Louisville’s Big 12 Hopes Aren’t Dead Yet

What  a difference 24 hours can make.

In what has been the most dramatic episode yet in the Conference Realignment drama; the New York Times reported today that West Virginia University’s bid to the Big 12 has been put “on hold.” This all comes the day after everyone was saying that the Mountaineers were guaranteed to replace fleeing Missouri, and Louisville would be out in the cold.

The brightest spot for Cards fans:

West Virginia officials, who called the deal “solid” late Tuesday afternoon, declined comment Wednesday.

“I think it’s 50-50 right now between West Virginia and Louisville,” one of the people with direct knowledge said. The other added that it was “too close to call.”

Louisville Athletics' Secret Weapon?

The battle for conference survival took its strangest turn with the alleged involvement of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) The Times reported that McConnell had lobbied Big 12 officials, including former U.S. Senator and current President of Oklahoma State University David Boren. McConnell also likely made a connection with Iowa State University President Gregory Geoffroy, a fellow University of Louisville graduate.

The Times report led to calls for a Congressional investigation from both of West Virginia’s current senators. “The Big 12 picked WVU on the strength of its program — period,” Sen. Jay Rockefeller said in a statement. “Now the media reports that political games may upend that. That’s just flat wrong. I am doing and will do whatever it takes to get us back to the merits.” Rockafeller is the head of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that oversees sports matters, and in theory could put some sort of investigation into action.

Wow.

Even Louisville coach Rick Pitino been lobbying  for expansion, he’s just talking about the wrong conference.

ESPN’s Andy Katz reported that Pitino has been talking to the Big East about replacing Syracuse and Pittsburgh with Temple and Memphis in at least basketball. Pitino said, “We have to take a page out of the ACC in what they did to us. Taking Syracuse and Pittsburgh was a stroke of genius. We have to do the same thing and we have that available to us with two programs that also have football.”

This blog has said plenty about Pitino and his role in Louisville moving to the Big 12, but if the Cardinals want to seriously out shine West Virginia all parties involved have to be on the same page. UofL can’t afford to have Jurich, Ramsey, and now Sen. McConnell going gung-ho for the Big 12, and have the man synonymous with Louisville Athletics still talking Big East.

West Virginia showed yesterday it was willing already to flee the dying Big East. Today, the Cardinals showed that they were down for a change of scenery. Its time for Rick Pitino to show that too.

As the Cardinals tipped off for their first exhibition men’s basketball game, plenty of loose ends remain in the conference realignment drama. Conflicting reports will continue to come throughout the night, but Today’s developments are a testament to how quickly the landscape is changing.

Nothing is certain until its heard from Tom Jurich at a microphone stand.