WVU is the only game in the state. Yes as much disdain as I have for their fans, they are passionate. But WVU is the only real major university and the only game in town for most, of the state. So most, but not all of those fans would have still been game crazy even if WVU was in the MAC. As I stated, VT has already been in that situation when we went through the wilderness of the Metro, the A10, half in the BE then all in the BE until finally in the ACC. I have seen it before. We were not the only game in town, we were in what our home area considered an inferior no body cares about conference. It hurt us and it took Mike Vick to made much of a difference. We were facing something like 6 teams in close proximity (relatively) all in the "favored" conference. That matters. We were at a disadvantage. There was a whole other layer of people who became VT fans once we were in the favored conference. Heck we could drive to UVA and all 4 North Carolina schools and back in a day and at least 2 of those schools (Wake and Duke) implemented higher prices for tickets and concession because they knew they were going to be besieged by VT fans. Lose that and going back to being in a conference that our home area (DMV, VA and NC) does not care one bit about except WVU and yes there will be slippage. But that is not just a VT thing. Same for NCSU if they end up in the XII. In fact I am going to go so far as to say that if FSU and Clemson go Big 10 then they also will be in what their home area sees an a inferior conference. Their area's heart belongs to the SEC.