West Virginia looks to take a step forward in the Big 12
With the changes coming to the Big 12 Conference, West Virginia is hoping that the time has come to take a step forward with the football program.
The Mountaineers are coming off a 9-4 campaign going 6-3 overall in the Big 12, the best for the program since the 2018 season when the program lost the final two games to miss on an opportunity to compete in the league’s title game.
And with a bulk of the roster set to return in 2024, the program is looking to increase their overall win total in the league which sits at 53-54 since joining in 2012.
During those 12 seasons, the program has only hit at least six wins three times with the aforementioned 2023 and 2018 six-win seasons and the 2016 campaign where the Mountaineers won 7 games.
The Mountaineers joined the same year as TCU and the programs will be forever linked. During the same time period, the Horned Frogs are 59-49 but shared the Big 12 title in 2014 prior to the league restarting the title game and playing for another in 2022.
West Virginia has only realistically been in the picture for one championship in 2018 when the Mountaineers lost back-to-back games to Oklahoma State and Oklahoma.
Ironically though West Virginia is 7-5 in head-to-head against the Horned Frogs.
Still, it’s not what West Virginia fans expected when the program accepted the invitation to the league a dozen years ago, but with the changes that have occurred perhaps now is the time is now to make a push to get over the hump.
Last season was the first without a true round-robin schedule with Cincinnati, BYU, UCF and Houston added to the league and that will continue even after the departures of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC.
Even with those two exiting the league, the Big 12 has grown to 16-teams with the additions of Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah which means that there is now an opening at the top.
Not necessarily in performance because over the last three seasons the two leading brand names in the league combined for just one championship and a single appearance in the game with Texas claiming the crown this past year. But teams need to emerge with them gone to the SEC.
Could this be where West Virginia makes their move?
The Mountaineers have a roster that should be primed to compete in 2024 and a schedule that at least on paper, for whatever that is worth at this stage of the off-season, appears navigable.
Head Coach Neal Brown is entering his sixth season atop the program and with the success this past season is now over .500 at 31-29 and his team finished ranked for the first time.
There is optimism in Morgantown and with the changes in the league, the opportunity is certainly there.
This is a program that has been used to winning as the Mountaineers won three BCS games during their time in the Big East but haven’t been able to get over the hump since changing leagues. There’s obviously an adjustment that comes with any changes, but after more than a decade, the program is looking to turn the corner when it comes to competition within the Big 12.
The league is expected to feature as much parity as any in the nation, but can West Virginia establish itself as one of the new faces of the league? That’s the goal for all 16 teams involved, but can the program take the step and become more than what they’ve been?
It won’t happen in one season, but this year could serve as the stepping stone that the Mountaineers need to make the move toward being an annual contender.
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