Big East Expansion: Will West Virginia Be Forced to Stay?

West Virginia’s exodus from the Big East isn’t going all that smoothly.

On Monday, the university filed a lawsuit as an attempt to bypass the standard 27-month waiting period to leave, citing a breach of contract.

WVU claims that the Big East has not held up its end of the bargain and has not been able to maintain the league as a viable football conference for the future.

The Morgantown school cited TCU, a current Mountain West member which had reached an agreement to join the Big East next season before switching courses and heading to the Big 12, as an example of why it shouldn’t have to wait the full 27 months, since TCU was allowed to leave without consequence

Considering TCU was never a true, competing member of the Big East, though, that argument might be somewhat difficult to stand on.

There’s no doubt that West Virginia wants to head to its new conference, the Big 12, as soon as possible, since the league’s new big-money television deal with Fox kicks in next year.

Still, these are the terms that all members of the Big East agreed on, and you can bet that conference officials are going to try to keep West Virginia and the other two defectors—Syracuse and Pittsburgh, which are headed to the ACC—in the league as long as they can.

The Big East has taken some major body blows over the last two months and the league is now struggling to stay on its feet. 

Officials will be hoping to keep the league intact as long as possible.

Former West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez, who became entangled in a notable contract dispute with the university when he left for Michigan back in 2007, had some fun with the situation saying: "I seem to remember about three and a half years ago I think there was a coach that wanted out of a contract because a situation changed, and they said a contract's a contract.''

It should be interesting to see how the lawsuit plays out and how nasty it gets, but one thing’s for sure: It’s certainly going to have a wide-ranging impact on not just the Big East, but the Big 12 and the ACC as well.

If West Virginia is allowed to leave, it will open the door for Pittsburgh and Syracuse to head off to the ACC, and it could really damage the Big East for upcoming seasons.