Sure, the university is a member of the Big 12, one of the top five largest and wealthiest conferences, but West Virginia University also is a school that second-tier student-athletes choose because the blue-chippers take a lot of top slots with the more competitive football and basketball programs.
That’s right. WVU may be in a Power 5 conference, but it’s not truly a Power 5 school.
But when a Mountaineer exceeds expectations in Morgantown? Transfer. Portal. And what does the athlete have to lose? The student-athlete moves up without the loss of a season, and if their success continues, they play, get seen and drafted, and likely, get the payday they’ve dreamed about since catching that first schoolyard touchdown.
And yes, it sure does go both ways, but unless the portal transaction is similar to a Joe Burrow-to-LSU transfer, it likely won’t have the same sort of impact inside Milan Puskar Stadium as it did when the Tigers – and Burrow – won the national title in 2019 with a 15-0 record after throwing only 39 passes in three seasons for the Buckeyes.
Hey, we love our Mountaineers, right? And every once in a great while our coach (most recently Don Nehlen and Rich Rodriguez) has gathered something great that made us all proud. But with this transfer portal in place, will Neal Brown and Bob Huggins ever have the chance to accomplish the same?
Not when it appears the transfer portal is a one-way ride straight out of Morgantown time and time again.
