Views From The Booth:

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(Posted 6-2-26)

Greetings from The Booth!

Take Me Home, Country Roads!

That great song echoed through the hills and hollows of West Virginia last night after WVU’s 6-5 walk-off baseball win over Kentucky in the NCAA Regional Championship game in Morgantown. A capacity crowd of 4000 at the Kendrick Family Ballpark swayed arm-in-arm and sang John Denver’s classic in unison as the Mountaineers lined up and joined in. It was a fitting serenade to a team that personifies the Mountain State: tough, gritty, resilient.

Sweeter still was the fact that the Regional Championship came at the expense of Kentucky. This was not just the Mountaineers versus the Wildcats. This was the Hatfields and the McCoys. It was WVU that knocked Kentucky out of last year’s Regionals with a 13-12 come-from-behind win, and as the saying goes, “familiarity breeds contempt.” these two teams played each other 3 time this past weekend, with the Wildcats putting the Mounties on the brink of elimination with a Saturday win over WVU. West Virginia, needing to win out, posted a 10-5 win over Wake Forest Sunday afternoon, followed by an improbable win over the Cats on Sunday evening, setting up last night’s winner-take-all final.

WVU seemed to be cruising to the Super Regional, leading 5-1 in the eighth. Not so fast. The Wildcats rallied to tie things at 5 and had several chances to take the lead and crush the hopes of an entire state. Gutsy relief efforts from Chansen Cole and Dawson Montesa (who threw 122 pitches on Sunday) kept things tied, setting things up for Armani Guzman, who’s game winning single in the bottom of the 10th sent the home crowd into a frenzy, and his team to its third straight Super Regional.

Folks, there’s a lot of crap going on in college sports these days. The transfer portal and NIL have made the landscape almost unrecognizable and smarmy. Many college athletes, especially in football and basketball, seem like mercenaries, some playing for a different team every year. In the case of WVU, the basketball roster is undergoing a complete turnover headed into the 2026-27 season. There’s no point latching on to a superstar–they’ll be gone next year, as they chase the almighty dollar. Don’t get me wrong. On a college football Saturday, I’m still rooting for the Old Gold and Blue. But it doesn’t feel the same. A season like 2007, when WVU was one bad loss to Pitt away from playing for a college football National Championship, will never happen again in my lifetime. The blueblood programs have the money, and that’s where the top players are going to go.

But last night in Morgantown, we were brought back to a simpler time in college sports. Guzman, a New York native, sang “Country Roads” even as he was being interviewed by ESPN (and knew all the words). Fans showered the players with love, and it was reciprocated by young men from all parts of the country who last night were West Virginians through and through.

It was “Almost Heaven.”

Until the next visit from The Booth…LET’S GO!

RW

 

 

 

AG Miyares reaches settlement with NCAA

Attorney General Jason Miyares announced that Virginia and a bipartisan coalition of states have reached a landmark settlement in principle with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) that will protect student-athletes’ Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rights during the recruiting process.

The agreement also permanently bars the NCAA from reinstating its unlawful NIL Recruiting Ban.

“Today’s agreement with the NCAA is a major step toward helping student-athletes to control their own future.

We look forward to a final settlement that ensures student-athletes—just like any other American—can benefit from their talent, hard work, and NIL market value,” said Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares. 

 

In January 2024, Attorney General Miyares and Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti filed a lawsuit against the NCAA, alleging that its NIL restrictions violate federal antitrust law, stifle competition, and unfairly limit both current and future student-athletes.

A federal judge agreed and blocked the NCAA from enforcing its unlawful rules throughout the duration of this litigation.

Today’s settlement in principle is an important step in bringing that lawsuit to a successful conclusion. 

In May 2024, the attorneys general of the District of Columbia, Florida, and New York joined Virginia and Tennessee in the lawsuit, strengthening the bipartisan effort to hold the NCAA accountable. 

For more news from across the Shenandoah Valley, click here.

Tony and Neal

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Greetings From The Booth!

Once again, another miserable football weekend if you’re a fan of the old Gold and Blue, as the WVU Mountaineers were humiliated on prime time national TV Saturday night by Kansas State. From the get-go, there was never a feeling that the Mounties were going to win, and things got progressively worse as the night wore on. WVU Garrett Greene picked up where he left off against Iowa State with 2 really bad interceptions, including a pick-six. Injury was added to insult, as Greene didn’t answer the bell in the second half, and most of the home crowd at Puskar Stadium was gone by the end of the third quarter of the 45-18 blowout.

These are not salad days for WVU football, and the seat is now white-hot for Head Coach Neal Brown. Now in his sixth season in Morgantown, Brown is now 3-18 against ranked teams in his tenure, and in those six seasons, the Mounties have not made an appearance in the AP Top 25. This is not acceptable to a fan base that not too many years ago was in the thick of the Big 12 Championship conversation.

What was angry passion with the WVU fanbase has now become just plain apathy, as Brown continues to pile on the excuses after each Mountaineer loss–officials, weather, injuries, etc. Brown also made national news recently when he inferred that winning was not as important as fans having a good time at the game. The problem for Mountaineer fans who want Brown gone is that he holds WVU hostage, as his huge buyout prevents the powers-that-be from firing him. That is not going to happen before the end of the season, and may not happen at all in 2024 if WVU goes on a run, finishes 6-6, and goes to the Who Cares Bowl.

Brown needs to do the right thing and step down…now.

Contrast all the above with the University of Virginia, where Men’s Basketball Coach Tony Bennett surprisingly resigned last week. Bennett, who is just 55, displayed incredible honesty (a rarity in the world of big time college athletics) by stating that in this age of the Transfer Portal and NIL money, he was not the right man to move Cavalier basketball forward.

Bennett is one of a growing number of “old school” coaches who’ve had trouble adapting to the brave new world of college sports. Truth be known, the Portal and NIL are probably why the great Nick Saban stepped down at Alabama. And, although he committed more serious offenses that led to his demise, West Virginia’s own Bob Huggins struggled in the new world of the NCAA. When JMU Football hung 70 on North Carolina earlier this season, Mack Brown, realizing that the game may have passed him by, offered to resign.

Today’s prototypical coach will need to navigate through this Wild West, where good teams can become bad in a hurry, and bad teams can go from a conference basement to championship contender in just a season’s time. Meanwhile, Tony Bennett leaves a winning legacy in Charlottesville, where a 2019 NCAA Championship banner hangs. Neal Brown’s legacy has yet to be etched in stone, but so far, he has turned a once-proud program into a smoldering dumpster fire.

At least the tailgating is good in the Blue Lot…

Until the next visit from The Booth…GO EERS!

RW

 

 

 

 

VA AG files lawsuit against NCAA over NIL restrictions

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA along with the Attorney General of Tennessee, Jonathan Skrmetti.

The states allege that the NCAA’s restrictions on student-athletes’ ability to negotiate and benefit from their own Name, Image, and Likeness rights violate federal antitrust laws and is harmful to the student-athletes.

The Supreme Court previously found that the NCAA violates antitrust law by imposing unreasonable restraints on compensation that may be received by student athletes which led to Virginia establishing laws to benefit the NIL market for student athletes.

The lawsuit alleges that student athletes:

  • are prevented from negotiating with collectives
  • unable to review NIL offers prior to making their enrollment decision
  • cannot properly consider the NIL services offered by the school upon enrollment

A link to the full lawsuit is available here. 

For more news from across the Shenandoah Valley, click here.

Sports Dogs: Talkin’ NIL With Coach C

On this edition of the Sports Dogs Podcast, Randy (The R-Dog) and Coach C, Mike Costello, examine the ever-changing landscape of college football as we approach the 2022 season. Topics covered include Name Image Likeness deals and conference realignment.

 

Sports Dogs: Coach C On College Hoop

In this edition of the SDPC, The R-Dog (Randy) is back from vacay and talkin’ college basketball with Mike Costello, aka Coach C, about our regional teams building their resume for The Big Dance, plus some thoughts about the transfer portal and NIL…