Season tickets sales now over 30,000

It’s amazing what a BCS bowl victory and a move to a new conference can do to get fans excited for the next season.

Following the West Virginia football team’s record-breaking victory against Clemson in the Discover Orange Bowl, the Mountaineers are preparing to head into their first season as members of the Big 12 Conference with preseason expectations as high as they have ever been.

WVU will return a majority of its starters on an offense that ranked in the top 20 nationally in total offense a year ago, and it will bring in a new defensive scheme with the addition of three new coaches on the other side of the ball. All of these factors have added up to season ticket sales going up about as high as they have been since 2000.

As of Tuesday, West Virginia had sold more than 30,500 season tickets, according to Director of Sports Marketing Matt Wells.

"It’s definitely a combination of the victory in the Orange Bowl and the excitement over the move to the Big 12," Wells said. "Obviously we have a very attractive home schedule that comes with that move, as well.

"There’s certainly a ton of buzz and a lot of different factors that are providing that positive momentum that we’re seeing in our ticket sales."

Wells said he has been tracking season ticket sales since 2000 and, compared to this time in the other seasons, ticket sales this year are the second-highest they’ve been in that time.

The only season sales that were higher were in 2008, as the Mountaineers were coming off of their victory in the Fiesta Bowl, when 31,200 tickets had been sold.

At this time last season, sales were only at 29,000.

"It makes us look a lot smarter (from a marketing standpoint) when there’s this much momentum heading into the season, but we still have to do everything that we’ve done before as far as sending out the information and advertising, promoting and marketing the ticket sales and the different packages that people can get," Wells said.

"The fact that there’s so much positive momentum heading into this season definitely helps us start the conversation with people when you’re talking to them about tickets or sponsorships or whatever else there might be."