Neal Brown on worrying about conference realignment: West Virginia has always been successful

With Texas and Oklahoma being plucked from the Pac-12, as well as USC and UCLA moving to the Big Ten — many Big 12 fans and programs are worried about being left behind amid all the conference realignment. Not West Virginia football coach Neal Brown, though. This offseason is nothing but business as usual for him and the Mountaineer program.

Brown recently expressed that he’s not concerned about the future of the Big 12 conference. Any decisions involving realignment wouldn’t involve him, as the football coach, anyway. Those stresses and pressures are for decision-makers higher up the WVU athletic department.

“The good thing about it is I’ve got a lot of worries and a lot of concerns, but conference realignment is way down the list for me,” Brown said. “For us, those decisions are not getting made by football coaches, those decisions are made at a much higher level.”

Brown continued, expressing confidence in the future of the league regardless of the recent shifts. “I’m really excited about the direction of the Big 12 Conference. Some things over the last few weeks have created a great opportunity for our league. I like the direction. We have some unique opportunities. I think the leadership of our conference has made some really good decisions with the additions, and I have strong belief that they will continue to do so.”

He also noted that the Mountaineers are conference journeymen. They’ve switched leagues before and remained a successful athletics program as a whole.

“From a West Virginia perspective, we played in — we’re a little bit different than maybe some of the other schools up here. We’ve played in multiple leagues over the last 50 to 75 years. We’ve even been an independent. The one constant is that West Virginia football has always been successful and always figured out a way to make it work. So from a long-term perspective, I have great faith that West Virginia football is going to be just fine.”

Neal Brown is coaching football, not worrying about the future. The rest — the conference realignment — won’t bother his job. Even if West Virginia does move conferences, the football brand remains strong. Heck, WVU was a power program in the Big East. Surely they’d have no problem maintaining success on a national level in an altered Big 12.