Oklahoma knows all too well the West Virginia football program. Following the 2007 football season the Mountaineers ran roughshod over the Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl adding to a miserable streak of lost BCS bowl games. In four games against WVU Oklahoma has a 2-2 record. It doesn't appear as if it'll be very long before the tie is broken as West Virginia is about to become a member of the Big 12 Conference.
Reports from...well just about everyone are confirming that the Mountaineers have officially been unofficially invited to join the Big 12 and will accept the invitation when it comes for real. What was initially thought to be a quick replacement for the Missouri Tigers it was revealed on Tuesday that WVU was getting an invite regardless of what the Tigers decide. Should Mizzou leave for the SEC then the Big 12 still has a solid 10. Should the Tigers choose to stay for some reason then the conference is just one team away from returning to twelve members (talking to you Louisville).
Of course the natural reaction through this whole process has been to slam on any team joining the conference and talk about how its a weak and watered down league now. Granted there is no reasonable replacement for Nebraska but come on, TCU and West Virginia have legit football resumes. The Mountaineers are 68-21 over the last seven seasons with bowl appearances in all seven seasons (4-3) including two BCS bowl wins. Sorry Missouri, should you decide to leave then you're getting replaced by a better football program.
Let's do the impossible here and look beyond football for a second. The Mountaineers are pretty salty in basketball as well prompting the following quote for Kansas State head basketball coach Frank Martin.
"Everybody was talking about how the Big 12 was gonna to be the biggest loser and if we add West Virginia, we're going to end up being, the biggest winner because we're not just adding, we're adding quality," - Frank Martin
The Mountaineers have played in the NCAA men's basketball tournament in six of the last seven years. Come on Oklahoma fans, we can't even say that. I didn't want the Big 12 to break up. I grew up on the old Big 8 conference with Nebraska and Missouri being rivals to the Sooners. Times are changing and as much as we may hate it, we can't allow sentiment to stand in the way. I would love for Missouri to remain faithful to the Big 12 but regardless of what they do the conference just got stronger by adding West Virginia.