By your definition Penn State of the late 90s was mid-major.
Mid-major is MAC, C-USA, WAC, Mountain West, etc. Big East is the smallest of the power conferences. Some years it has more quality than the ACC or the Big Ten.
Yes I realize that WVU isn't an elite football program like USC, OK, UT, Florida, or Ohio State. But at the same time neither are 3/4s of the teams in those respective conferences.
To use the word "mid-major" as our friend here did suggests that every team, except the elite team in each conference is a mid-major team. That's pretty much incorrect. The last time I checked UAB and Michigan State weren't exactly on the same level.