MORGANTOWN — The winds of college realignment blow hard and in all directions.
And once the storms have finally settled — if they ever truly do — it leaves behind unsettling future facts such as California schools USC and UCLA soon playing conference games in the state of New Jersey and Maryland, while WVU will one day call Provo, Utah a conference trip.
It’s with all of this in mind that the Mountaineers’ Big 12 game at Texas at 7:30 p.m. Saturday becomes a little more interesting.
Maybe it’s the last time WVU takes on the Longhorns. Maybe not.
Maybe Texas waits until July 1, 2025 to join the SEC. Or maybe Colorado, Arizona and Arizona State announce next week they want to join the Big 12, leaving the door open for Texas and Oklahoma to join the SEC earlier.
There is a point to this ramble and pure speculation, which is to say WVU has been through all of this before.
It’s seen schools come and go from the Big East days, eventually packing up its own bags to move on to the Big 12.
Those days hurt. Where it concerned WVU coaches, players, fans and school officials, real pain and frustration were involved.
They lost real rivals, real friends and real connections. Raw emotion was involved. The feeling of being left behind was real, as was being made to look like an unwanted stepchild of sorts.
Whether or not this will be West Virginia’s final game against Texas, there isn’t much in the way of hard feelings. This won’t be a hard goodbye with a lump in the back of WVU’s collective throats.
Just the opposite, really. It’s like walking down the street with a handful of change and you drop a penny. It’s simply bye-bye penny as you move along.
That’s the kind of picture WVU players and coaches painted this week. Texas is simply a lost penny and WVU is ready to move on.
“Obviously it’s a conference game and it’s been pretty good games since we’ve been in the Big 12,” WVU head coach Neal Brown said. “I know our fans like going down to Austin (Texas).
“I’m indifferent to it. That’s not a knock on them. It kind of is what it is. They lay out the schedule and we go play them.”
Offensive lineman James Gmiter is one who gets to wear a different hat than his head coach.
He’s a young man and a student and doesn’t necessarily have to be as politically correct, yet his views on Texas one day leaving the Big 12 were no different.
“Texas and West Virginia have played some great games in the past, but it’s not as much of a rivalry as people think it is,” Gmiter said. “Losing a quality opponent in the Big 12 means something, because it takes away from your schedule, but we’re bringing in a bunch of good teams with good coaches.”
These, of course, are the words spoken by WVU personnel. They are situated nearly 1,400 miles from Austin as an outlying school in what is otherwise a close-knit Big 12.
Players and coaches at Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma State may feel a bit differently.
And that’s the thing about college realignment. The winds blow in all directions creating a number of different outlooks and opinions.
WVU has been down that road before and will soon be going through it again.
So you may have to pardon the Mountaineers if they’re not as emotional about realignment the second time around.
“It sucks losing them,” Gmiter continued. “but I think it’s not that big of a deal.”
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