West Virginia, will leave the Big East conference after being formally invited Friday to join the Big 12. Big East spokesman John Paquette confirmed that the conference has been notified of West Virginia’s intentions to leave. The Big 12, meanwhile, plans to remain at 10 schools and is waiting on the departure of Missouri, which has yet to receive a formal invitation to join the Southeastern Conference.
However, SEC officials said Friday that the league’s web vendor mistakenly published a news release Thursday night announcing Missouri as the conference’s newest member. Missouri officials are currently deciding whether to leave the Big 12 for the SEC. The news release, published on the SEC’s website for a few minutes Thursday night, Missouri apparently already has made up its mind. The news story on the SEC site had a release date of Oct. 31.
