Bad News below.
Earlier this week, Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News– a guy who has really been on top of all things conference realignment — tweeted that, according to a source, Boise State was feeling “pressure from Big East to join in 2012 to offset WVU’s departure.“
The big picture hint, of course, was that perhaps West Virginia was on its way out of the Big East and into the Big 12 by next season, as the school has said repeatedly since accepting an invite to the Big 12 last fall. Currently, WVU and the Big East are in non-binding mediation talks and the two sides are scheduled for a status conference next week.
Meanwhile, the Big 12 released its schedule privately to its TV partners earlier this week as mandated by the conference’s TV contract; a public version of the Big 12 schedule should be coming up some time in the next week.
However, it doesn’t appear Boise State will be in the Big East next season. BSU president Bob Kustra told the Idaho Statesman on Friday that “it’s too late,” for his program to make a conference move in time for the start of next season.
“I can’t imagine how anyone can pull that off. We would never want to pull it off in a fashion that dealt shabbily with our existing partners in the Mountain West. I don’t think that could ever work,” Kustra said.
Just as pressure to get Boise State into the Big East next season would be good news for West Virginia, indicating the conference needs a replacement, Kustra’s comments paint a less promising picture for WVU as they try to get out of the Big East as soon as possible.
The Big East remains gridlocked in a legal battle with WVU over when the school can move on to the Big 12. Perhaps next week won’t provide any answers to that question, but there absolutely will be multiple parties waiting with bated breath just in case.