Mountaineers’ Moment of Truth

A scribe can carry a team only so far. The rest, West Virginia Mountaineers, is up to you.

We now hand the kids off at the kindergarten gate, to Louisville and destiny, perhaps, or disappointment.

Ranking West Virginia No. 1 last summer and keeping the Mountaineers on Pikes Peak as Ohio State tank-rolls over opponents has not been altogether comforting, but neither would have been pulling the trapdoor on West Virginia for no good reason.

The West Virginia postulate held that this team had the best chance to go 12-0 and get to the Bowl Championship Series championship game.

People could grumble about West Virginia’s nonconference pastry treats -- Marshall, Eastern Washington, Maryland -- and it’s agreed that teams should be dissected for trying to negotiate their way to titles. That was the argument against Kansas State in 1998 and Virginia Tech in 1999.

This is different. It wasn’t West Virginia’s fault that three of the Big East Conference’s signature franchises -- Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College -- dropped off the Mountaineers’ schedule because they’d bolted for the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Little did we know those departures would make the Big East better than the ACC.

West Virginia’s “weak” schedule was accompanied by extenuating circumstances -- and even that’s not a settled issue.

“Everybody says our nonconference is not that difficult,” Coach Rich Rodriguez said this week, “but look at what Maryland is doing now.”

Maryland, a team West Virginia defeated by 21 points, is 6-2 and fresh off a victory over defending ACC champion Florida State.

Second point: West Virginia began the season with street cred. Last January, the Mountaineers defeated Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.

Because of Hurricane Katrina, the game was played in Atlanta, instead of New Orleans, which virtually made it a home game for Georgia. The Bulldogs were champions of the Southeastern Conference, touted by various talking heads and the cover of Sports Illustrated as the nation’s best.

West Virginia defeated the champion from the best conference -- and kept all its difference-makers on offense -- Patrick White, Steve Slaton, fullback Owen Schmitt and Dan Mozes, the nation’s best center.

So the Mountaineers couldn’t be ranked No. 1 because ... ?

West Virginia or bust was predicated on the Mountaineers being in position to make a BCS strike by Nov. 2.

That’s tonight.

USC’s loss to Oregon State last Saturday moved West Virginia to No. 3 in the BCS rankings. No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Michigan have to play each other Nov. 18.

If West Virginia beats Louisville, and that’s certainly no cinch, the Mountaineers have a path to Jan. 8 and a title showdown against the Ohio State-Michigan winner.

It’s more complicated than that, of course, because it’s the BCS.

If the Ohio State-Michigan game is close, that one-loss loser might fall to only No. 2 in the BCS standings -- more likely should Ohio State fall to defeat.

In 2003, remember, No. 1 Oklahoma got blown out by Kansas State in the Big 12 championship game and still stayed No. 1 in the BCS, causing the doomsday scenario that led to split national titles for USC and Louisiana State.

An undefeated West Virginia might also get tracked down in the BCS by a one-loss team from the SEC.

For now, at least, the napkins are in place.

West Virginia, your table is ready.

And what if Louisville wins?

Just switch Big East party hats and make the Cardinals the possible 12-0 feel-good story. The only real reason to take West Virginia over Louisville in August was that Louisville had to play Miami -- whatever that means now.

But come on, man, how could anyone rank West Virginia ahead of Ohio State?

Well, gulp, might we offer a cautionary tale about so-called invincible teams.

In 2002, when Miami was king, the Hurricanes took a 34-game winning streak into the BCS national title game in Tempe.

Miami’s opponent that night was a rag-tag outfit that had won six games by seven points or fewer, surviving an overtime win at Illinois and beating Purdue on a fourth-down touchdown pass in the final two minutes.

You were a fool not to have Miami ranked No. 1.

Final score: Ohio State 31, Miami 24.

They went Piscataway

What is a Rutgers?

Legend has it, a Tennessee media type once asked that question before a game against the state university of New Jersey.

No one is cracking Rutgers jokes anymore.

Rutgers is 8-0, ranked 14th in the latest BCS standings and a team that will be very interested in tonight’s West Virginia-Louisville game.

It was almost unthinkable before the season that spoiler-sports Rutgers might be a wild card in championship scenarios.

“I’m not going to watch it as a fan for any team,” Ray Rice, Rutgers’ star sophomore tailback, said this week. “I’m just going to watch the game and kind of see what happens.”

Rutgers probably started too far back in the polls to make a national title run, but the Scarlet Knights could make things very BCS interesting.

They play host to Louisville next week in one of the most anticipated games in Rutgers history, and close the season Dec. 2 at West Virginia.

Rice is the nation’s second-leading rusher and says the ankle he injured in Sunday night’s victory over Connecticut will be healed well in advance of Louisville’s arrival a week from today.

For years, Rutgers was the abysmal Big East bookend to Temple, a football program so wretched it got kicked out of the league.

Rutgers survived to enjoy this revival and is one of six undefeated teams -- three of which reside in the Big East.

The irony of the resurgence cannot be lost. Greg Schiano, an assistant at Miami under Butch Davis, took the Rutgers job in 2000, just before Davis left for the NFL.

Had he stayed, Schiano might have become Miami’s coach, instead of Larry Coker, who led the Hurricanes to the national title in 2001. Now, with Coker and the Miami program foundering, Schiano might get the chance to turn Miami down and give as a reason ... he has a better job. Ouch.

You need a little luck along the way.

Rice, Rutgers’ star tailback from New Rochelle, N.Y., appeared headed to Syracuse two years ago before the school fired Paul Pasqualoni.

Rice changed directions but wanted to stay in the Big East, and he’s now rewriting Rutgers’ rushing records.

The interesting thing is how all-in-stride Rutgers is handling success.

“The celebration will happen at the end of the season ... when everybody’s finished,” Rice said. “It’s all about business now.”

Blitz package

* Money matters (a lot). It is around this time of year that we annually wonder why conferences stage championship games and whether they are detrimental to a team’s national title hopes. Three of the six BCS conferences have title games -- Big 12, Atlantic Coast, SEC -- and three don’t.

“Any coach in the six BCS conferences would agree,” Rutgers’ Schiano said this week. “The way the Pac-10, Big Ten and Big East do it is the best way.”

The top three teams in this week’s BCS standings, Ohio State, Michigan and West Virginia, play in conferences that don’t stage championship games -- and it may be to their advantage

What’s the point of a 13th game, when schedules have already been expanded to 12 games, other than making more money?

“I’m not sure, other than that, it’s a real benefit to anyone,” Schiano said.

Here’s all you need to know: A decade ago, when the Big Eight became the Big 12 by expanding, then split into divisions, the coaches voted 12-0 against a title game and the athletic directors voted 12-0 in favor.

In 1996, Nebraska got knocked out of the national championship game with a stunning loss to Texas in the first Big 12 title game.

In 1998, Kansas State got knocked out of the national title game with a stunning loss to Texas A&M.;

In 2003, only the BCS computers saved Oklahoma from getting knocked out after the Sooners were stunned by Kansas State.

In the 2003 SEC title game, Tennessee got bounced out of the national title game with a stunning loss to Louisiana State.

It can be argued that a team can also play its way into the BCS title by winning its conference championship game -- Florida, this year, might need the boost to capture the No. 2 BCS flag.

On the flip side, Auburn and Tennessee probably have better shots at a BCS at-large berth this year by not advancing to the SEC title game. Each school could finish 11-1 but not make the game. Florida holds a win over Tennessee in the SEC East, and Arkansas, with a win over Auburn, controls its SEC West destiny.

* Should West Virginia fans be worried about losing superstar Coach Rodriguez to North Carolina? Rodriguez could have shot down the speculation this week, but he didn’t.

“You never say never to something,” Rodriguez said. “After the season, I’m sure I’ll sit down with our people here and my family.”

Despite its struggles under outgoing Coach John Bunting, North Carolina is considered a plum job in the coaching fraternity.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com