Originally Posted by
adkindo
first, the Final Four team in 2010 won the Big East tournament, and the Big East was a conference where the tournament champion was considered the conference champion. I get some conferences like the Big12 put more emphasis on the season, but the old Big East and ACC has always considered the tournament championship the real prize. The old Big East was the best and toughest bball conference in the modern history of college basketball and in the Big12, Kansas has won the conference something like 14 out of the last 15 years....so not much shame there. We have never beat Kansas in Phog Allen, but take a look at our record against Kansas in the Coliseum....and you think we would fear the SEC in basketball? Second, we could definitely compete in the SEC East. Outside of Georgia, who was WVU going to take a backseat to during the Will Grier years? SEC East had a little bounce back last year, but had been weak for years. The SEC has been UGA and the SEC West for years....and while teams like UF and UK have had some decent defenses, their offenses have been terrible. The last great QB UF had was.....Will Grier. So I want to be clear....you are suggesting that WVU Football could not compete with Tennessee? Kentucky? Vanderbilt? South Carolina? Missouri? and even Florida in recent years? If that is what you are claiming, you are simply wrong.
In regards to basketball, I did not claim we would be the annual runner up....I said we would would not take a backseat to any program outside UK. I am recognizing that UK is an elite Blue Blood bball program, and the only one in the SEC...just as the only program WVU takes a backseat to in the Big12 is Kansas. Taking a back seat is accepting we simply are not going to be able to recruit at that level or have similar success every season. The Big12 is a far better basketball conference than the SEC most years, and WVU has won more games in the Big12 since joining than any other team outside Kansas. There is no reason to think we would fair any worse in a weaker conference.
For the record, I have little to no interest in joining the SEC. WVU considers itself a football school, and I do not see the point in knowing that Alabama, LSU or Auburn is always going to be waiting in December to prevent any hopes of a magical season. The pinnacle for a SEC East team most years is a New Years day bowl game or the freakin Citrus Bowl (or whatever it is called now) and that is in the best years. That said, if we ended up in the SEC, please show up in Morgantown thinking it will be an easy win.