I grew up in West Virginia and though my loyalties lie with Virginia Tech, I've followed the Mountaineers since I was a kid. Athletically, there are some great schools in the Big 12 and schools that I imagine are a lot like both Tech and WVU. I respect schools like K State and Oklahoma State and Iowa State and the handful of fans I've met from those schools over the years were great. And my impression is that Big 12 fans have been very accepting of WVU. But the fact of the matter is that most of the folks who are old enough to buy tickets and donate to the Mountaineer Athletic Fund never gave much thought to those schools in their formative years, when they became a real fan of college football. They think about Pitt and Tech and Maryland and Syracuse and, if you're old enough, Penn State. It was neat to see all of those Big 12 teams come to Morgantown the first time but the novelty wears off, probably because it's highly unlikely that the core Mountaineer fan actually knows a single soul who went to TCU or Kansas or even Texas or OU. It's hard to be passionate about or develop a rivalry with something or someone you really never get to know. So there are Wake Forests and Boston Colleges and Minnesotas and Indianas and Baylors and Houstons in every conference. But if the heart of your fanbase is in Virginia, you "get" Wake Forest. If you're from Ohio, you may have a connection to Indiana. If you're from Kansas, you may have a connection with folks in Oklahoma, north Texas or even Iowa. And that makes all the difference. Because if you are WVU in the Big 12, Texas or Oklahoma will never be your true rival, as cool as it is to see those uniforms in your stadium. If you are Virginia Tech in the Big Ten, Michigan and Nebraska and USC and Ohio State will never be your rival. Tech never developed much of a rivalry with Maryland or Rutgers when they were fellow conference members in the past. On the other hand, if you are Virginia Tech in the SEC, now you have more connections and a least a few possibilities. South Carolina. Tennessee. Kentucky. Maybe Auburn or Georgia. So if you can develop some rivalry with USC (east), UK or even Vandy, eventually get the Vols to admit they care, and then sprinkle in your annual rotation of games against the Bamas and LSUs, those games against Missouri and Mississippi State don't seem so generic.