When a conference only has four teams competing in a sport, losing a member always hurts.

The ISU wrestling team will be facing new addition West Virginia on Saturday. But its first season in the Big 12 still feels a bit odd for some of the ISU wrestlers.

“You get that kind of feeling that they’re kind of out of place because they’ve never been here before,” said 165-pounder Michael Moreno. “It’s different, but they’re in the conference now.”

ISU coach Kevin Jackson said Monday that he has followed the conference realignment saga as it unfolded during the past few years.

“Everything that’s been happening with realignment has been a surprise for the most part,” Jackson said. “We’re happy with West Virginia joining our conference. It’s nothing I anticipated, expected or didn’t anticipate or didn’t expect.”

Nebraska left the Big 12 for the Big Ten following the 2010-2011 season, leaving four wrestling teams in the conference. Missouri’s departure to the Southeastern Conference spurred the addition of West Virginia.

“It’s been tough for a sport like us that, first of all, didn’t have a lot of teams in the Big 12,” said 149-pounder Max Mayfield. “We lost Nebraska and Missouri — both good programs year-in and year-out that we’d love to have on our schedule.”

Instead of opting to stay in the Big 12 as a wrestling-only school, Missouri opted to compete in the Mid-American Conference since the SEC does not have wrestling.

“It’s too bad and we were trying to keep [Missouri] in the Big 12 for wrestling only like they are in the MAC [Mid-American Conference],” Moreno said. “The rest of the Big 12 schools really weren’t having it and so that didn’t pan out, but it would have been nice to keep them.”

West Virginia’s addition to the Big 12 to keep the conference at four teams also keeps the same format for the conference tournament at four teams per weight.

Moreno said while that is an added bonus, it still would have been nice to compete in a conference tournament akin to the Big Ten, which hosts a two-day slate of what will be 14 teams.

“It’s nice to have a short day, but it’d be nice to have that grueling tournament,” Moreno said. “[It would] kind of get you ready weeks before nationals.”

Not too far from other predictions, Mayfield said he could see some other conference moves take place in the coming months, even if they don’t involve the Big 12.

“I have no idea,” Mayfield said when asked of any guesses he had. “You never know with that stuff.”