West Virgina vs. Marshall: "Friends of Coal Bowl" Moves to Sunday Kickoff

The Friends of Coal Bowl between the West Virginia Mountaineers and Marshall Thundering Herd has been moved to Sunday, according to a press release out of West Virginia's athletic department Friday afternoon.

The game, which will be televised by ESPN, will kickoff at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 4.

This season's meeting will be the second-to-last to be played under the current arrangement, which was a result of West Virginia governor Joe Manchin getting involved to resolve differences between the two university administrations.

The current series was designed to appease both schools' desires to benefit from home games. West Virginia would not back off from having three of four games played in Morgantown and Marshall wanted one of every three games to be played in Huntington.

The seven-year agreement called for four games in Morgantown and the winner of two of the first three games in the series would receive the seventh and final game on their home campus. The Mountaineers have won every game not just in this recent series of games, but all 10 meetings between the schools heading into 2011.

This year's game will take place in Morgantown but Marshall had to sign off on agreeing to move the game previously scheduled for Saturday, September 3 to the Sunday over Labor Day weekend, according to Charleston Daily Mail's Jack Bogaczyk.

Bogaczyk also reports that Marshall agreed to move the game despite creating a short week heading in to a Conference USA opener against Southern Miss because the game will be televised to a national audience.

The future of the series between West Virginia's two FBS programs is foggy.

The two schools are not in discussions to continue the rivalry and West Virginia is waiting to see what happens with the Big East schedule in future seasons with a decision on Villanova's spot in the conference still up in the air.

Kevin McGuire is the national college football writer for Examiner.com. Follow his college football discussion on Twitter  @CFBExaminer.