WVU owes a certain former coach a big thank you today

The college football dominoes continued to fall today as word came that West Virginia University would be joining the Big 12.  There is not a whole lot coming out of Morgantown right now, so we cannot confirm nor deny whether WVU plans to have any ceremony honoring the man who without all this would be possible... Former head coach Rich Rodriguez.  Yes, as much as Mountaineer fans and alumni may hate to hear that, they owe their pardon from conference purgatory to a man who is reviled in their state.  Scanning various social media outlets today the rhetoric coming from the WVU faithful has largely centered around their success over the last decade, including two BCS bowl wins, all this of course under Rodriguez.  The facts are that conference realignment has centered around football and the efforts of Rodriguez made WVU an asset that was valuable enough for the Big 12 to justify bringing in and feeling good about.  So as you breathe a sigh of relief today after being plucked from the junk pile that is the Big East perhaps you will swallow some of that lingering bitterness from the day RichRod bolted to Ann Arbor and realize that without him, this probably is not possible.