Now... you know I love Big 12 football, but I'm definitely a baseball guy. With the recent addition to WVU to the Big 12, we have to consider what this means for Big 12 baseball.

All of WVU's athletics appear to be a good fit for the Big 12 (except for the non-existent soccer program in the Big 12), with the possible exception for their baseball program. WVU is far down the interest rankings for most fans. Entering the big 12 will be a challenge that is the toughest on Greg Van Zank and the baseball program at WVU. WVU hasn't qualified for the NCAA tournament since 1996 (when I was 6 years old) and the Big East was not nearly as strong as the Big 12 has been in recent years.

Here are how the rankings shook out at the end of last season:

#7 Texas
#21 TCU
#30 Oklahoma
#31 Baylor
#44 Oklahoma State
#50 Texas Tech
#51 Kansas State
#74 Missouri *
#106 Kansas
#151 West Virginia

*only relevant if they stay

WVU baseball will enter as the lowest ranked team by far and, aside from Kansas, every other team in the league was ranked at least 100 spots higher. Yikes.

There will be no other athletic program coming in that has to overcome that kind of challenge.