributing around 15 million+ more to schools on average than the ACC. The SEC and Big 10 continue to lead the pack in revenue and the SEC media rights with CBS expire in 2024 ($55 million per year) a bidding war is reported to be in the $300 million per year range (adding around 17.5 million per team per year). If that happens I believe any team would be willing to take a hit if they would earn back the 50 million in 2 years if the gap ends up being in the $30 million per year area.
I think the ball is in the Big 12's court.
If the Big 12 takes the pac12 apart then they will be safe and not be losing anyone.
ACC will pitch ND on coming in for football, be turned down, maybe end up with UC and someone else, maybe UCONN?
Not sure who the SEC would get in that scenario, might be better to just stay at 14.
Go Gators!
WVU could compete in the SEC, especially the SEC East. Outside of last year, I have little doubt we would have competed for the SEC East more years than Florida in the past decade....hell, we would have busted the Gators a$$ with their former QB....while taking a back seat to no team outside UK in basketball. Also, to WVRed and anyone else that suggests the silly claim that WVU will be relegated to a G5 conference, that is not going to happen.
If you read the Andy Staples article on the Athletic, which has multiple supplemental articles published over the last week by college football guys around the country.....and listened to Andy on the radio over the last week, it pieces together like this (somethings based on tidbit comments and sources, while other parts feel like speculation). The next round of realignment will have far less to do with television markets because of cord cutting & streaming. It will be much more about culture and brand names. The ratings over the last decade have shown that brand name and fit outweigh television market size because with so much movement in the country, teams no longer control many markets like they did just 10-20 years ago. For example, the Florida Gators will always try to claim Orlando as their television market, and while they do rate well in Orlando, so does Ohio State, Alabama, Notre Dame among others. Orlando is a transplant market which many of the Southeast, Texas and West coast markets are also transplant markets. The claims all seem to center around the brand name schools in the PAC12 being upset at the other schools for not investing or really trying to keep up with their football programs. There have been three primary models I have seen....
The first would be The Big12 taking in USC, UCLA, Washington, Oregon and possibly the 2 Arizona schools. The SEC taking in WVU. The Big10 taking in Missouri and Rutgers being relegated to the AAC. The second one I have seen is the Big12 taking in USC, UCLA, Memphis and potentially the 2 Arizona schools. The third model was the most drastic and includes creating a Power 6 with a major regional realignment. Fwiw, I would favor the 3rd model which basically would take the best teams from the AAC, WVU from the Big12, Maryland from the Big10, and a could ACC schools (Syracuse, Pitt?) to create the 6th conference.....but the only way this would happen is if ESPN and Fox got involved to ensure WVU, Maryland, Cuse, etc. that it would be financially worthwhile and stable for at least a decade.
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