The state's two major college athletic programs don't often appear to be on the same page, but here's an exception.

In the current Division I baseball Ratings Percentage Index, West Virginia (32-11) ranks 88th and Marshall (23-21) is 90th. The disparity in won-loss records and ranking is explained easily.

The Herd is No. 60 in strength of schedule, while the Mountaineers are 234th (out of 297). Conference USA is the fifth-ranked league, the Big East 11th.

Marshall Coach Jeff Waggoner's "homeless" program seems still a ways from construction of its field of dreams, but the Herd obviously isn't afraid of a challenge. Barring any more rainouts, Marshall will have played 19 games against eight of the current RPI top 50.

Included among those is a date tonight at Kentucky. The Herd is 4-8 against the top 50, with the UK date and three-game C-USA series to go at Houston and three at its Charleston "home" - Appalachian Power Park - this Friday-Sunday against Southern Mississippi.

From the current RPI top 11, Marshall's schedule includes Rice, N.C. State, Southern Miss and East Carolina. That's impressive. What's just as much so is a winning record (9-8) so far in tough C-USA.

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RADIO LEGEND Paul Harvey doesn't have this, but here's the rest of the story on former Charleston Catholic High basketball star Bo King, who has announced he will head from a prep year at Fork Union Military Academy to the new Division I program at Presbyterian (S.C.).

King was offered scholarships by a few Division I programs and also considered "coming home" to Division II West Virginia State or the University of Charleston. The 6-foot guard also was very, very intrigued by Marshall ... but there was a catch.

Coach Donnie Jones' Herd program doesn't have any available grants for 2008-09, so Jones wanted King to play as a walk-on at point guard for a season.

Why?

Check Marshall's roster.

The only potential Marshall point guards are Hargrave Military recruit Damier Pitts and returnee Darryl Merthie.

Both are more "combo" guard-types than true point men, and Merthie has been academically iffy since he arrived at MU. Who knows what happens there this offseason?

King could have played considerable Marshall minutes right away - but the grant-in-aid was said to be the overriding factor in King heading to a Division I neophyte program.

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BUYOUTS, YOU ask?

Here's further evidence that former West Virginia football Coach Rich Rodriguez, despite having eight months to sign his last (and now disputed) Mountaineer contract, got bad advice or was just lost in his own glory before leaving for Michigan.

After Rodriguez left a WVU deal that would have yielded $2 million-plus for the remaining six years, South Florida made Jim Leavitt the Big East Conference's highest-paid football coach ($1.8 million annual average) with a seven-year, $12.6 million contract.

The deal begins this season at $1.5 million and hikes by $100,000 annually through 2014. USF tore up a $1 million per year deal under which Leavitt had worked for two years. He's nearly tripled his 2005 salary of $538,000.

Leavitt's buyout is $1 million, decreasing by $100,000 annually on every Dec. 31 through 2012.

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 SOME OF that cheering you heard during Memphis' run to the NCAA basketball final a few weeks back was from Huntington. It helped Marshall's bottom line significantly, although the Tigers were the only Conference USA entry in the field of 65.

Under the league's revenue sharing plan, all 12 C-USA teams share equally in NCAA Tournament-earned "units," after the participating team or teams are paid a participation expense stipend.

The NCAA pays conferences basketball distribution units over a rolling, six-year plan. C-USA just received $8,213,573 for the 2002-07 earning of 43 units.

Those units were worth $191,013 apiece, a figure that rises by 8 percent annually.

Next April, C-USA will receive approximately $9,077,000 for a total of 44 units (about $206,300), with Memphis' five units (first round through Final Four, none extra for the championship game) replacing four earned in 2002 on the rolling plan. So, what does that mean for Marshall's bottom line?

This year, the Herd will get $663,631 from the conference's NCAA basketball distribution (a 1/12 share of the 2002-07 units after Memphis' $250,000 travel stipend is subtracted). Next year, based on this year's projected figures (and Memphis taking $350,000 in expenses), the 1/12 share will be about $727,250.

C-USA still benefits from its 2003 through '05 glory years in hoops, before programs like Cincinnati, Louisville and Marquette left for the Big East. Yes, and that means Marshall is receiving revenue from seven C-USA units earned by the former team of the current WVU basketball coach.

Contact Sports Editor Jack Bogaczyk at ja...@dailymail.com or 348-7949