With reports that Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell has been pushing Big 12 Conference officials to consider Louisville as the league’s next member, West Virginia politicians decided it was time to get involved, too.
West Virginia senators Joe Manchin and Jay Rockefeller, as well as Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, issued statements Wednesday regarding West Virginia University’s place in conference realignment.
Manchin said he hopes the rumors about McConnell’s involvement in the issue aren’t true.
“If that happened, I will ask for a Senate investigation. I don’t believe that’s the way the game should be played,” Manchin said. “I hope the stories we’re hearing have no merits or facts to them, but with that being said, this is the action we have available to us, and this is the action I would take as a representative of the state of West Virginia.”
Rockefeller said teams should be chosen solely based on their performance, and should not be swayed by political influences.
“The Big 12 picked WVU on the strength of its program – period,” Rockefeller said in a statement. “Now, the media reports that political games may upend that. That’s just flat wrong. I am doing, and will do, whatever it takes to get us back to the merits.”
In Capito’s statement, she questioned why politicians were getting involved in the ever-changing landscape of college football, instead of focusing on other important issues.
“With 9.2 percent unemployment rate, it’s disappointing that folks in Washington (D.C.), are meddling in our college sports,” Capito said. “WVU brings with it a strong athletic program, loyal fans and a strong alumni base – and deserves to be in the Big 12. If there is political interference going on, it needs to stop now.”
The New York Times was the first to report the new developments Wednesday.
The report claimed that McConnell had been communicating with Oklahoma U. President and former senator David Boren and Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance, a former congressman, to lobby for Louisville, his alma mater, to join the conference.
Reports from CBS Sports also claimed the deal that would have added West Virginia to the Big 12 was so close to being sealed that Interim Commissioner Chuck Neinas and Deputy Commissioner Tim Weiser planned to be in Morgantown Wednesday at a press conference to announce the move.
However, before the conference could make the move official, the league’s board of directors wanted to perform its due diligence and hold off before officially inviting WVU.
“If these outrageous reports have any merit, and especially if a United States senator has done anything inappropriate or unethical to interfere with a decision that the Big 12 had already made, then I believe there should be an investigation in the U.S. Senate, and I will fight to get the truth,” Manchin said in a statement. “West Virginians and the American people deserve to know exactly what is going on and whether politics is interfering with our college sports.”
The New York Times reported late Wednesday night that Hance responded to Manchin’s comments.
“Mitch McConnell talked about the merits of Louisville and nothing else,” Hance said. “Why shouldn’t he be sticking up for Kentucky? I think the guys from West Virginia got caught flat-footed not sticking up for West Virginia.”