Since the topic of the week seems to be WVU (and because I feel guilty for not contributing since about week two of PSB), here’s a missive from Morgantown. All over the country, WVU is being inexplicably touted as a top-dozen team (which has gotten Lee all hot and bothered, since WVU is not a Big Ten team, where being perennially overrated is a birthright).

Yet here in hoopieland, the thing that strikes me is how little it seems to be affecting the Mountaineer faithful. Now maybe I don’t hang out with the rabid football fanatics here. Or maybe the town is in the grip of that end-of-summer, I-can’t-believe-twenty-some-thousand-kids-are-descending-next- week-upon-our-sleepy-little-town haze. But the buzz seems to be at a minimum, considering this is apparently the highest pre-season ranking ever for WVU. The local rag has dutifully reported the rankings, of course, and pondered on them in a column or two, but nobody seems particularly curious or fearful or even excited. As far as I can tell, it seems about as unexpected as today’s front-page headline: “WVU Ranked #4 Party School in Nation.”

Last year, when the Panther expectations were so high, the hue and cry in Pittsburgh seemed much greater.

Maybe it’s some kind of West Virginia mindset, a lack of trust in those outsiders in the national media combined with a lack of self-esteem. Or maybe it’ll all change when school starts next week and football season feels like more of a reality.