Conference Realignment: If the Big East Collapses Where Does West Virginia Go?

With news coming out yesterday that new Big East member TCU has received an invitation to the Big 12, West Virginia must be in panic mode.

They are apparently not wanted by the SEC, they do not have the academics for an invitation to the Big 10 or ACC and now the Big 12 is saying it may stay at just 10 teams. And even if Missouri ends up leaving, sources say the next team in line is Louisville and not the Mountaineers.

So where would West Virginia go if the Big East collapses.

Frankly, no one knows.

WVU is a great school for football and basketball, but it is not very good academically and has developed a reputation for having a rude and sometimes violent fanbase.

Without the SEC, Big Ten or ACC, the Big East is the only conference that makes geographic sense for them and still has an automatic qualifying bid to a BCS bowl game.

There is no doubt that they are a quality enough football team to deserve an automatic bid, but if they are forced to downgrade to a non-qualifying conference or if the Big East loses its status, they will almost undoubtedly lose a bunch of clout in recruiting.

Dana Holgorsen came to Morgantown to coach a BCS-level team so he may leave as well.

West Virginia would, in all likelihood, become a doormat team, and it would happen rather quickly. So, should conferences decide to expand to 16 teams, they may not even get an invite to join a conference in the future.

It would be plain stupid for the Mountaineers to leave the Big East at any point unless the conference ceases to exist in any capacity. There is an outside chance they would be able to keep their automatic qualifying status, but as of today, the conference has not discussed extending invitations to any school.

At this point, WVU should be hoping for an invite to the Mountain West and that they receive automatic qualifying status because of it. Otherwise, the best conference option for them would be Conference USA if the Big East completely collapses.

If that happens, though, say goodbye to what West Virginia football as people know it today.