before we had a P2, all the conferences, including the B12 with Texas, thought they had a solid footing to compete for the National Championship, and the monies the conferences got were much closer than today. If you remember, at the time, Louisville was the number one pick for the B12, but Texas voted against them and Cincy, and WVU was too strong of a football brand to ignore. That, and the B12 even back then wasn't as pretentious about academics as the PAC and ACC were. So, ..., The B12 picked up TCU and WVU for their football. WVU on an island for so long was insane, and dearly effected their recruiting. They would have been much better in the ACC, But I use that term (ACC) with an asterisk. The original ACC before FSU and the Big East schools, was an absolute nothing burger in football. Except for a run by Clemson in the early 80's, no one would even know they supported division one football. They were a basketball conference, through and through. (this was all before Clemson went on their recent run). The B12 had no business picking up WVU in my opinion, but it was too good of a brand at the time to be left out. No one else wanted them, and it turns out that is what the B12 conference is today, teams that no one else wanted. Texas and Oklahoma would much rather lose to a Georgia, Bama, or an LSU than to the likes of KSU - and make no mistake, year in, and year out, KSU competed with them.