So, Why Was WVU (allegedly) Turned Down By The ACC and SEC

With the exhausting weekend filled with conference realignment talk, I had expected that the first few days of this week would be a little bit slower.  I thought that most of the other Big East schools would take their time deciding what conference their future would lay.  Unexpectedly, a tweet heard around the world arose from CBSsports.com National college footbal writer, Brett MdMurphy's twitter.

"@McMurphyCBS: Multiple Big East sources said they have been told by WVU officials that WVU rejected by ACC & SEC"

By now, all of the country has heard about the news and ESPN was covering the topic all day.  No one though has come up with a real reason as to why they were turned down by BOTH conferences.  Because there are no legitimate reports that WVU ever applied to the SEC, I will focus on the university's denied application to the ACC.  Now, none of these possible reasons for the declination are facts.  They are just opinions that I have seen throughout the internet and social networking sites.

The first reason for the ACC denying entry in to its conference is (This declination means for now, this does not mean that they can never enter the conferences.  Later in the conference realignment game, this may change.) that showed up online was "the hostility, vulgarity, and violence toward visiting fans that is either perpetrated or TOLERATED by your fanbase has made you unwelcome".  This comment was found on www.wvmetronews.com in their comments section for the report.

Now there is absolutely no legitimate truth in this, but as a Pittsburgh Panthers fan and someone who has experienced the ruthlessness of their usually drunken and unruly fans, I can definitely see why this would have been a factor.  I know a good amount of people that attend West Virginia University and they have told me that they often receive mass-emails from university officials warning them that if their awful behavior does not stop that further consequences will have to occur.

I am guessing that one of those emails was sent out after Pitt's assistant coach Tom Herrion was struck by a quarter thrown from the student section during a game in 2010 at West Virginia's Coliseum.  Actions like these are not something that makes a school very appealing to another conference, especially when just about every college conference has commercials promoting sportsmanship and other good values.

My second guess as to why the university was turned down by the ACC lies in their academics.  The ACC is made up of (including Pittsburgh and Syracuse) fourteen universities.  All fourteen can be found inside the top 101 (North Carolina State and Florida State are tied with ten other universities at #101) of US News' National University Rankings.  It is outstanding for an entire conference to be that academically inclined.  Two teams the ACC is reportedly interested in, Syracuse and Connecticut, are both in the top 100 as well.  That would give the conference almost 20% of the top 100 national universities in the country.  West Virginia is #164 on the list.  While this is not a bad ranking when looking at the country as a whole, it is a big gap compared to all of the ACC's other members.

These are the only two reasons that I can speculate as to why West Virginia University was turned down by the ACC.  If they really did apply to the SEC, there are a few other reasons that they might not have been admitted.  Until then though, that report should be treated as speculation.

Tonight, the officials from the remaining Big East schools will be holding a meeting to talk about the conference from this point on and will be asking each school about where their allegiances lie in the future.  According to ESPN, a source said that "he did not expect any substantial decisions to be made at the meeting, but called it 'a chance to look each other in the eye and get a feel for who's in and who's out'."

The article on ESPN also said they Villanova is very interested in joining as a football conference.  I do think that regardless of who else leaves the conference, adding a loyal Villanova to the conference as a football school will speak volumes about how the Big East views loyalty.

Regardless of rivalries and all of that, I do hope that WVU does survive this conference realignment.  Maybe the real reasons for their declination will be released and will better the university for the future.  Until then, we can only wait.