Commissioner ushers in Big 12 era
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — So, Oklahoma State’s 84-0 win against Savannah State a few weeks ago didn’t fire up the average college football fan?
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby would probably agree.
Bowlsby, who is in Morgantown this weekend for West Virginia’s Big 12 conference debut against Baylor, shared his thoughts on a bevy of subjects on the eve of today’s historic game.
First, he believes a plan for the four-team playoff for college football approved in June could be ready to share with the public within six months, mentioning March or April as possible months for an announcement.
“It seems to me it’s reasonable that within six months we ought to have a lot of this stuff put together,” said Bowlsby. “I serve on the site selection and revenue distribution subcommittees. But it’s a 12-year deal and we need to make sure we get it right for the kids on the field, the coaches and the fans.
“I think this is an enormous step forward for college football.”
That plan, he said, is likely to help guide teams in the strength of schedule debate, by using a metric to determine a team’s strength of schedule, which will ultimately help deliver stronger non-conference games.
“I don’t think you have to play murderers’ row. I think you have to play a schedule that gets your team ready,” said Bowlsby. “There’ll be some metric we use on non-conference scheduling. I think that metric on who’s selected and how they’re seeded will cause people to schedule more competitively.”
time, then they’re happy about that,” said cornerback Darwin Cook. “They try to beat you vertically a lot of the time. It’s a big challenge for us, because we aren’t used to that. However, I feel like we’ve prepared for it all week and we will be ready for [today].”
The challenges keep coming after today, as each of the Mountaineers’ remaining opponents pose a different problem schematically.
And all of them — except for TCU, another newcomer to the
Matchup: No. 9 West Virginia (3-0) vs. No. 25 Baylor (3-0), noon today, Milan Puskar Stadium, Morgantown, W.Va. Mountaineers are favored by 12.
TV, Radio, Internet: FX; Mountaineer Sports Network, Sirius 91 and XM 91.
West Virginia: Has averaged 47.3 points per game and 529 yards of total offense. … QB Geno Smith ranks No. 1 in points responsible for (26 per game), No. 2 in passing efficiency (191.23 rating), and total offense (379.67 ypg), and No. 4 in completions per game (32). … Starting offense has not turned the ball over. … Defense has 10 sacks.
Baylor: No. 6 ranking in total offense (568.67 yards per game). … QB Tyler Florence leads the nation in total offense (387.67 ypg). … Top two receivers average 100-plus receiving yards a game, Terrance Williams with 117.7 and Tevin Reese with 101.3. … Has the sixth-best turnover margin.
Hidden stat: West Virginia had 20 first downs passing against blitzing Maryland last week, the most since converting 23 times via the pass against LSU in 2011. conference — have been building, recruiting and preparing to compete in this league for much longer than the Mountaineers.
West Virginia fled the Big East suddenly last year and paid dearly to do so — about $20 million in a settlement with its old conference. They are likely to need time to catch up with recruiting.
“There is a cultural difference, and we are still adapting to it,” said Holgorsen, referring to the pace of Big 12 games. “The biggest difference is the amount of kids that play in these games compared to the Big East games. You can go into a Big East game and plan on playing about 40 kids, which happened last year and has happened here for a long time.
“That’s hard to do when you are taking that many snaps. Baylor is averaging 90 snaps a game.”
Holgorsen expects he’ll need 20 or more additional players every Saturday than he did a year ago, which means using many true and redshirt freshmen.
“Based on what Baylor is going to do — they are going to go up-tempo and they are going to play fast — they are going to play a lot of snaps, and that means we are going to take a lot more snaps on offense as well, which means you have to play more people. I have been saying this for some time — this is the biggest difference in the Big 12 and the Big East,” said Holgorsen. “I think the culture is changing in the Big East a little bit. They brought in teams like Houston and Boise State, and I think that culture is going to change, too.”
Whatever happens on the field, the financial gain is too big to ignore.
The Big 12 distributed $1.6 billion to its members in its first 16 years and just signed a television deal with ESPN, ABC and Fox worth another $2.6 billion over the next 13 years.
Today is a day that was worth waiting for, said wide receiver Stedman Bailey.
“I’m pretty excited heading into conference play,” he said. “Everybody has been waiting on this very moment. Baylor is our first Big 12 opponent, then we just have to take it week by week.” A look around the country on the fifth weekend of the 2012 college football season:
Why watch:watc What’s wrong with the Big Ten Conference? Look at the rankings that precede these two schools. That’s the best ththe conference has to offer: A team that can’t go bowling vs.vs a team that had to struggle to beat Eastern Michigan. there are reasons to watch. 1) Urban Meyer coaches his
seconsecond in Big Ten). 3) Spartans RB Le’Veon Bell (152 a BBuckeyes defense anchored by two of the best defensive fendefensive linemen in the country in Johnathan Hankins anand John Simon.