Once I got over my initial reaction of this news, here is my take:
LET HIM GO!
There's no way this is a play for more money. There's no way this is a play for facilities upgrades. We already went through all this last year. We've given all we can give. This is Rodriguez simply wanting to "upgrade" over West Virginia. There's not much we can do about that. The draw of your alma mater is only so much. For Greg Schiano, the home-state team is plenty. For Rodriguez, I guess not.
This isn't going to stop. Even if he doesn't accept the Michigan job, the same thing can and will happen next year. And the year after. He's here now, but he may as well be gone. Maybe not Michigan, but somebody else.
Just let him go.
UPDATE #1: Kudos to Ed Pastilong.
"I don't know anything about it," WVU athletic director Ed Pastilong told the Gazette. "The only person who can clarify that is Rich Rodriguez.
"We recently put a strong contract in place with Rich. We made a strong commitment to him and he made a strong commitment to us."
Mad respect to Pastilong if he holds his ground. We made a very strong commitment last year. If that isn't good enough, too damn bad.
Update #2:
Update #3: I can't believe I'm saying this, but we have a WBGV correspondent at Hart Field (Morgantown Municipal Airport) as we speak. If Rodriguez was, in fact, on that plane, we should know soon enough.
Update #4: "No comment." Thanks Rich, you've been a big help.
Update #5: Pastilong's second statement:
"I think it would be unusual that he would be doing that without sharing it with us."
It has come to this Rich. The day of the first Fiesta Bowl practice and you're sneaking around the athletic department's back. PS: I hate you.
Note: Stay tuned for updates...