Louisville Now Considered Instead of West Virginia
By Ross
Yesterday, it looked for certain that West Virginia was going to be added to the Big 12. A press conference was expected to happen as early as tonight but recent news came out today. It is rumored that Louisville is now being considered to join the Big 12 instead of West Virginia.
From the New York Post:
"A late push by Louisville has put political pressure on the Big 12 and opened the possibility of Louisville’s being the university that is admitted instead of West Virginia. Two people with direct knowledge of the situation said that lobbying by the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, including to David Boren, the president of the University of Oklahoma and a former senator, helped slow West Virginia’s admittance to the Big 12."
If you thought conference realignment couldn’t get any more strange or bizarre, you were wrong. Politicians are now getting involved directly and swaying others away from what seamed like a done deal with West Virginia.
From one of West Virginia’s senators:
"“If these outrageous reports have any merit – and especially if a United States Senator has done anything inappropriate or unethical to interfere with a decision that the Big 12 had already made – then I believe that there should be an investigation in the U.S. Senate, and I will fight to get the truth,” Manchin said in a statement. “West Virginians and the American people deserve to know exactly what is going on and whether politics is interfering with our college sports.”"
From the other West Virginia senator:
"“The Big 12 picked WVU on the strength of its program — period,” Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia said in a statement. “Now the media reports that political games may upend that. That’s just flat wrong. I am doing and will do whatever it takes to get us back to the merits.”"
I’m going to have to agree with the two senators. West Virginia is a much better choice and no politicians should have the ability to sway the Big 12 the other way. That is just wrong especially at the last minute when the deal with West Virginia was basically done.