West Virginia's move from Big East to Big 12 opens new doors for offense

Mike Casazza finds a new way to sum up the differences between West Virginia's old Big East conference and new Big 12 conference.

The LOSING teams in nine Big 12 Conference games average 25.8 points and have lost with 63, 45 and 36 points. Winners average 40.1 points.

Meanwhile, in WVU's old Big East, WINNERS average 25.4 and have won with 23, 19, 14. Losers average 13.4 and haven't topped 28 in defeat.

West Virginia, with its spectacular offense and permissive defense, has been a big part of that, of course, since WVU is the team that has given up 63 and 45 points in wins. But there's no doubt that the Big 12 has played as a much more offense-heavy conference than the Big East was. Pitt's 14-13 loss to Syracuse last week, for example, didn't raise any eyebrows in the Big East, but in the Big 12, a score like that would be downright unusual. A typical game score in the Big 12 looks something like Iowa State's 37-23 win over TCU this week. It would have been interesting to see how WVU's very distinctive team would have fared in the Big East this year, but it's even more interesting to see them in the Big 12, where, so far, offense has prevailed. Expect many more high-scoring games the rest of this season.