West Virginia knew what they were getting into when they decided to leave the Big East for the Big 12 prior to this year.
The Big 12 is in the Midwest. Their teams are from Texas and Oklahoma and Kansas. That’s a long way for a team from West Virginia to go to play a mid-week road game.
But it’s not like this was a surprise. It’s not like the Mountaineers were blindsided by the fact that they are going to have to travel a long way in their new league. It’s not like the Big 12 lied to them and told them that half of their membership was in Pennsylvania and Virginia.
So, in my opinion, the Mountaineers waived any rights they had to travel complaints when they signed on the dotted line. According to a report from the Exponent Telegram, West Virginia AD Oliver Luck has been doing just that:Twice this past season WVU was scheduled to go out on the road, play a Saturday game, fly home on Sunday, practice Monday and fly out again on Tuesday for a Wednesday game.
League rules do not allow them to stay on the road during that time, so they use up most of two days traveling.
Rather than doing that, they would prefer to play a Saturday-Big Monday on the road with a Sunday stay over, which would cut back on taking the long trip to and from Morgantown.
The third request was to cut back on the number of late tips during mid-week games, not playing 9 p.m. EST games to help with the arrival time back home. Especially in winter, travel is precarious enough without building in 3 a.m. arrivals at the airport.
Remember all that talk about how conference realignment was going to be a nightmare for teams trying to travel? Because I do.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you, Oliver.
You can find Rob on twitter @RobDauster.