[Husker] West Virginia set to join Big XII this year

[Nick Chevance]

On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 7:51 AM, David Elfering <aroundomaha at gmail.com> wrote:
> As someone who attended University of Maryland (lived there for a few years
> in my space operation days) I agree with Jon, don't under estimate West
> Virginia.

Oh, I don't underestimate WVU at all.  Perhaps we're underestimating
Mizzou a bit.

First let me say that my first message, sent from a bar on my
smartphone, was probably too short to convey what I meant clearly.
Second, please excuse me if I sound like I'm giving undue support to
Mizzou.  By accident of marriage (my sister's, not mine), I've been
associated with Mizzou football longer than I have Husker football.
And I still don't care for them.  Probably never will.  It still pains
me to visit my mother who moved to Columbia after retiring, and hear
her talk up Missouri football and basketball.  But as much as I love
my mother, I just don't care for Mizzou, their attitudes, their
seemingly incomprehensible arrogance about a program that has been
good, but not great, in the recent past.

Which was my point about the BigXII getting a new Missouri.  WVU seems
to fit that bill pretty well.  In the last decade, both programs have
been good - good enough to win conference co-championships (WVU was
conference champ once, and co-champ 5 times in the last 10 years,
Mizzou divisional champs 3 times).  Good enough to get to some bowl
games and win a few (WVU - 4-3 [3 BCS], Mizzou - 4-4 [1 BCS]).  To me,
looking these two teams, and ignoring the color schemes, they look a
lot alike.  Yes, WVU has a new coach, and they absolutely throttled
Clemson, but I'm not sure how that translates into their success in
the BigXII.  Has their competition in the Big East been comparable to
the competition in the BigXII?  Pitt?  Connecticut?  Rutgers?
Cincinnati?

When Nebraska left the BigXII, that left Mizzou as the former North
Division contender against Texas and the Sooners.  With Mizzou gone
now, WVU steps in as that 3rd place team in the conference.  Of
course, their potential for success depends largely on whether Mack
Brown can halt the current slide that Texas has taken, and whether
Stoops can get his talent to show every week in Norman.  With the
struggles that both those teams are having, it wouldn't have been such
a bad idea to be back in the conference again, if only to exact some
revenge.  But then, we would have had to face OSU and that offense,
with our defensive backfield.  Probably not a pretty picture.

So, that's what I meant by WVU is the new Missouri.  They're good, but
so was Missouri.  Not necessarily great, but good.

Nick
-- 
“I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said,
but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I
meant.”
Robert McCloskey, State Department spokesman