West Virginia set to join Big 12 in July
NCAA Football Betting Lines
02/14/2012 - Morgantown, WV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - West Virginia and the Big East have agreed to settle their lawsuits, enabling the university to leave the conference and join the Big 12 in July.
West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck would not disclose terms of the settlement, but said in the school's release that no state or taxpayer funds, tuition or academic support money would be used.
The Charleston Daily Mail had reported last week that the Big East will receive about $20 million in exchange for allowing West Virginia to leave prior to the 27-month notification period as required by the conference's bylaws. The paper had indicated that West Virginia would pay $11 million with the Big 12 schools combining to supplement the remainder of the financial transaction.
"This closes a chapter and opens a new one filled with exciting possibilities for WVU's future," Luck said. "I've heard from Mountaineer fans across the country who have made it very clear that they are proud and honored to be heading into the Big 12."
West Virginia announced its decision to defect from the Big East and join the Big 12 in October, making the move about a month after both Syracuse and Pittsburgh announced its departures to the ACC. While Syracuse and Pittsburgh both decided not to challenge the Big East's departure bylaw, West Virginia did.
In filing a lawsuit against the Big East, West Virginia had argued that it wanted to leave immediately because no such 27-month period of notification was needed for TCU, which had agreed to join the Big East for the start of the 2012-13 year and instead decided to join the Big 12.
The Big East countersued in Rhode Island, saying the 27-month rule did not apply to TCU because it had not yet participated in conference play.
While the legal process was playing out, the Big 12 and Big East were unable to finalize football schedules for 2012. The settlement now allows the Big 12 to remain with 10 members, as TCU and West Virginia will replace the outgoing Missouri and Texas A&M -- both departing for the SEC.
"Our membership in the Big 12 offers WVU significant advantages," Luck added. "The Big 12 is a strong and vibrant conference academically and athletically. We look forward to the potential academic and athletic partnerships and financial opportunities that membership in the Big 12 offers."
The Big East will now have just seven schools for football in 2012, unless one of the incoming members announced in its expansion plans can be persuaded to join early.
The new schools slated to join the league -- at different intervals -- are Memphis, Central Florida, SMU and Houston as full members and Boise State, San Diego State and Navy for football only.
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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK
NFL Football Trash TalkTrash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.