My thoughts on the Syracuse Smackdown

While last night’s 49-23 beatdown at the hands of the lately irrelevant Syracuse Orange is still fresh in my mind, I thought I would right down a few thoughts:

I strongly feel that this game was the culmination of weeks of West Virginia frustration.  It seems like this was the perfect meltdown to conclude the weeks of speculation in the conference realignment situation.

One day, we are in the SEC.  Another we are in the Big XII.  Yet another day, and we’re still stuck on that sinking ship known as the Big East.  Today, there’s even been word of a possible CUSA/MWC/Big East merger, which could include as many as 32 schools, all to ensure the possibility of retaining the BCS automatic qualifier status, a scenario which evidently assumes that West Virginia is able to find a home elsewhere:

West Virginia is not included in this plan, with the assumption being the Mountaineers would be headed to the Big 12 to replace Missouri which will presumably wind up in the SEC along with Texas A&M.

For the last few weeks, since news broke on September 17 that Pitt and Syracuse would be leaving the Big East for the ACC, West Virginia fans have been in panic mode.  It has been a roller coaster ride, which many believed would conclude early in October, with many “inside sources” convinced that WVU officials would announce we were leaving the Big East conference, the obvious conclusion being that the SEC would offer an invite the following week.

That first week of October came and went with no news, or rather no good news.  Missouri announced that their Board of Curators had voted unanimously to authorize a committee to explore their possibilities as far as conference association.  While these words sound harmless in and of themselves, the implications were big: They were interested in the #14 slot in the SEC.

Almost instantly, the sources dried up.  Only a few stubborn holdovers held out any hope, continuing to flood the message boards and Twitter with rants aimed at detractors for failing to believe.  Like pouting children throwing temper tantrums when they don’t get their way, their energy too eventually disappeared.  With a Friday-afternoon vote yesterday, the Missouri Board of Curators authorized their chancellor to make the ultimate decision on whether to remain in the Big XII, or to leave for another conference, presumably the SEC.

This leaves WVU hoping for a chance at the conference that Missouri so desperately wants out of.  A conference that was, earlier this year, in danger of losing Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State to the Pac-12, something that could still eventually happen.  Not to mention that Nebraska earlier bolted for the Big 10, Colorado left for the Pac-12, and now Texas A&M is leaving after this year for the SEC.  At this point, it’s safe to assume that the Big XII will again be on the verge of collapse in 6 years (once the media rights pledge has expired).

This finally brings me to present day.  After this nightmare, the Syracuse game almost seemed like an afterthought.  After all, we’ve done all we can, right?

We’re a perennial top 25 team in football as well as men’s and women’s basketball, even reaching the Final Four in men’s basketball 2 years ago.

Fan base? A+, for the most part.  Aside from sometimes getting a bad rap for burning couches after big wins, or shouting obscenities at visiting fans and teams, WVU fans usually show up in force.  College GameDay finally made their first appearance in Morgantown and, aside from the outcome of the game, it was a generally enjoyable experience.  We also travel really well to other teams’ stadiums and bowl games, which is one reason why bowl representatives usually line up for a chance to get us.

TV ratings?  We’ve got that covered too. WVU currently has the highest rated Thursday night football game, and 2nd most ever for an ESPN-broadcast college football game, a record that still stands.

The problem: We don’t have a large enough population base.  The conferences plan on forming their own networks and selling them to the cable companies based on regions.  If a viewer is in a certain region, they will paying for the network regardless of whether they ever watch it.  There are more people in Missouri than in West Virginia so, even though most people in Kansas City would rather watch Kansas basketball, Missouri is considered a more attractive option over WVU.

Missouri routinely has 10,000+ empty seats in their stadium, they haven’t won a BCS level bowl game since the 1960s, but because they have more television sets, they are forced into being a “better fit.”

So the Syracuse game last night was the result of an entire state, university, and fanbase throwing their collective arms up in the air and saying, “What is the point? Results don’t matter.”

Hopefully, this is something we can recover from.  Not the game, the mentality.