MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University director of athletics Shane Lyons sat down with our Tony Caridi earlier this week to discuss some of the issues he's currently handling in the department as we prepare to flip the calendar to September and the start of another football season.
 
And, yes, he's had a few things he's been dealing with this summer.
 
Of course, COVID 19 rages on with the Delta variant of the virus now dominating global infections. He is hopeful Mountaineer fans can continue getting vaccinated in order to make sure home football games this fall are as trouble-free as possible.
 
The current plan is to have 100% capacity at home football games this season.
 
"My goal going into the fall semester was to get back to 100% capacity," he said. "We need Mountaineer Nation to support this team. There are a lot of great things happening within our football program right now and we still have tickets available."
 
Lyons explains that a packed Milan Puskar Stadium has many far-reaching benefits to the University, most importantly to the morale of the student-athletes working hard to get prepared for another difficult season.
 
"I've been out to practice a couple of times, and I've noticed their excitement that fans will be returning to the stadium this fall, and they are eager to experience that atmosphere on a home football Saturday in Morgantown," he said.
 
However, Lyons cautions fans to get vaccinated to protect themselves from an unfavorable outcome from the virus.
 
"We're still in an unstable area with people not having the vaccine and the Delta variant that's out there as a part of COVID, so I encourage everybody to get vaccinated and come out and support this team," he said. "Good things are going to happen. I always say Mountaineer Nation is the 12^th man, and it makes a big difference."
 
Another unexpected issue Lyons is now dealing with is the potential for conference realignment following the announcement late last month that Texas and Oklahoma will be departing the Big 12 Conference in the spring of 2025 to join the SEC.
 
That could eventually trigger more movement in the future, although Lyons does not believe it will take place immediately.
 
"We have time," Lyons said. "It's not a matter of the last realignment when there was a lot of scurrying going on and people were trying to find a place for a new home in a new conference, so we do have a little bit of a runway as we work through this.
 
"It's been said publicly that Oklahoma and Texas are not leaving the conference until after the spring of 2025, and obviously, that can all change as we go, but that's our anticipated timeline."
 
Lyons said his objective is to explore all options to make sure West Virginia University is in a secure place when the dust finally settles.
 
"What I can say to Mountaineer Nation is be patient as we go through this thing," he explained. "It's not going to happen very quickly. It kind of feels like a chess game a little bit. What's this conference going to do or what is that conference going to do? What is this institution going to do? Then you play off of that. 
 
"Once football season starts this will quiet down a lot, but that doesn't mean President Gee, the Big 12 Conference and I are not continuing to work behind the scenes," he added. "There are a lot of rumors floating around out there, and we want to kind of work through this thing. We're on top of it and let's look at all of the different options."
 
The athletics department recently completed another round of upgrades to the Milan Puskar Center totaling $55 million, which brings the total investment to athletics facilities to more than $220 million since West Virginia University joined the Big 12 a decade ago.
 
Although the recent improvements were not specifically made for conference realignment, it certainly can't hurt West Virginia University in today's current climate.
 
"We are one of three institutions nationally to have our football and men's basketball programs ranked among the all-time top 20 in victories so we have a great resume; it's just a matter of finding the right spot for us," Lyons pointed out. "We're resilient and we've always been resilient. This isn't the first time West Virginia has been in this situation, and we'll land in a good spot."
 
Lyons addressed one other major area on his plate: Name, Image and Likeness (NIL).
 
"It's kind of been what I expected," he said. "Some states adopted a state law and West Virginia did not, and it's probably best that we didn't adopt state laws because now as an institution, we can have our policies in place that fit us as an institution. That kind of worked out for the best.
 
"You had the first couple weeks of a flurry with media attention, and it kind of died down," he continued. "You are still going to see the big deals some student-athletes are making, but it's really out there to help our student-athletes as a whole. We're sort of building this plane as we fly, but we're continuing to try and educate and promote our student-athletes with the opportunities out there."
 
You can watch the full 10-minute video of Lyons' discussion by clicking the play icon above, or you can have the video sent directly to your computer, smart phone or smart TV by subscribing to West Virginia University's official YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/wvusports) and clicking the notification bell.
 
Part two of Lyons' discussion with Caridi will be posted Friday afternoon.