A kiss is just a kiss.

But, apparently, state funding is not just state funding.

I surmised it was last week, questioning West Virginia University's claim that its athletic department is self-supporting.

My reasoning was based on sworn testimony WVU athletic director Ed Pastilong gave during a deposition in the Rich Rodriguez buyout court hearing.

Pastilong testified a majority of WVU's $48 million budget came from state funds.

Consequently, I concluded the Mountaineer athletic department couldn't possibly be self-supporting.

That's when a controversy ensued.

A WVU athletic official telephoned with a clarification of what Pastilong actually meant when he spoke of "state funds" during the deposition.

You see, when most of us read or hear about state funds, we think of tax-based funding from the state of West Virginia.

But that's not what Pastilong meant.

Instead, he was referring to money WVU generates from ticket sales, BCS revenue, television contracts, other bowl revenue, etc.

Since WVU is a state agency, it is required to deposit that money into state accounts. But that money doesn't actually go to the state. Instead, the state allows WVU to keep the "state funds" it generates in order to support the athletic department.

So, based on that clarification, WVU's athletic department is mostly self-supporting. The only exception is the Mountaineers' rifle team, which receives $100,000 annually in tax-based state funding.

This entire self-supporting issue began in the 1980s when then-WVU president Neil Bucklew rescinded the athletic department's tuition waivers.

As a result, it costs WVU's athletic department $7 million per year for those tuition waivers.

So, WVU gets millions of dollars in tax-based funding from the state, but the administration simply doesn't share any with the athletic department.

Marshall, on the other hand, does share state-funding with its athletic department.

WVU chooses to use all its state-funding on the academic side and makes the athletic department pay its own way.

That is WVU's choice.

And that's what must be remembered.

Just because WVU chooses to force its athletic department to be self-supporting doesn't give the Mountaineers the right to hold other schools accountable while negotiating game contracts.

Yet, that's precisely what Pastilong did recently.

He explained that any contract extension of the WVU-Marshall football series had to be a 2-for-1 because, "We are a self-supporting athletic department. We must have seven home football games and anything else would endanger us sustaining our financial stability."

That's WVU's problem, not Marshall's.

Marshall didn't force the Mountaineer athletic department to be self-supporting.

WVU's own administration did that.

It was self-inflicted.

So, how can WVU reasonably ask Marshall to accept unrealistic terms just because the Mountaineer athletic department is forced to be self-supporting?

It can't.

Not reasonably.

Yet, that is what WVU is trying to do.

If WVU's athletic department wants to be self-supporting, more power to them. It is an admirable distinction.

But there is nothing admirable about WVU trying to force Marshall to accept an unreasonable series extension just to help the Mountaineers' finances.

If WVU's athletic department needs some fiscal relief, Pastilong needs to talk to school president James Clements.

It isn't Marshall's concern.

Chuck Landon is a sports columnist for The Herald-Dispatch. Call him at 304-526-2827. E-mail him at clandon@herald-dispatch.com.

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