YE OLDE notebook:
A rule change approved Wednesday by the NCAA allows the Big 12 to hold a football championship. In the past, leagues needed 12 members playing in two divisions to stage a title game.
That leads to two questions. First, will the Big 12 indeed hold such a game?
It truly makes no sense to do so. The Big 12, oddly, has but 10 teams. The conference has a round-robin regular season. The only reason to stage such a game is - forget sense - it makes dollars. Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby has said a title game could gross between $25 million to $35 million. Split 10 ways, that could bring in the equivalent of another home football game.
The problem, of course, is two Big 12 teams would play each other for a second time. Certainly the winner would more times than not be propelled into the College Football Playoff. Yet scenarios of two Big 12 teams in the CFP would go out the window.
Leading us to the second question. The rule change by nature pumps the brakes on any possible Big 12 expansion. Names like Houston and Cincinnati have been bandied about. But is the topic of expansion dead?
When the Austin American-Statesman's Kirk Bohls asked TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte if that's the case, he said this: "Ten is a beautiful number."
When reached on Thursday, West Virginia University president E. Gordon Gee was rushing between legislative meetings, but applauded Bowlsby for doing a "great job" getting the rule changed.
"I'm happy about the fact we have that allowance," Gee said. "I think it was a good decision by the NCAA."
He added this puts "a new dimension" on the league's decision-making process. Gee, though, has long been a proponent for expansion and indicated Thursday this won't change his thinking. Yet he admits there is "a split between ADs and presidents" over the topic.
The Big 12 presidents, Gee said, will meet at the end of next month and probably address the issue. The WVU president is a member of the expansion committee.
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The Marshall-WVU basketball series has been discontinued. Ditto the football series.
If, however, you're a hardcore fan of the "Frontyard Brawl," Butch Buckley has just the thing for you.
This coming Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., the two schools will meet at the South Charleston Memorial Ice Arena in club hockey.
"West Virginia was supposed to play Pitt, but Pitt backed out," Buckley said.
Actually, MU only has a Division II club team, so that's what WVU is sending for the meetings, according to Buckley. Still, if you're a hockey, MU or WVU fan, you might get out, support the event and have a little fun.
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I always pride myself on my Associated Press football poll diligence. As followers know, I do my own work, even in the preseason. I wondered, though, how I - as well as the AP voters as a group - fared this season.
In case you missed it, I'm the newly crowned champeen of the first Gazette-Mail Gridiron Gurus contest. (Thankfully, Steve Harvey isn't around.) That and, what, $4 will get me a caffe mocha? Yet what about comparing the preseason to final polls?
Well, there were hits. And there were misses. Many misses.
The biggest point of pride was my preseason vote of Oklahoma at No. 5. I caught much heck for the vote. The Sooners started the season No. 19. Yet they finished No. 5. Ta-da!
My top five in the preseason was Ohio State, LSU, Notre Dame, Alabama and Oklahoma. Not bad, but not great. The preseason AP poll had it Ohio State, TCU, Alabama, Baylor and Michigan State. While my shiny star was earned via Oklahoma, the overall poll's was earned via Michigan State, which finished No. 6, and nailing Notre Dame at No. 11.
The most important lesson learned from the look back, however, was not to fret if you don't start in the preseason poll. I left out 11 final Top 25 members before the season began: Houston, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Utah, Navy, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Northwestern, Western Kentucky and Florida. The AP poll overall had 10 misses, nailing Wisconsin and Tennessee, but leaving out Oklahoma State, which I had at No. 25.
So only 60 percent of the teams starting in the Top 25 ended there.
Now you know.
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And finally . . .
Many publications already have their way-early-2016 preseason Top 25 polls online. The bad news for Mountain State fans is neither WVU nor Marshall appears on any Top 25 list I saw.
However, one respected national writer, Matt Brown, has WVU No. 30 and MU No. 63. Part of what he wrote on WVU: "They do need to get more out of Skyler Howard as a passer overall, but he ended the season on a high note. ... Whether or not any of that success carries over to 2016 could decide Dana Holgorsen's job." Part of what he wrote of MU: "Doc Holliday continues to do a great job in Huntington." (Did you realize, by the way, MU had more votes than WVU in the final coaches' poll for the last three seasons? I did not.)
Anyway, the bad news is neither team is looked on as a preseason Top 25 team.
The good news?
My above note about preseason Top 25 teams.