NCAA Basketball: 6 potential conference realignment scenarios
By Joey Loose
6. West Virginia to the ACC
Geographically speaking, the Mountaineers simply do not belong in the Big 12. Instead of justifying their involvement, let’s move them to the ACC, putting them very close to a majority of their new league.
West Virginia is on an island, significantly east of the schools in Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas in the Big 12. Their football and basketball programs have been competitive in a tough Big 12 and would fit in nicely with the ACC’s current teams. Bob Huggins’ basketball team is going to be competitive again in the future and would compete well in a stacked ACC.
If you were the ACC, would you want to extend to 16 teams? There are already a lot of talented programs in the conference, including two Sweet Sixteen teams nearby in Virginia. On the other hand, this move would renew those regional rivalries and give the ACC another very prestigious member in the right part of the country.
If you were West Virginia, would you be ready to change conferences again so soon? They’ve spent less than a decade in the Big 12 and have been competitive for most of their tenure. The days of the old Big East are certainly in the past, but this move would bolster the ACC into a conference even more impressive than that Big East. The move would come down to the ACC’s willingness to further expand, something that might take an exit or two to fully consider.