ATLANTA - Reigning national champion Alabama and West Virginia will meet for the first time ever to open the 2014 season in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta, Chick-fil-A Bowl officials announced today.

The game is scheduled to be played Saturday, Aug. 30, 2014.

EERinsider.com continues it's series on meeting our new friends in the Big 12 Conference. Our next stop takes is to Manhattan, the home of the Kansas State Wildcats.

We recently had the opportunity to talk with Curtis Kitchens about the Cats. Curtis covers KSU and the Big 12 for 610 Sports (KCSP) in Kansas City. Here is our Q&A with Curtis Kitchens.

Former West Virginia defensive end Bruce Irvin is still one of the most beloved Mountaineers of all time. If it was Irvin's smile, the swag he carried, or his motor on the field, he drew the attention of every Mountaineer fan, and usually the opposing quarterback.

Now Irvin has moved on to the next chapter in his life, the NFL. Being the 15th selection in this years NFL draft brings pressure and expectations, but also pleasure knowing that all of the hard work has paid off.

As we continue our series of looking ahead, and getting know our new Big 12 conference mates a bit more, it's now time to focus in on Iowa State. The Cyclones are coming off a 6-7 (3-6 Big 12) season, including a loss to Rutgers in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl.

For a deeper look into the Cyclones, we reached out to Andrew Coppens, editor of Wisconsin blog, madtownbadgers.com . And although he covers the Badgers, he's an Iowa State he offers great insight into the program.

One of the hardest working men covering college football is Big 12 blogger David Ubben. David joined ESPN back in 2010 after covering Big 12 football for two seasons at the Columbia Missourian and The Oklahoman. He was all over the conference during the spring, and he just released his games to watch this season in the Big 12.

One of the hardest working men covering college football is Big 12 blogger David Ubben. David joined ESPN back in 2010 after covering Big 12 football for two seasons at the Columbia Missourian and The Oklahoman. He was all over the conference during the spring, and he just released his games to watch this season in the Big 12.

West Virginia and Big 12 fans took to social media outlets and message boards on Monday when the Sporting News released its top coaches in the conference. Sporting news is running a series of ranking FBS conference coaches from 1 to 124.

They admit this is the strongest conference coach wise, and the hardest to rank. Let’s take a look at the Top 10.

CBS Sports and Dennis Dodd is reporting that Big 12 presidents have verbally agreed to a lucrative new media rights agreement. The deal was reported by CBSSports.com back on March 13 is worth a combined $2.6 billion with ESPN and Fox.

The 13-year deal is projected to be worth $200 million annually to the conference (an average of $20 million per school) through 2025. For the moment, the Big 12 enters the stratosphere of the Pac-12, SEC and Big Ten, all of whom are near or above the $200 million per year mark.

CBS is also reporting the new deal is an extension of the league's grant of rights. League CEOs had previously agreed to a six-year grant of rights that would allow the conference to keep a school's television rights if it left for a new league. The expectation is that the new grant of rights will be 13 years to match the TV deal. That provision essentially binds the at-times contentious league together for the term of the agreement.

Bob Bowlsby was hired last week as the new Big 12 commissioner.

(Information: CBSSports.com; Dennis Dodd)

EERinsider.com will be working over the next several weeks to bring you a look at the Big 12 Conference. We will preview all teams, players to watch, give a conference outlook, and early bowl projections from various outlets. 

Let’s kick things off with the Kansas Jayhawks.

The Big 12 conference made an official announcement on Thursday regarding their search for a new commissioner, deciding on Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby.

The conference had been served the last seven months under interim commissioner, Chuck Neinas. Neinas replaced Dan Beebe, who was ousted last September.