While neither the Big 12 nor Big East Conferences have issued statements or 2012 schedules yet, the news media reports that West Virginia has negotiated a release from its membership agreement with the Big East and will join the Big 12 in July.
Farewell Mountaineers.
As a Big East fan, that’s an honest sentiment. I don’t begrudge them an opportunity to take on a new challenge. But I won’t say that I admire the manner in which the move was made.
Just a year ago, the Big East football was in a comfort zone, looking forward to TCU’s arrival in the 2012 season and hopes for still more expansion as a conference on the rise.
Then came the perfect storm.
Texas A&M had been growing in discontent with its situation in the Big 12. Its switch – even speculation of its switch – to the SEC, set off a series of conference realignment moves that dealt the Big East a heavy blow. Long-time members Pittsburgh and Syracuse bolted to the ACC, and TCU reversed course to join the Big 12. Instead of nine teams with the prospects for more growth, the Big East suddenly found itself with six teams, all in panic of the conference’s imminent demise.
Several conference schools immediately began backroom politicking, looking for soft landings should the Big East collapse. UConn and Rutgers were perhaps the least discreet, with reports that the Huskies were openly courting admission to the ACC, and the Scarlet Knights looking to the ACC as well as the Big 10.
West Virginia was rumored to be seeking entry to the SEC, but talk ended quickly when that conference declared publicly that it wasn’t interested in adding the Mountaineers. The Big 12 was the next logical destination for West Virginia, but that conference was also eyeing Louisville. The Mountaineers eventually received the Big 12 invitation over the Cardinals, but not without a measure drama and some further damaged relationships in the Big East.
What happened next was more surprising. Although Pittsburgh and Syracuse had accepted terms of their Big East agreement to provide 27 months notice of departure, West Virginia brought suit against the conference to leave immediately.
The waiting period, obviously, was acceptable to West Virginia when it applied to Pitt and Cuse. When it was binding on the Mountaineers though, it became an unsatisfactory obstacle that would not impede the school’s departure to the Big 12, even to the recourse of legal action.
The 27-month provision was designed to ensure the Big East a degree of stability. So that a mass exodus (as was apparently happening) would not cause the conference’s sudden demise. As far as West Virginia was concerned though, now that it had found a new destination, the Big East – and its agreement – could be damned.
Yes, this is the 21st century. And yes, it’s increasingly common to renegotiate such long-term agreements in the event of changed circumstances. The Big East was not in the position of being able to grant West Virginia its release though, while holding to terms with Pittsburgh and Syracuse. But that was not acceptable to the Mountaineers, hence the public fuss and protracted legal wrangling.
While no facts have been verified to date, the settlement is reportedly a $20 million buyout on West Virginia’s part, which the Big 12 apparently will subsidize to a measure. If the amount is accurate, it’s twice the exit fee that is currently in place for Big East schools and four times the amount it was when West Virginia first announced its planned departure.
The outcome leaves the Big East with an open date on every remaining conference team’s 2012 football schedule. It does, however, eliminate what had become an irreparable relationship with West Virginia, while setting the bar high for the ACC-bound schools to match in the event they too seek quick departure.
The Big East won’t be disappointed to bid farewell to the media spectacles that West Virginia has produced in recent years; notably those that accompanied the departures of head coaches Rich Rodriquez and Bill Stewart, not to mention this very public dispute over the waiting-period provision, which, after all, was enacted during the time West Virginia was a conference member.
The Big East has subsequently recruited other schools to join the conference in 2013 or later, although there is speculation that at least one program may be added in 2012 to replace West Virginia on the football schedule.
The Big 12, for its part, gains a very solid football program, fresh off an impressive Orange Bowl victory. West Virginia will not enter the Big 12 with the same “team-to-beat” status it has enjoyed in the Big East, but, without a doubt, the Mountaineers will be worthy competition. Their high-octane offense is a good match for their new conference, and head Coach Dana Holgorsen has a Big 12 résumé.
The move makes sense, but the method does not.
The Big 12 needed West Virginia on its schedule in 2012. The Big East was recruiting teams to the conference but not granting release to others. These were arguments brought up by proponents of the Mountaineers’ move. Contractual obligations and the welfare of the Big East and its members were not concerns in the least.
West Virginia would seek a buyout. It’s only money after all. What’s $20 million dollars – even if they are public funds?
We hear all the time of coaches imploring their athletes to pay the price to win: reaching deep within themselves for victory “today.”
But, this is not about a locker room pep talk. It’s about a public institution suing to be released from an agreement it helped establish but refused to uphold.
Everything has a price. The question, in West Virginia’s case, will be: Is it just the $20 million?
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