There is certainly a great deal about which to be excited when it comes to West Virginia University Intercollegiate Athletics as we transition to our spring sports season.
For the first time ever, our football and men’s and women’s basketball teams ended the year nationally ranked in the three final coaches’ polls: men’s basketball 11th, football 18th and women’s basketball 20th.
The only other time that’s come close to happening was in 2008 when men’s basketball finished 17th, the women were ranked 20th and the football team ended its season ranked 23rd in the AP poll but did not receive enough votes in the coaches’ poll to crack the top 25.
We were one of just three schools in the country this year to have its football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball teams conclude their respective seasons in the national rankings, the other two being Florida State and Louisville.
This clearly demonstrates the strength and consistency of our overall athletic program.
Additional proof comes from the tremendous seasons put forth once again by rifle (No. 1) and women’s soccer (No. 2). Our gymnastics team is ranked 22nd this week but will likely improve a couple of spots once the season is finished based on its third-place performance at this year’s NCAA Regionals in Morgantown.
This is reflected in our current No. 26 ranking in the latest Directors’ Cup standings, which is very pleasing. Our best finish ever in the Directors’ Cup standings occurred at the end of the 2007-08 year when we finished 30th, and we’ve still got a shot of topping that with the strong season our baseball team is enjoying this spring.
Speaking of spring, our annual Gold-Blue Spring Football Game takes place this Saturday inside Milan Puskar Stadium. We are excited about where our football program is headed right now with a strong cast of returning players preparing for our season-opening game against Virginia Tech in Landover, Maryland, on ABC prime time.
ABC does not make a habit of putting bad football games in prime time to begin the year, so we’re obviously ecstatic to be a part of that.
When you come to Morgantown on Saturday you will notice a considerable amount of construction work is taking place on the west side of the stadium, similar to what was done last year on the east side. We ask for your patience as we continue to make progress on these much-needed improvements to our now 37-year-old football stadium.
We are anticipating a summertime completion date for the west side improvements ahead of our home opener against East Carolina on Saturday, September 9.
And, as you may have read in last weekend’s Charleston Gazette-Mail, we are in the process of finalizing a contract to construct a new video board at the north end of the stadium above Touchdown Terrace. This new video board will be considerably larger than the existing one in the south end and will put Milan Puskar Stadium in line with most of the other top venues in the country. A substantial portion of the financing for the new video board falls under capital expenditures in our existing contract with IMG.
Be sure to stop back to
WVUSports.com later this week for more details on this exciting new capital project that is about to get underway.
Don’t forget, the football season ticket deadline is April 28 for our six-game home schedule this year featuring exciting Big 12 games against Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Iowa State and Texas. Your strong support made a big difference in last year’s memorable home victories over Kansas State, TCU and Baylor to help propel the Mountaineers to their first 10-win regular season since 2011.
Finally, I encourage you to stop over to Monongalia County Ballpark following the spring game to catch West Virginia’s important Big 12 series against second-ranked TCU, which sits atop the Big 12 standings with an 8-1 record. West Virginia is tied with sixth-ranked Texas Tech for second place with a 6-3 conference record, two games behind the Horned Frogs.
Our sports marketing staff is offering a special $15 ticket for the Gold-Blue game, which begins at 1 p.m. at Milan Puskar Stadium, and the TCU baseball game taking place across town at 4 p.m.
Simply log on to
WVUGAME.com to take advantage of this great deal.
I hope to see you at both venues this Saturday.
Let’s Go Mountaineers!
