Competitive Big 12 makes for an exciting West Virginia schedule
The Big 12 Conference still has some ground to make up to be considered the best football league in the country this season, but it has a strong argument to the title of the most exciting.
That’s because one through 16 the Big 12 is competitive from a depth and balance standpoint according to West Virginia head coach Neal Brown.
“I think we’re definitely the most exciting,” Brown said.
The league welcomes Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and Arizona State to the already assembled collection of schools which includes West Virginia, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State, Kansas, Texas Tech, TCU, Cincinnati, UCF, Houston, and BYU to create a conference spanning the country.
“We’re across the board in four time zones and I think that was the vision,” he said.
For West Virginia, the draw of the Big 12 is that there are quality teams across the board and many of those have had recent success so it will be a highly competitive environment. Brown believes that the Mountaineers will be perched in a league with peer schools that are on a similar footing to themselves.
“There are a lot of tradition-rich programs just like West Virginia that are in the league so I think it gives us a chance,” Brown said.
West Virginia will square off at home against Kansas (9/21), at Oklahoma State (10/5), Iowa State (10/12), Kansas State (10/19), at Arizona (10/26), at Cincinnati (11/9), Baylor (11/16), UCF (11/23) and at Texas Tech (11/30). That is a total of five home games and four away games.
The Mountaineers were picked seventh in the Big 12 preseason media poll and will play five of the six teams that were selected ahead of them this coming year.
But while the Mountaineers will have a chance in each of those, there is also the other side of the coin when it comes to looking at the competition level. That alone helps to back the claims of the excitement level when it comes to the brand of football in the Big 12.
“The hard part about this league is that everybody that you play has an opportunity to beat you. But the encouraging thing is that you have a chance to win every game,” Brown said. “It’s really going to be an exciting 2024 season and it’s going to be hard to predict.”
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