WVU Mountaineers and The ACC

I think interesting that the b/r article of mine with the most reads is the one in which I note the value of Texas A&M and West Virginia to the SEC: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/405006-the-value-of-tamu-and-wvu-to-the-sec

Today, I read an article that made me think about WVU again: http://wvgazette.com/Sports/201006241018

Writing for the Charleston Gazette , Mike Whiteford details how WVU had a chance to be the ACC's eighth team when the league was organized in 1953. 

It is a given in this time of uncertainty regarding conferences, when everybody knows that any Big East football school would jump at the opportunity to join any other BCS league, that sportswriters familiar with WVU will ponder WVU's future. One way to do that is to look at WVU's past, noting missed opportunities.

The story Whitefield tells, using the memories of a former Mountaineer basketball player and two former WVU sports information directors, is of the new kid on the Southern Conference block fighting futilely to join the other seven (of 17) SoCon members who founded the ACC. UVA, which was independent at the time, was always the school the ACC founders wanted to complete an eight team conference, and UVA signed on before 1953 closed. 

Whiteford sees WVU's failed bid as due primarily to travel problems: Morgantown is only 70 miles from Pittsburgh, PA, and then there no Interstates. Morgantown was a very long and hard drive on two-lane roads from College Park, much less from Clemson and Columbia. 

The travel problems related to WVU remain in ACC lore. When Virginia Tech played state politics brilliantly to secure the invite over Syracuse (which was eventually left out) and BC, there was a push from some ACC fans on message boards, and apparently from some ACC boosters, to have WVU become the 12th member, rather than BC or Syracuse. The opposition to WVU was threefold: It is too hard to travel there; the school is not up to ACC academic standards; and Mountaineer fans are too wild and destructive.

It is no longer 1953, or even 1973. Traveling to Morgantown is not an issue.

Neither WVU's ability to perform well in revenue sports, nor its fan bases size in revenue sports is a problem. WVU has two BCS bowl wins this decade, and the Mountaineers reached the Final Four this spring. WVU has proven it can average close to the 60,000 seat capacity at Mountaineer Field and average more than 12,000 for basketball in WVU Coliseum.

But WVU's lack of academic prestige is an issue. Quite simply, WVU would enter the ACC far and away the least respected academic institution in the conference.

That is the very reason that WVU and the state would be best served if WVU could get into the ACC. 

The thing I remember best from buying a house for the first time is that it is far better to have the lone $100,000 house in a neighborhood in which the average house costs $300,000 than to have the lone house costing $250,000 in a neighborhood in which the average house costs $100,000.

That applies to schools academically. Because WV is so small and poor, it is a given that its flagship university will be poorly funded, and poor funding guarantees low academic rankings. WVU cannot quickly alter its academic reputation and rankings, but if it gets into a conference as academically prestigious as the ACC, it will be given a boost simply by association.

Over time, the meager academic boosts WVU would receive from ACC membership would help the school and state far more than would bigger football money in the SEC.

So here is the question: Considering that ACC schools are charitable for individuals, lowering standards for some for admission and scholarships and hiring and promotion, would the ACC be charitable toward the poor state of WV and its poor flagship university?

If so, WVU, especially if added with Backyard Brawl partner Pitt, would contribute to the ACC in both revenue sports.

And in sharp contrast to BC fans, you can bet your last penny that if WVU were to reach the ACC Championship Game, the stands would be filled with Mountaineers' fans.