It's about getting the Big12 into the playoffs regularly? Regularly????. We have had one year of the playoffs. Give it a few years where the BIG12 is the ONLY conference left out and you may have a point.
You may also have a point that there could be some schools who would take advantage of Big12 membership and truly become a Power 5 school. Or they could be another Vanderbilt, or Wake Forest or Kansas, or Northwestern or Boston College or some other team that is a member of a power conference with no particular qualifications other than being legacy members who are doormats and bottom feeders.
The ACC? They can go #$%^ themselves. The ACC folding is equally as likely a scenario as is WVU being left out of major college athletics.
Which Mid-major is WVU most like that is on the outside looking in? Cincy? Memphis? Houston? UCF? Please, WVU is a mid-major? You don't think we belong in the top 64 sports programs? Less worthy than Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Boston College, Texas Tech, TCU, Iowa State, Kansas, Northwestern, Illinois, Colorado, Utah, Rutgers, Maryland, Purdue, Ole Miss, Arkansas, etc. etc. etc.
Even if we go to 12 teams and have a championship game there are still 5 major conferences vying for 4 playoff slots. It will change nothing, will not make the conference stronger, will not make it more prestigious.
Unlike many, I am not whistling past the graveyard. A Big 12 being left out in any given year is more likely than not if the other four conferences have unbeaten or one loss candidates. Not playing a game during that week to earn exposure when the committee is making a choice of which 4 of the 5 should be is critical.
I do not ever think WVU has been a mid-major and that is not what I said. I said middle of the pack Big 12 school and WVU is that and likely always will be except for a rare appearance at the top or bottom. The Big 12 has 2 schools at the top, 2 at the bottom and 6 in the middle in any given year.
The Big 12 does not have to prove it is stronger than any other P5 conference, it has to prove it is not weaker. The perception is that because it has 10 members and no CC that it is weaker. No one can argue that the Big 12 does not have that perception nationally.
What schools would make a good choice to brought in? I don't think it matters really. They just have to be good at something like Kansas is in basketball. Kansas is Syracuse of the Midwest. In truth, Kansas is not as good as Syracuse, Syracuse used to be able to play football, Kansas never has.
If I were to prognosticate, I believe the next round starts when the SEC plucks Virginia and North Carolina and I think they will do so to keep the Big Ten from grabbing them first. The SEC and the Big 10 have already done their raids of the Big 12, but so far only Maryland from the ACC has been snatched. The next moves will come out of the ACC and not the Big 12.
If the SEC does take Virginia and North Carolina, FSU, Clemson and Georgia Tech have to ask themselves do they want to go elsewhere or face the situation that the Big 12 currently faces: adding schools like UCF or USF or ECU or some other mid major. I have no idea how that would shake out, but at the end of the day, the ACC will fall apart, mostly because it is built just like the old Big East down to Notre Dame leeching off it and calling the shots without paying their dues.
I would not take BYU. Their no-Sunday policy is a killer in Olympic sports and the conference does not need to move further west. I would hope we do not take Notre Dame, we already have one prima donna, don't need two hogging the spotlight. Besides Texas is better at playing the Drama Queen than ND ever could be. If we have to have one, best to have the best one.
I really do not see any school that is going to please everyone but we do need to get 2 in the next 12 to 18 months.
