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Message: [QUOTE="Guinness, post: 19078, member: 244"] Looks like WVU is staying in the BE. If they do in fact get turned down by SEC no way in hell does the ACC take them. Here is some info I read this morning about them. Paints a pretty bleak picture for them. [FONT=Arial][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000080][SIZE=3]West Virginia has reportedly applied to both the SEC and the ACC. But the ACC has decided to chase Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Connecticut and Rutgers instead. Why? When the Mountaineers are just as good in football and basketball as any of those schools?[/SIZE][/COLOR][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=Arial][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000080][SIZE=3]Because West Virginia is just the 37th-largest state in the Union with small television markets. Anyone grabbing WVU would have to hope networks would credit the school with the Pittsburgh TV market. And the state’s small population means it holds little recruiting value for SEC coaches. (Currently, there’s not a Top 100 football player or a Top 150 basketball player in the state of West Virginia, according to .) [/SIZE][/COLOR][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=Arial][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000080][SIZE=3]Also — and this is another reason why WVU was not one of the hundred candidates mentioned in connection with the Big Ten last summer — the school does not have a tremendous academic reputation. It currently ranks #164 in the US News and World Report rankings and it’s not an AAU member. [/SIZE][/COLOR][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=Arial][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000080][SIZE=3]The current lowest-ranked school in the SEC is Mississippi State at #151. The league’s average rank is #98. So if/when WVU enters the league, it will immediately become the league’s least-prestigious school. Fair, not fair, them’s just the facts.[/SIZE][/COLOR][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=Arial][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000080][SIZE=3]Last summer in our “Expounding on Expansion” series [URL='http://www.mrsec.com/2010/05/expounding-on-expansion-the-teams-that-fit-by-the-numbers/'][COLOR=#ff0000][COLOR=#000080]we ranked 18 potential SEC expansion partners[/COLOR][/COLOR][/URL] in a variety of categories that league presidents would have to consider: athletic budget, facilities, population base, recruiting ground, television markets, athletic success, academic reputation, etc.[/SIZE][/COLOR][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=Arial][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000080][SIZE=3]Of the 18 schools we scored, WVU came in 18th. Dead last. (For the record, Texas A&M ranked #2 and Missouri ranked #9.)[/SIZE][/COLOR][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=Arial][COLOR=#000000][COLOR=#000080][SIZE=3]From an athletic and cultural perspective, the Mountaineers couldn’t be a better fit. But when it comes to the things that are driving the current expansion push, WVU scores poorly. Which is why the ACC and Big Ten haven’t shown much interest.[/SIZE][/COLOR][/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=Arial][COLOR=#000000][URL='http://www.mrsec.com/2011/09/rumors-have-sec-taking-leftovers-mizzou-or-wvu/']LINK[/URL][/COLOR][/FONT] [/QUOTE]

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