It was a real trip for WVU athletic director Shane Lyons. A real interesting trip.
He was in New York for the Mountaineers' hoops game with Virginia. He was there to speak at a sports business symposium at the Marriott Times Square.
All the while, questions swirled about football coach Dana Holgorsen. Would he stay or would he go?
Finally, two days after the questions began, Lyons issued a statement: "Dana Holgorsen will return as our head football coach in 2016. After evaluating our football program after the close of the regular season, I believe that continuity is best for our program.
"I know that Dana, his staff and everyone who supports Mountaineer football was disappointed with how our regular season ended, following a four-game winning streak.
"Dana and I will continue to work together to strengthen our football program. No one wants to win more than Dana and I and we will work together to ensure success."
On Thursday, Lyons prepared to board a plane home. He called the past week part of the "evaluation process." He was involved, while school president E. Gordon Gee was apprised of the process.
On Wednesday morning, Gee gave Lyons the green light to do what he felt was right.
"He let me have my role as the athletic director," Lyons said Thursday. "We'll move forward from here."
Word from a high-ranking official was Lyons "must have had a come-to-the-pulpit meeting" with the coach.
Whatever the case, Holgorsen is being retained. Yet questions have remained over the coach's contract status. Will his contract and those of the assistants be renegotiated?
"We haven't gotten to that point," Lyons said. "We will talk to [Holgorsen] about the current contract in the coming weeks. We're looking at it one way; he's looking at it from a different standpoint.
"There's no specific timeline for this though. Dana will be our coach in 2016. We may get it done by the end of this week or next. We may not.
"His agent has brought [renegotiating] up and I have to see what he's proposing. I'm not sure what he's looking for. Also, I have some things in mind."
It's well known that Lyons would like to restructure the contracts of Holgorsen's assistants so they are tied to his employment. But it's also understood that, normally, a coach's contract is renegotiated and many times extended around this time frame.
"We'd like to address this once the bowl game is behind us," Lyons said. "We are at the two-year mark and sometimes it gets to the one-year mark, but there are recruiting issues. We'll discuss it all with Dana and his party in the coming weeks."
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As mentioned, Lyons was a speaker this past week. The Sports Business Journal hosted the athletic director, as well as Notre Dame's Jack Swarbrick, Duke's Kevin White and Arizona State's Ray Anderson.
The main topic was the impact of autonomy on their jobs and institutions. In 2014, the NCAA Division I board of directors voted to allow Power 5 schools to write many of their own rules. That allowed for cost of attendance stipends, insurance, etc.
"It was a good panel," Lyons said. "The discussion went well. For me, it was good to hear we aren't the only ones dealing with challenges. It was good to talk about where we're heading as an association."
Lyons said the Power 5 schools had to move toward autonomy "because you can't paint [all NCAA members] with the same brush."
Will the Power 5 schools ever break away from the NCAA?
"Funny you should mention that," Lyons said. "We spoke about that. Someone asked if there'd be an NCAA in 2020. Yeah, there will be an NCAA in 2020, but I think in the future it will have a different look.
"We need a governing body, an enforcement body and a championship body. But I think [the NCAA] will look different in the coming years."
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And finally, Lyons said he'll soon start filling gaps in WVU's future football schedules.
"We'll start with the 2017 year and start looking at our options," Lyons said. "We'll look at the holes."
WVU already has two Power 5 schools scheduled through 2024 with the exception of 2017. In that year, the Mountaineers play a neutral-site game with Virginia Tech in Landover, Maryland, and ECU of the American Athletic Conference. In 2018, WVU plays Tennessee in a neutral-site game (Charlotte, North Carolina) and one at North Carolina State.
"I'm not opposed to looking at high-caliber FCS teams," Lyons said. "My goal, though, is to have us in the top four and never have our schedule called into question."