It could have been pepperoni rolls vs. barbecue – or even something from West Virginia University’s medical school vs. Duke University’s, but Morgantown Mayor Bill Byrne had a different idea for the stakes of the traditional bet leaders of opposing cities often lay down around their sports team.

If WVU defeats Duke in Saturday’s NCAA national semifinal basketball game in the Final Four, Durham mayor Bill Bell “will write a letter on mayor’s stationery endorsing Morgantown’s application” for super-highspeed Internet connections from Google.

“If they win, I’ll do the same for him,” Morgantown Mayor Bill Byrne said.

Google is planning to test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country that will deliver Internet at more than one gigabit per second, or more than 100 times faster than most Americans currently receive.

“We’re trying to use this opportunity to talk about our communities and how important this is for economic development,” Byrne said.

In both Morgantown and Durham, the hometown universities have joined with municipal leaders to support the application to Google, which has said it will announce its decision by the end of the year.

-WVU-

jb/04/02/10

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