W. Virginia v. Marshall

West Virginia University and Marshall University are the only two schools from the Mountaineer State in Division I-A. If you are familiar with the typical relationship between state-wide universities like WVU and regional universities like Marshall, you will not be surprised to learn that these two schools have only played 11 football games against each other.

They played four times between 1911 and 1923, and West Virginia won all four match-ups. After the Mountaineers beat the Thundering Herd 92-6 in 1915, and 81-0 in 1923, they didn't play for another 74 years. By 1997, Marshall had Randy Moss, they were coming off of a 1996 I-AA championship, they were back in Division I-A, and they were ready for a rematch. It was great game, but WVU won again 42-31.

As far as the Mountaineers were concerned, that settled things, but Herd fans kept clamoring for more games. Finally, after a series of complex negotiations that involved the Governor, WVU and Marshall agreed to play seven games in a row -- one in each season from 2006 to 2012. They agreed to play four of the games in Morgantown (WVU's hometown), two in Huntington (home of the Herd) -- and the last one would be played at the home of which team won two of the first three. Each of the seven games would be known as the Friends of Coal Bowl -- coal presumably being a rare area where WVU and Marshall fans could agree.

This is the seventh -- and last -- game of the series, and things have not gone well for the Herd. They were unfortunate that the series began just as their team fell off from the high quality of play it had enjoyed in the 1990's and early 2000's. Five of the six Friends of Coal Bowls were blowouts -- the only close game was in 2010, when WVU won 24-21 in Huntington. WVU now leads the all-time series 11-0.

Tomorrow's game will probably be the last between the two West Virginia schools for awhile. The Mountaineers say that their schedule is full until 2015, meaning that they couldn't play the Herd again until at least 2016. And they further say that since they've joined the Big 12, filling their schedule has become "a little more challenging." The two teams are also back to the old disagreement about how often WVU should come to Huntington. So my guess is you won't be seeing the Friends of Coal Bowl until the politicians in West Virginia get involved again.

West Virginia is ranked at number 11 in the pre-season AP poll, and Vegas has them as 26-point favorites. So this game is not likely to be a classic. But the UCFC has surprised us before, and the Herd will surely want to make their last scheduled trip to Morgantown a memorable one.