MORGANTOWN -
West Virginia University is working to get its football team
back to the site of one of the program's greatest victories.
Nick Saban, Alabama head coach and a West Virginia native
himself, alluded to a game between his Crimson Tide and the Mountaineers during
a fundraising event and it appears the two sides are close to an official
schedule change.
The meeting would open the 2014 season in the Chick-Fil-A
Kickoff Game in Atlanta's Georgia Dome, where WVU registered its 2006 Sugar
Bowl victory.
A neutral site game, part of the work needed to
make it a reality includes dropping one of the Mountaineers' scheduled non-conference
opponents. Late Wednesday, according to the Charleston Daily Mail, the decision
was made that East Carolina would be the victim.
The payout associated with the game is enough in itself to
warrant the change with this year's participating universities gaining $3.1
million, which is roughly $1 million greater than the sum West Virginia would
stand to make in one of its six home games that season.
Alabama and Virginia Tech are set to play each other in the
2013 edition of the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game and Mississippi and Boise State
are slated for 2014.
Adding another neutral site game will give WVU one in four
of the next five seasons, with the Mountaineers taking on James Madison and BYU
at FedEx Field in 2012 and 2016 and Maryland at M&T Bank Stadium.
Through all the talks of conference
expansion and realignment, there could be changes to WVU's Big 12 slate going
forward that could change how this game fits into a 12-game regular season.
With the Crimson Tide adding to a schedule that will already
feature games against the likes of Texas and Oklahoma, the 2014 season is
shaping up to be one of the more difficult – and intriguing – for the
Mountaineers in quite some time.
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