An Open Letter to the ACC, From The SmokingMusket

Dear ACC,

I know we’ve had our differences in the past but with the current college football atmosphere I think we can both let bygones be bygones and move towards a new beginning. You see, West Virginia offers a lot to the ACC and I think you may have just forgotten or may not be aware of just how much we do offer. If I may -

Other than Virginia Tech, we Mountaineers have won more games than Miami, Boston College, Pitt and Syracuse since they left the Big East to join your conference. We would be a much stronger football team than what you have currently added. Since 2005, the Mountaineers have won over 130 games, more than anyone except Virginia Tech in that timeframe. You left the second most successful team out last time during your expansion - let’s not make that mistake again!

Perhaps our athletic achievements in football aren’t enough to sway you - I know academics have always been a sticking point between us, but they no longer have to be. Did you see the beautiful outline our Athletic Director Shane Lyons recently put out? West Virginia is a R1 Research Campus, the highest level of research activity in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. We do this as a land-grant, doctoral research university with a comprehensive medical school - not something everyone can say. We also have Rhodes Scholars, Truman Scholars and Goldwater Scholars. We’ve got the smarty-pants to go along with our athletic prowess.

Last time, everyone was worried about television markets and admittedly, West Virginia just doesn’t have the largest population to add to a budding TV market but like everything, change is evitable. TV markets aren’t really as important as they were 10 years ago - more and more households are going streaming. West Virginia currently has over 210,000 alumni living in 135 different nations. We have alumni chapters up and down the east coast with fans waiting to buy tickets and attend games and purchase network access and streaming content in order to watch our favorite team. In fact in 2018, we had the third highest viewership of a game for a Friday night ever! We make for some good viewing!

Don’t forget about our ever improving facilities. We just infused 55 million into the stadium and we continue to improve. You haven’t been by in a while, so I can forgive you if you haven’t seen the new stadium and locker room but come on by and we can show you around.

We don’t need to worry about the past but let’s look forward to a future together. One where we can become the newest member and with us, you get extra rivalries. College football is at its best when it has rivalries and our rivalries with both Virginia Tech and Pitt are legendary. Not to mention, Boston College, Syracuse, Louisville, Virginia, Miami and Clemson, we’ve got history. You have history. We should have history together.

Don’t miss out on the one program that is a perfect fit for you. Don’t miss out on a legendary team. Let’s do this thing and get to where we both should have been years ago.

Love Always,

The Smoking Musket