The big summer question mark hanging over the West Virginia University football team has supposedly been answered by Ed Pastilong finally hammering out a contract extension for Rich Rodriguez, college football's hottest coaching commodity and offensive mastermind.
According to a few sources, one of the major bargaining points in the on-going contract negotiations was to lower the $2 million buyout clause in Rodriguez’s contract. That’s the same type of buyout clause that has John Belein in Morgantown right now and not North Carolina State.
Why could Rich Rod possibly want to make that such an important part of his new contract? Instead of ensuring higher raises for his assistances and guarantees of facility upgrades along with more promotional money for himself and a longer deal, Rodriguez wanted the lower clause. He saw what happened to Belein in the off-season and realized that when Bobby Bowden finally does retire at Florida State (apparently Rodriguez’s dream job) it would be awfully tough to make the move. College coaching contracts mean very little and this could very well be the last year in Morgantown for the Grant Town, W. Va. native.
While this would be devastating to West Virginia football to lose a coach that has done so much in so few years as Rodriguez it would deal an even more drastic blow to the Big East conference who have already given just about everything they have to the Atlantic Coast Conference. No league can maintain legitimacy by having its premier coach leave his alma mater and home state just to upgrade to another conference.
The Mountaineers just about solidified the Big East’s spot in the Bowl Championship series with their 38-35 victory over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl back in January and with what should end up being a top five preseason spot, West Virginia has a chance to give the Big East a home grown super power. The ACC acquired all of their top teams through raiding of other conferences, including Florida State, Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech. A key test for the future of the Big East will be its ability to allow a program to grow from mediocrity and post-season failures to a perennial challenger. That could open the doors for further expansion and future success. It only takes one team to start that, and West Virginia with Rich Rodriguez remaining at the helm is capable of that.
Questions or comments can be sent to Nicholas Tolomeo at
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