It's Official, WVU Leaving the Big East

USF, along with the rest of the Big East, won't be facing Tavon Austin and WVU starting this season.

From Brett McMurphy CBS - It's now officially official, WVU is headed to the Big 12.

News came today that the Big East voted to "terminate" the membership of WVU, effective on June 30th. This move will allow WVU to head to the Big 12 for the start of the 2012-2013 academic season. According to CBS, the Big East will get $20 million from WVU, but will only pay $10 million, the other $10 million being "loaned" to WVU from the Big 12 (isn't that nice of them).

2011 Preseason Big East Blogger Poll Results

A few days after the release of the Big East media poll, in which South Florida was picked to finish third behind West Virginia and Pittsburgh, we bloggers across the conference have put together our own ballots reflecting how we feel the conference will shape up this year. The bloggers who submitted ballots were of course myself and Matt, Jim from HailWV, Scott from Bearcats Blog, Brian from Orange::44,Bryan from PittScriptBlog, Bryan from The Fighting Wannstaches, and our newest addition to the blogroll, Jerry from NJ.com. Before the final results, here's my ballot and Matt's ballot. As you can see, we're just as confident in the Bulls as we were at the beginning of the summer. The final results of the poll weren't quite as favorable for USF, as they were just barely overtaken for the #1 spot (Thanks a lot, Jim).

1	West Virginia	60
2	South Florida	56
3	Pittsburgh	49
3	Syracuse	32
5	Louisville	30
5	Cincinnati	30
7	Connecticut	17
8	Rutgers	14

Guest Post on HailWV

I know, I know. "How could you write for a West Virginia blog?!". Don't worry, I thought the same thing. But, as a member of the Big East blogging world, I felt like it was something I had to do. Now, before you close that browser tab, I'd like to clarify that I wasn't saying anything about their actual football team. I really didn't even say anything nice about them at all. This post was about the Bill Stewart-Dana Holgorsen saga, and how appalled I was by Oliver Luck's and the rest of the athletic department's conduct from the beginning.

If you still aren't completely disgusted by the fact that I've been featured on a West Virginia blog, you can go ahead and read it here. Jim pokes a bit of fun at me, and at all USF fans, so don't be shy to leave your thoughts in his comments box.

We'll Take It: USF Did Nothing, but Is One Step Closer to a BCS Game

You know what they say about the offseason regarding your team: No news is good news. Unfortunately for West Virginia, there is a lot to talk about in Morgantown. Our WVU friend Jim has been avidly following this entire situation for weeks, and has come out now with a series of posts regarding a fiasco involving current Mountaineer head coach Bill Stewart and Offensive Coordinator and coach-in-waiting Dana Holgorsen. Most of the links I'll be posting will head back to Jim's page, and it should be noted here that he is a heavy supporter of the immediate removal of Stewart and allowing Holgorsen to take the reins as soon as possible.

Obviously, there has been a bit of tension for a good while, but this all started coming down about a week and a half ago when Holgorsen got booted out of some casino in Charleston. While the rest of us Big East members had a good laugh at WVU's expense, AD Oliver Luck was not amused. Soon after that went down, things started looking a whole lot worse for West Virginia's coaching staff. It turned out that long-time Defensive Coordinator Jeff Casteel was looking to bail on the program after it became apparent that the offensive coaches and defensive coaches don't even talk to each other. A day later, more evidence came piling on, as much of the information printed by a local newspaper about the program's turmoil was leaked by none other than Bill Stewart. As of the latest news, it seems that Bill Stewart had talked with West Virginia beat reporter Colin Dunlap to "dig up some dirt" on Holgorsen in December in hopes of saving his job.

I know it's not right to kick a team while they're down, but I think this is an appropriate time to celebrate USF's impending BCS berth. As I said in my preseason preview of WVU, I think they're the only team standing between USF and their first Big East title. Now, it seems like West Virginia has effectively taken themselves out of the picture with this whole "Stewmageddon" situation.

So, in hopes for USF's sake that this pot continues boiling for many weeks to come, I'd like to prematurely get even more excited for football season to begin. However, for the sake of the Big East's football profile and how this may look nationally, I'd like to hope Rich Rodriguez will come in and guide the Mountaineers to a 9-4 season.

Big East Football Preview: West Virginia

Now we come to the last team in the Big East to preview, and we saved the (almost) best for last. Many bloggers and poll voters have

West Virginia as the lone Big East team on their preseason top 25 ballots, and even more have them winning the Big East this season. As you can see in our top 25, many of the Big East bloggers tend to agree. Look at my ballot, though. You'll find that mine is the only one that doesn't have West Virginia as the highest-ranked Big East team. Does this mean I'm biased? Maybe. But it also means that I see USF and West Virginia in a dogfight until the very end for the Big East title, and I think USF is going to come out on top.

2010 Record: 9-4, Big East Co-Champions.

The Mountaineers had a relatively successful regular season, but were almost as disappointed as the fans in Tampa when Connecticut K Dave Teggart hit that 52-yard field goal to seal the Big East championship and send an 8-4 UConn team to get thrashed by Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. It wasn't like they didn't have other chances to make some room for themselves, though. They followed their win over USF with the two sloppiest games they played all season, against Syracuse and Connecticut. It was that loss to UConn that kept the Mountaineers out of the Fiesta Bowl once again. They played a great game against LSU, who turned out to be a top-10 team, and against Maryland, who had their best season in recent memory. I don't know what happened at the end of the season, but not going to a BCS game must have really taken the wind out of their sails, as they got beaten down by a slightly-above average NC State team. So maybe West Virginia wasn't as good as we thought they were, and maybe they would have been beaten just as badly by Oklahoma had they gotten the ticket to a BCS game.

This coming season, the Mountaineers welcome in someone that is going to make a huge difference for the offense. Offensive Coordinator and future Head Coach Dana Holgorsen came over to Morgantown from the outrageously successful offense of Oklahoma State, and has plenty of tools to make his magic. He'll have a pretty easy time with the shot-caller as well, as QB Geno Smith has already appeared on several Heisman watch lists. I don't know if he's that good, but all that attention can't be a bad thing. They did, however, lose their two most productive offensive players in WR Jock Sanders and RB Noel Devine. Devine's vacancy has already been filled by Tavon Austin and Shawne Alston, who should each have an outstanding season on the ground, but Sanders leaves some pretty big shoes to fill. WVU will always have receivers, but Sanders's pure athleticism was what made Geno Smith look good for most of the season.

This season will be successful if: West Virginia wins the Big East. Personally, I don't think they're going to do it. There's one team standing in their way, and it's USF, the team who has had their number three of the past four years. And they're at home. All that is a recipe for a fantastic season finale at Raymond James, but the Mountaineers may have some road blocks in the way of their quest for a title. Out of conference, they take on Maryland and LSU again, which may just beat them up enough to allow Connecticut to catch them off guard. Syracuse beat them last year, there's no reason they can't do it again. Louisville is turning into the strong defensive power that Charlie Strong wanted, and they may just be a great match for Holgorsen's explosive offense. The hardest part of the schedule is going into the Backyard Brawl, which always has some physical toll on each team, and then having only six days to prepare for championship week.

2011 Record: 11-2. Like I said, I do think it will come down to the last game of the season, and they may even beat USF, but I think they also have a lot of potential to slip up with their arrangement of conference games. I think USF wins the conference this year, but I think it's going to take an undefeated conference record to do it. West Virginia is going to be excellent this year, but you have to think there's going to be some kind of drama with Bill Stewart in his last season. Remember what happened with Bobby Bowden? Florida State entered the year ranked #18 in the country, and ended up going 7-6 in Bowden's last year. They ended up being good after their coach-in-waiting took over, and I think that's what's going to happen to West Virginia. I think a second trip to the Champs Sports Bowl will be a nice consolation prize, and they'll likely meet up with (and beat) a formidable Virginia Tech team in Orlando. Better luck next year, WVU.