Here we go again.
On Tuesday it was reported that West Virginia’s move to the Big 12 was “imminent”, and that an announcement was scheduled for the next day. The press conference announcing the move was reportedly scuttled, thanks in large part to some behind-the-scenes and very public political wrangling involving the states of Kentucky and West Virginia.
Two days later, an announcement is apparently back on.
Brett McMurphy of CBSSports.com is reporting that the Big 12’s Board of Directors voted Friday morning to add West Virginia as the conference’s 10th member. McMurphy writes that the board chose WVU over Louisville and will remain at 10 members -- pending Missouri officially following through on a late-night SEC website oops -- following the addition of the Mountaineers.
An announcement from the Big 12 is expected to come at some point today.
The delay from the initial reports to today’s vote of extending an invitation to WVU stems, McMurphy says, from the board wanting to perform its due diligence. Translation? The intervention of Kentucky politicians slowed the process.
WVU would become the fourth school to leave the Big East in less than two months -- Pittsburgh and Syracuse to the ACC, TCU to the Big 12 -- casting further doubt on that conference’s viability as a football league. Eaxctly when the Mountaineers would leave the Big East for the Big 12 is unclear; the Big East has been staunch in publicly stating they will force Pittsburgh and Syracuse to honor the 27-month waiting period for withdrawal outlined in the conference’s bylaws.
This move to invite West Virginia appears to signal the imminent departure of Missouri for the SEC. It would seem unlikely that the Big 12 would invite WVU knowing that Mizzou is staying, giving the conference 11 members and further diluting each member’s share of the television contract pie.