MORGANTOWN — Anyone who ever moved from one town to another as a youth, and in this fluid modern society it happens far more often than it ever has, knows the feeling of being the new kid on the block.

You are the outsider, unsure of who to befriend and who to beware of, not knowing where the good pizza is served and wary that the way you dress or the way you speak might cast you as an oddball.

It is no different with a football team or a coach, and so it was on the second day of the Big 12’s annual media get-together the most pressing question was how West Virginia would fit into its new conference. Football-wise, certainly, it would seem to be a good fit, the Big 12 being a pass-happy conference and the Mountaineers being coached by the pass-happy Dana Holgorsen.

Holgorsen, himself, possesses a long history with the conference from a decade at Texas Tech to a year at Oklahoma State, long enough so that he knows where the best barbecue and coldest beer is in every town.

Certainly he could engineer such a move into the new conference as well as anyone, could he not?

“When we got the announcement back in October that we were going to go to the Big 12, I obviously was worried about the season. It was a Friday. We were going up to play Rutgers,” he recalled. “It was all over the media that West Virginia is going to the Big 12, and I had to call a quick team meeting to get everybody together. But that was obviously not the time to talk about the Big 12.”

The last thing he needed at that moment was a monumental distraction from a key Big East football game, but the truth of the matter is that he really never has sat them down and explained to his team the differences and the similarities in the move.

And what will he eventually tell them? It will be the same thing he has been telling the people of West Virginia for the last couple of months.

“What we’re getting into is the same thing we’ve got at home … and that didn’t necessarily exist in the conference that we were in last year,” he said.

Think about it for a minute, the fit for West Virginia in the Big 12 is actually better than the fit was in the Big East.

“The culture is there. The support’s there. The fan base is there. We’re going to fill up our stadium. Our team is used to winning, and that exists at the other nine universities in the Big 12 as well,” he said, fully knowing that wasn’t the case in the Big East. “The best way I can describe it to the people of West Virginia and the best way I can describe it to the Big 12 along with everybody else, is what exists in the Big 12 exists in Morgantown, West Virginia, as well.”

That being said, there is one major difference that seems to be of concern to many, and that is West Virginia fits in neither as a Midwestern area or a Southwestern area, and that every road trip will be just that … a road trip.

Holgorsen says that doesn’t bother him.

“That’s obviously been a big topic of discussion, but I don’t think it will affect us,” Holgorsen said. “You’ve got to be smart about it. The travel comes up. Last year it didn’t matter if we were getting on a plane and flying one hour or two hours to Tampa, Fla.

“Basically, the road games are going to be an airplane ride. So you’re going to jump on a plane and fly a couple of hours no matter where you go. From there it’s all about routine. I don’t view it as any big deal.”

OK, so the players and the coaches can handle it, but what of the fan base. WVU is known for having people who will travel to games, hard-working people who save their money to make a trip to Maryland or Syracuse or East Carolina.

“Well, I say how many fans come into Morgantown from the opposing team? It’s usually about 4,000 people because that’s all the tickets that are available,” Holgorsen said. “So the days of being able to take 15,000-20,000 people to different venues are over. They don’t exist in the Big 12 because everybody’s the same way at home. Everybody packs their stadium and gives the opponent about 4,000 tickets.

“My suggestion to the people of West Virginia is to make sure you come to every home game and then pick a road game and go travel once a year.”

Holgorsen believes the transition will be an easy because WVU is culturally more like Big 12 schools than Big East.

“There’s similarities from a program standpoint,” Holgorsen told the assembled media. “Like I mentioned earlier, West Virginia’s used to winning football games. There’s a whole bunch of teams in the Big 12 that are used to winning football games.

“You fill your stadium up because it’s important to the fan base. And everybody in the Big 12 fills their stadium up because it’s important to their fan base. It’s an exciting time for everybody.”

Email Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com. Follow on Twitter @bhertzel.