"You like me. You really like me!" Sally Field, accepting the best actress Oscar at the 1985 Academy Awards.
Let’s face it. It’s nice to be liked. Sure, we may say that we are self-actualized, unaffected by what others think of us, but most of us need some level of approval, signs that we are wanted.
West Virginia often struggles with this. We see ourselves as rugged Mountaineers, but our skin can be as thin as tissue paper. Our radar is constantly sweeping for slights, real and perceived.
Those offenses accumulate and fester, generating a reservoir of hard feelings.
And so, for West Virginia University, the two-day long Big 12 media conference here in Dallas, Texas felt like a warm embrace.
"Hello, welcome to the Big 12," said Kansas State play-by-play announcer Wyatt Thompson, as he extended his hand.
The scene was repeated over and over by members of the press. Coaches of the other nine conference schools spoke reverently about WVU football and Mountaineer nation.
Consider what’s happened in the last year. The Big East continued its decline and West Virginia was looking for a new home. The Big 12 lost two more members and, at one point, appeared to be within hours of disintegrating.
But out of the chaos, the Big 12 and WVU found each other. Each played a role in saving the other. The league provided WVU with a new and credible home, while West Virginia gave the conference a nationally-recognized tenth team.
Here in Dallas it felt as though West Virginia had just moved in and the neighborhood rolled out the welcome wagon. These people are happy to see West Virginia… they really are.
This league is excited about having West Virginia and TCU, two national programs that want to be in the conference. Reporters can get back to covering games instead of chronicling the league’s implosion.
Sure, there are major geographic challenges with this new affiliation, but in many ways a West Virginia membership in the Big 12 makes more sense than the Big East. Doesn’t West Virginia University have more in common with the University of Kansas and the University of Oklahoma than Rutgers and Seton Hall?
Granted, I’ve been enjoying the delicious Kool-Aid that is offered at such events and it is intoxicating. At this event, coaches and key players are readily available to the press and everyone is in a good mood.
West Virginia has not yet lost a game in the Big 12. There have been no bad calls by officials. No WVU fan has tangled with an angry Wildcat or Sooner. It’s like the blissful earliest stages of a romance.
No doubt there will be rough patches ahead; there always are. But West Virginia’s reception at the Big 12 media days demonstrates that the two are off to a good start.
For this Mountaineer, the Big 12 is already starting to feel like home.