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MORGANTOWN -- As the aura of further expansion gathers around the Big 12 as it tries to keep pace with the changing power structure in college athletics, one wonders if it can do so with the football situation as it is shaking out.
We head into the summer with it looking more and more likely that the conference which West Virginia calls its home is ready for another round of expansion as it loses its two richest and most historically powerful football schools in Oklahoma and Texas to the already rich, deep and vibrant SEC, while adding a hodgepodge of Power 5 wannabes in Cincinnati, Houston, BYU and Central Florida.
The most prevalent rumor is that Colorado is ready to jump in the near future to the Big 12 from the seemingly doomed Pac-12 and bring its prime time coach Deion Sanders with it, hoping the team he has molded there in his first year is truly ready for prime time in more ways than one.
Once that occurs, the thinking is that Arizona and Arizona State will follow, along with one other school, perhaps Connecticut from the Northeast or Gonzaga -- probably only for basketball -- from the far west.
This would complete Commissioner Brett Yormark's vision of a national footprint for the Big 12, a vision based far more on marketing the product that is Big 12 athletics than on the product itself.
In many ways, it is a marketer's dream for basketball. Already with the SEC the nation's best basketball conference, the Big 12 could carry itself on its basketball as it sells tee-shirts, hoodies and prime time winter TV 鈥� but the real measuring stick for a conference is found in football.
Football is the cash cow. It is the image of the conference and, historically, the best of those teams have gathered in the Big Ten with Ohio State and Michigan and Penn State and such historic franchises such as Wisconsin and Illinois and Michigan State leading the way while the SEC has gained hold the geographical advantage of the southeastern United States and soared into the leadership of college sports through the football programs at Georgia and Alabama and a like band of football mad programs from like schools with the same educational, cultural and athletic profiles.
What the new Big 12 lacks -- even with 16 members, should that come to pass -- is the big football factories that have driven college sports, with all due apologies to Dr. James Naismith.
When one looks at it from a football standpoint, the history of the game resides elsewhere and with it the 100,000-seat stadium, the trophy cases filled with national football titles, the most historic moments and the profits that have grown out of the sport.
List a Top 15 historical football programs and you probably come up with a list that looks something like this (in no particular order): Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Oklahoma, Texas, Notre Dame, Florida, Florida State, Nebraska, LSU, Miami and Southern Cal.
None of those schools are members of the Big 12.
In fact no school presently in the Big 12 -- including this year's new foursome and the potential schools that would bring its total to 16 teams -- has ever won a national championship.
In fact, of the Top 15 Power 5 schools in all-time victory totals, only No. 15 is a member of the current or proposed 16-team Big 12 鈥� and this is the school that gives WVU hope of being a football power broker within the current conference setup.
See, that school is WVU at No. 15 among Power 5 schools in all-time victories with 772.
It has one more win than Texas A&M, seven more than Virginia Tech and 14 more than Pitt.
In fact, with Texas and Oklahoma gone to the SEC with their 936 and 934 victories respectively, WVU is by far the leader in all-time football victories among the current 12 Big 12 teams.
TCU is next with 680 while Cincinnati ranks third with 656.
Even should the rumored expansion of Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and whomever comes through, WVU would remain at the top. The Buffaloes would bring 719 wins with them to rank second to WVU's 772.
This offers reason for real optimism that WVU could emerge as a major player in any configuration the Big 12 becomes. If the Mountaineers can regain the mojo football program they once had, they would most likely be able to be a conference football power.
That would bring with it bigger and better bowls, more TV and national attention.
The truth is that the Mountaineers may be at a crossroads in their history and that athletic director Wren Baker's coaching decision figures to wind up being the most important decision he ever makes in his career.
He is evaluating Neal Brown, whose career has not taken off as it had been hoped when he was named to replace Dana Holgorsen, and whether he is the man to lead the team into the new Big 12 is the only real question this season holds.
Certainly, there are programs in the Big 12 that are capable of rising to the top of the conference. Not to be forgotten -- although many wish it would be in the shadow of a 65-7 loss to Georgia in the national championship final -- is that TCU went all the way to the title game.
The Horned Frogs have shown over the years that a small, private school can compete on a national level and without Oklahoma and Texas to deal with, go into the new Big 12 on stronger footing than WVU.
Oklahoma State and Baylor also have shown themselves as national names in college football and are deep in history such as WVU, each now reborn in a conference that is more balanced.
Colorado could build itself into a school capable of winning the Big 12 if it escapes the shackles of the Pac-12 and Cincinnati not only could continue its climb but provide WVU with a badly needed rival.
And BYU is a unique entrant into the mix who can in a Power 5 setting build its football program to new heights.
But all of this is being done on a level beneath the SEC and the Big Ten and the ACC, while shaky at best, does have programs such as Clemson, Florida State and Miami that give it a football aura that the Big 12 no longer possesses.
There is also another worry factor with the new Big 12 in that unlike the Big Ten and SEC, it is not made up of like schools, mixing big and small, private and public and mixed educational prestige.
WVU has been spurned in the past by the Big Ten and the ACC because they felt it didn't fit in. Right or wrong, that was the reason.
The only conference that has remained completely true to its historical culture through realignment has been the Big East, which was built on smaller, private schools with a basketball bias such as Villanova, St. John's, Georgetown etc.
It has accepted itself for what it is and lived with it.
Mostly, conference culture taking anything away from the athletic fields is a lot of bunk. It has little to do with what the conference brings and the real reason it exists, which is strictly financial in this new era, but it is worth considering in any conversation about the Big 12's chance to gain national acceptance as a football power conference.
Now in an era where the popularity of basketball is soaring, the new Big 12 will be a power broker no matter how the final configuration comes out.
Should the Big 12 absorb UConn and Gonzaga to go with Kansas, WVU, Cincinnati, Houston, Baylor that will be contenders for the national championship in any given year.
The conference leaders are leaning heavily upon having a balanced football conference that can grow with a national footprint, but whether it can be on a level with the Big Ten and SEC is doubtful.
But, then again, the Big 12 wasn't taking anything away from those two conferences with Oklahoma and Texas.