Your Sunday buffet:
n This past week I had a nice conversation with WVU director of athletics Shane Lyons.
The initial purpose of the call was to check on reports Kentucky's basketball team might be heading to Morgantown this winter for the SEC-Big 12 Challenge. (Mountaineer coach Bob Huggins had earlier told me there was "no substance" to the report. "I'm not saying it won't happen," said the coach, "because I'd imagine both teams will be highly ranked [to start the season]. But we won't know until after the Big 12 meetings." Lyons echoed Huggins.)
Anyway, Lyons and I spoke about the new video board going up in Milan Puskar Stadium this summer. If you skimmed over the news, understand Mountaineer fans will have a totally enhanced viewing experience in the fall.
You know the Panasonic south end video board installed in 2008? Well, the new Daktronics 13 HD video board in the north end will dwarf it.
Both video boards will show the same content simultaneously but the new one, which will sit atop Touchdown Terrace, will be brighter and project crisper images. Also, the new one is 37.2 feet high by 97.2 feet long. The old one is 23.6 feet high and 85 feet long.
Lyons expressed a wee bit of frustration some fans on social media incorrectly said the $4 million price tag would be handed to the state's taxpayers. "It's being funded by [the school's media rights contract with] IMG," he said.
Anyway, while WVU is upgrading there, guess which Big 12 school is taking video boarding to the next level. Yep, Texas.
According to a report out of the Lone Star State, UT officials are soliciting bids to replace what is already a huge south end zone board called "Godzillatron." The new board will be at least 56 feet high and 135 feet long.
And if you think that's excessive, consider UT recently unveiled new lockers for its football players - at a cost of $10,500 each.
n Lyons, by the way, will be off to Phoenix soon for the latest Big 12 meetings.
According to league spokesman Bob Burda, football and men's and women's basketball coaches will attend the annual in-person meeting there, along with the athletic directors and senior women's administrators governance groups.
Burda said mostly "a lot of housekeeping items" are on the agenda.
n And finally ...
As expected, I received much feedback about my all-time West Virginia NFL draft team published last week.
Although fun, it was a massive undertaking in regard to research. I was hoping not to miss anyone worthy, but figured it was inevitable.
After a week of feedback, though, I'm pretty happy with the original list. The only two regrets is I didn't include ex-Marshall standout Mike Bartrum in the special-teams group, and I inadvertently placed Aaron Beasley at safety and Tom Pridemore at cornerback. Switch those. And thank you readers Aaron Ferguson and Tim Landers for the input there.
Other fun feedback? Well, Mike Mirachi of Ohio suggested I could have included ex-WVU standout Tom Woodeshick at running back. He played nine seasons for the Philadelphia Eagles and made the 1968 Pro Bowl. Yet what I found most interesting, Mike, is Woodeshick made an uncredited appearance in the climactic football game in the movie "M*A*S*H." (He should have made it for that alone.)
Mirachi also suggested ex-WVU quarterback Fred Wyant could have been the team's NFL official. Indeed, the pride of Weston was a zebra in the league for 27 years.
Also, reader Michael Clifford noted ex-New York Jets teammates Chad Pennington and Anthony Becht made my team and wondered if Becht caught Pennington's first NFL touchdown pass.
The answer is no (that was made by "The Green Latern," Wayne Chrebet), but the research reminded me of something else: both quarterbacks on my all-West Virginia draft team, Pennington and ex-WVU standout Marc Bulger, were members of the "Brady 6."
Ring a bell? They were the six QBs taken in the draft ahead of New England Patriots legend Tom Brady. The others were Hofstra's Giovanni Carmazzi, Louisville's Chris Redman, Tennessee's Tee Martin and Southwest Texas State's Spergon Wynn.
Thankfully, the ones of my list fared the best of the six. Pennington reportedly made $51 million playing in the NFL and Bulger made $55.4 million.
Thanks, by the way, to all the readers for the feedback, not only in this case, but for all throughout the year. It's appreciated more than you know.
Contact Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827 or mitchvingle@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @MitchVingle.