The Big 12’s website put up a press release welcoming West Virginia around 10:50 AM Friday. Second article here.
But buried at the bottom were two sentences conspicuous in what they didn’t say:
Beginning with the 2012-13 season it is expected that the Big 12 Conference will be comprised of 10 Universities – Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech and West Virginia. The Big 12’s footprint will encompass five states with over 36 million people.
Ten universities, not including Missouri. Five states, not including Missouri.
I really hope that the Big 12 comes to its senses and creates a football schedule that’s not the same set of weeks every year. (Or gives ISU Kansas for Homecoming. Please?) And moves back to 12 teams, but one hope at a time, I suppose.
But that scheduling depends on whether the Big East will actually let WV go:
While the Big 12’s statement said West Virginia will begin competing in the 2012-13 athletic season, Big East Commissioner John Marinatto said the Mountaineers will be staying in the Big East for two more seasons. “West Virginia is fully aware that the Big East Conference is committed to enforcing the 27-month notification period for members who choose to leave the conference,” he said in a statement.
And then there’s the Missouri issue. Thursday night, when much of the state of Missouri was focused — SQUIRREL! — on the bottom of the ninth in Game 6 of the World Series, the SEC officially welcomed Missouri … for about ten minutes.
As of right now, the Big 12 may or may not have 10 members in 2012-13, and West Virginia and Missouri may or may not be among them.
Looks like my family’s previously completed tour of the Big 12 campuses is going to need another installment. (We went to TCU on the way to the Houston Bowl in 2005.)
Geography note: If Missouri does leave, that would add Iowa State and West Virginia to Boston College and South Florida on the list of BCS universities in states that don’t touch any other states in their conferences. BC would become contiguous with the rest of the ACC when Syracuse and Pitt join — and then UConn and possibly Rutgers would be isolated.