The fact remains that while Eddie ATTEMPTED to get us in the SEC, Ollie DID get us in the Big XII. Now we can debate all day and all night and into forever about what role Munchkin, Don Nehlen, and others had, but no one can deny Ollie's role.
Nehlen's role in WVU move to Big 12 was simple.
The Athletic sportswriter Max Olsen wrote a solid look back on West Virginia’s departure from the crumbling Big East to join the Big 12 and save its seat among the college football power conferences.
Athletic Director Oliver Luck and then President Jim Clements pushing the move, even going so far as to include the seldom-mentioned but nonetheless crucial role that former West Virginia coach Don Nehlen played in the process.
In fact, among all of Nehlen’s contributions to WVU that got hm into the College Football Hall of Fame which included a pair of undefeated seasons and rebuilding the program so that it could remain a collegiate power, this might have been the most crucial.
Luck and Clements had an especially valuable ally in their fight to land in the Big 12: Don Nehlen. Clements asked the Mountaineers’ Hall of Fame football coach to reach out to Big 12 interim commissioner Chuck Neinas and help make their case. They’d been great friends for decades, dating back to when Neinas was executive director of the College Football Association and Nehlen was chairman of the CFA’s coaches committee and the two worked closely together on a variety of national issues. Big time key and critical piece.
One must remember that at the time WVU and Louisville were pushing to get into the Big 12 along with TCU as it expanded to fill its final vacancy created by the departure of Missouri and it was hardly a foregone conclusion that the Mountaineers will fill the spot.
“Chuck and I were really good friends. We had worked together for five or six years. He was the executive director of the College Football Association and I was the representative of the Football Coaches of America,” Nehlen began.
“We would meet three or four times a year and we were very instrumental in getting some sanity in the recruiting rules.”
The most important thing they did with recruiting was manage to put together a proposal to get alumni and boosters out of the recruiting process, which was not an easy sell for Nehlen to the coaches.
Luck and Clements had held negotiations with Neinas but hadn’t yet reached a deal.
“When going to the Big 12 rolled around, President Clements called me and said, ‘Hey, Don, Chuck Neinas says he’s not going to do anything unless he talks to you. So, I called Chuck,” Nehlen said.
Neinas had been the commissioner of the Big Eight for a decade before leaving and was serving as interim commissioner at this time in 2011.
Nehlen reports the conversation went like this, or something close to it;
NEHLEN: Hey, Chuck, what’s up?
NEINAS: Do you want in the Big 12?
NEHLEN: Yes we do.
NEINAS: Well, I’ll tell you what. If you want in, you are going to have to play next year and you’ve got to get an airport so we can land in Morgantown.
And that was that.
“I left the airport up to Dr. Clements. I said, ‘You handle that one,’” Nehlen said.
Let’s just say that’s still ongoing.
Oh, the Big East fought to block WVU from leaving, threatening to enforce its 27-month advance notice of departure rule, but WVU was willing to challenge that.
Certainly Nehlen was ready to make the move.
“I knew the Big East was crumbling. I’ll be honest. I was kind of disappointed. I thought we’d get into the ACC. It kind of made sense geographically. The Big 12 didn’t make sense geographically,” he said.
“When Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech pulled out, the Big East became just an average league. It was starting to fall apart.
“I thought we had to do something but Ollie and Dr. Clements really wanted to get into the Big 12 ... so, whatever little I could do I did.”
And what he could do was convince Neinas that WVU was ready to play at that level right away.
“I told him, Chuck, we could be competitive right away .. maybe not with Oklahoma. But Texas had slipped and was going through some tough times,” Nehlen said.
Neinas was receptive and Nehlen knew the deal would get done.
“He was the most knowledgeable guy in college football when I was coaching,” Nehlen said of Neinas, who had become the league’s interim commissioner and who even today, at 87, is a powerful consultant. “If people wanted something done in college football, they had to go through Chuck Neinas or they didn’t get it done. He had the clout.”
Nehlen was sure WVU could compete in the Big 12 because he knew that the Big East Conference in which he coached was every bit a tough as the Big 12 the school was heading into.
Don't kid yourselves that Nehlen had nothing to do with WVU getting in Big 12. I would say he was the most important piece to the entire puzzle.
