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12 March 2010
West Virginia Football Coach Bill Stewart shares the popular view that a Big 10 Conference raid on the Big East Conference is only a matter of time, but unlike most, the typically optimistic coach sees that as an opportunity for the Mountaineers.
In fact, the coach sees a Big East shakeup as possibly opening the door for the Mountaineers to join the Southeastern Conference and face the likes of Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and LSU on an annual basis.
The Big 10, which actually numbers 11 teams - Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan, Penn State, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northwestern, and Purdue - is conducting a study as the first step toward expansion. Several teams have emerged as potential Big Ten targets - Rutgers, Pitt, and Syracuse from the Big East and Missouri from the Big 12.
Defection of three or even just one of the Big East teams would threaten the Big East's prestige, and WVU would take a hit in TV revenue and recruiting if it stayed in a reconstituted Big East with a replacement team or teams of lesser stature.
But Stewart doesn't see that happening. He said if Big East teams leave, WVU could find itself in the Southeastern Conference - the most powerful football conference of all.
Stewart spoke about conference realignments in an interview Thursday in the studios of WTAP-TV in Parkersburg. He was in the Mid-Ohio Valley to give a talk at the Warren Christian Apologetics Center on faith and American values.
"It's exciting and disheartening as well," he said of the conference shakeup.
