Saying Goodbye To The Big East

There was a time when the Big East was a good thing for West Virginia University. A good part of the time. But conference realignment has made the contrast between the conferences you want to be in and the ones you don't that much clearer. The disappointment at the Big East's inability to remain on level ground with the rest of the BCS conferences in football made it easy to want to run to any conference that would have us.

For a long time, we took pride in carrying the banner for Big East in football. When the conference was seemingly left for dead in 2005, a young group of Mountaineers shocked Georgia in the Sugar Bowl and breathed life into the conference. For the next two years, the conference didn't seem so dead with South Florida, Louisville, and Rutgers all sharing time in the top ten. But as Spencer put it, some things aren't meant to last. For the Big East and West Virginia, that's true. The loss of Pitt and Syracuse to the ACC was just the straw that broke the Camel's back.

We've found a new home in the Big 12 with schools that seem much more in line with where West Virginia wants to go. While the Big East is still out looking for it's place in the college football world. It's Holy Grail if you will. So if you see them out wondering the wilderness searching for their grail, tell them it was fun while it lasted. But we already got one.