In a recent video from Heartland College Sports’ Pete Mundo, one team from the Big 12 Conference received praise as a team to watch on the national level.
Mundo highlighted Neal Brown and the West Virginia Mountaineers as a team that, if nationally relevant, could be massive for the brand of the league in 2024.
“The team that most Big 12 fans do not appreciate, who, if this team is good, would dramatically change the perception of the Big 12, is the West Virginia Mountaineers,” Mundo said. “They are the program that if they were nationally relevant year-in and year-out, most Big 12 fans don’t understand how enormous they would be for the conference based on the history of the program, the old Pat white – Big East days, that was one of the hottest and intriguing brands in college football.”
In the final seven years of their time in the Big East, the West Virginia Mountaineers lost 20 games and had an overall record of 70-20, solidifying their status as a perennial contender on the national scale. However, things have changed since the move to the Big 12 Conference in 2012. The team holds an overall record of 82-67 as members of the Big 12, which brought the team’s stock back down to Earth.
“ESPN loved them,” Mundo continued. “The Steve Slaton era, ESPN loved them. When Morgantown is locking and when that program is on fire, there are very few programs in the Big 12 from a national interest perspective that can match it. Because West Virginia hasn’t really been that in the Big 12, most fans don’t appreciate what a great West Virginia program could mean for this conference.”
Despite things looking grim for West Virginia following the conclusion of the 2022 season (5-7 overall record), Neal Brown turned things around in a big way. The team severely outpaced their preseason expectations with a 9-4 overall record after being picked to finish dead last in the Preseason Media Poll.
Mundo concluded his thoughts by saying, “If they turn things around, and last year is a step in the right direction for Neal Brown, the Mountaineers, that’s a program right there that should not be overlooked in what it can mean from a national conversation perspective for the Big 12 Conference.”
The team will be tested early in 2024, kicking off the season on national television against the Penn State Nittany Lions in Morgantown. The game kicks off at 11:00 a.m. CT on Saturday, August 31st.
