West Virginia, Big 12 will have opportunities to grow brand
The Big 12 Conference has an argument to be one of the deepest and competitive in all of college football.
The 16-team league is one that the commissioner Brett Yormark didn’t hold back on at the league’s media days when discussing where the conference stacks up.
“On the football front, we will be the deepest conference in America. Every week will matter,” he said.
But the Big 12 also is going to have opportunities outside of the conference to prove themselves as well with a number of teams squaring off against other power four opponents. And that’s where they can prove it.
A total of eight games will be played against the SEC and Big 10 with West Virginia having a marquee opportunity against Penn State Aug. 31.
“We have a challenging schedule, open up against Penn State and we’ll have our hands full but we’re really looking forward to that contest,” head coach Neal Brown said.
The Mountaineers will open the season against the Nittany Lions at home on the marquee platform of the FOX Big Noon Kickoff contest. West Virginia fell 38-15 in Happy Valley a season ago in a game that was 14-7 at halftime until things got away from the visitors in the fourth quarter.
“We’re fired up about that. Our fans will be ready for that too and I think we’ll show really well on national television,” Brown said. “It’s not just a big game for West Virginia, it’s a big game for our league.”
Outside of that game, Houston will travel to Oklahoma, Colorado will head to Nebraska, UCF will play at Florida, Iowa State will head to Iowa, Kansas will make the trek to Illinois, Mississippi State travels to Arizona State and Oklahoma State will host Arkansas to wrap up those match ups.
Each of those are opportunities for the Big 12 to showcase what type of football the league plays and how they stack up against the two leagues that are becoming the measuring stick in college football.
“Without a question it’s something whether it’s West Virginia or any other program in the Big 12 gets those marquee wins, our brand will continue to grow,” Brown said.
Now, that’s just one piece of it as teams in the Big 12 also need to play well in the College Football Playoff. But the good news is that with the expansion to 12 teams getting into it means that there will be more access.
“That’s what we’re excited about is just the access. I think definitely two teams from the Big 12 get in and if the schedule falls the right way it might be three, upwards of four teams have an opportunity,” Brown said.
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