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Expansion Buzz: The FACTS
Jun 7th
So Pitt related news is rather slow during these down months. Basketball is taking a break. Football has completed spring camp and will be rather quiet until later in the summer. Not much else is going on in Pitt Sports that’s news-worthy right now.
However, there has been a lot of buzz in general in the college sports world these days. Almost all of it relates to conference expansion and realignment.
We learned our lesson once already when we reported on speculation and rumors the last time we heard them. Those rumors turned out to be completely false and we were left standing in public with our pants down. So you won’t hear any more reports on rumors from us. But we would like to address all the expansion/realignment talk that’s going on right now. More specifically, we’d like to point out the facts to all of our readers so that they know which reports to listen to, and which reports to let pass in one ear and out the other.
Let’s take a look at the facts surrounding conference expansion/realignment.
FACTS:
1. The Big Ten Conference is exploring expansion options. This one is no secret. The Big Ten’s announcement back in December has caused quite a stir in the college sports world. This is what started the whole fuss. We’ve heard countless rumors and speculation since the announcement. Almost all of it has been unfounded (and false). The simple fact is that the Big Ten is EXPLORING expansion on a 12-18 month timetable. The keyword here is “exploring”. The Big Ten has not made a decision on whether or not they will expand. They’re simply looking into the possibility. That means we might wait until fall just to hear the Big Ten tell everyone that they’re ok without expanding. Whatever the case, their timeline remains the same. So unless something changes, the Big Ten will announce their plans no sooner than late fall.
2. The PAC 10 Conference is exploring expansion options. This is recent news. The PAC 10 has just recently decided that they will explore their own expansion options this year as well. Again, they’re just exploring options. This doesn’t mean that they will expand. Just like the Big Ten, the PAC 10 is taking a look at the options for expansion and whether or not it makes sense for the conference.
That’s it. There are no more facts. Everything else that you read out there is speculation and unfounded rumors. The only tidbit of information that even approaches the credibility of a fact is that Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany and Michigan State president Lou Anna Simon, also the chair of the Big Ten’s council of presidents/chancellors, both mentioned that if other conferences take action before the Big Ten has decided what to do about expansion, it may speed up the Big Ten’s timeline. Keep in mind though, the PAC 10′s timeline ends at about the same time as the Big Ten’s original timeline, and the PAC 10 is the only other conference that’s even mentioned expansion. So the chances of seeing something from the Big Ten sooner than their original timeline are still somewhat small.
It’s somewhat surprising that after all of the rumors we’ve seen fall through so far, the major networks like ESPN are still reporting on these rumors that are floating around. But then again, ESPN also erased all of their stories on the “Pitt to the Big Ten” rumor once it turned out to be false. I guess it’s easy to report on rumors when you don’t have to own up to your coverage, isn’t it?
Big East Bowls
Apr 28th
The Big East Conference announced deals with the Papajohns.com Bowl and Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl yesterday. The deals extend the Big East’s involvment with those bowls through 2013. Additionally, they announced a deal with the AutoZone Liberty Bowl that allows the conference to send a team to that bowl instead of the Papajohns.com Bowl at least once during the next 4 years.
If the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl sounds new to you, that’s because it used to be the St. Petersburg Bowl.
The Big East Bowl lineup will now look like this:
BCS Bowl – Big East Champion
Champs Sports Bowl – Big East vs. ACC
Meineke Car Care Bowl – Big East vs. ACC
New Era Pinstripe Bowl – Big East vs. Big 12
Papajohns.com Bowl/AutoZone Liberty Bowl – Big East vs. SEC or C-USA
Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl – Big East vs. C-USA
The 2010 Big East Bowl Season will be as follows:
Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl – 12/21/10, 8:00 PM, ESPN
Champs Sports Bowl – 12/29/10, 8:00 PM, ESPN
New Era Pinstripe Bowl – 12/30/10, 3:00 PM, ESPN
Meineke Care Car Bowl – 12/31/10, Noon, ESPN
AutoZone Liberty Bowl – 12/31/10, 3:30 PM, ESPN
Papajohns.com Bowl – 1/8/11, Noon, ESPN
All in all, it’s a pretty impressive bowl lineup. The Big East set out to structure its bowl season so that it included top opponents and attractive locations. From the looks of this lineup, I’d have to say that they did a pretty good job.
Big East Hires Paul Tagliabue
Apr 22nd
Well the Big East has taken its first step towards protecting itself from possible conference expansions in the coming years. Yesterday, the conference announced that the former NFL commissioner, Paul Tagliabue, will give advice on strategic planning to the Big East.
This is clearly a step taken in light of the Big Ten’s plans to examine the possibility of expanding. Amidst all of the rumors, one thing is clear: The Big Ten is seriously considering expansion. Whether or not Pitt, or any other Big East team, is on the list of possible expansion candidates, it’s clear that the Big East will need to do something. Hopefully Tagliabue brings some fresh ideas to the table.
Pitt Announces 2010 Non-Conference Football Schedule
Feb 4th
Today, Pitt announced it’s 2010 non-conference football schedule. The schedule is as follows:
Sept. 2 (Thurs.) at Utah TBA
Sept. 11 New Hampshire 1 p.m.
Sept. 23 (Thurs.) Miami 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 2 Florida International TBA
Oct. 9 at Notre Dame 3:30 p.m.
As for the Big East schedule: Pitt will host Louisville, Rutgers, and WVU at home (Heinz Field), and they’ll play on the road at UConn, Cincinnati, Syracuse, and USF.
The dates and times for the Big East schedule will be released at a later date.
Update: Feeding the Big Ten Rumor
Feb 4th
As of the other day, our sources seemed to deny the rumor that Pitt is heading to the Big Ten with an announcment this week.
However, we’ve been told by a reliable source that Pitt is indeed joining the Big Ten, effective 2012, and an announcement will be made public tomorrow.
Take it with a grain of salt, but this is a fairly reliable source that has yet to lead us astray.
Busting the Rumors: Pitt and the Big Ten?
Feb 2nd
We’re sure that you’ve all heard the rumors over the past few days concerning Pitt and the Big Ten Conference. It goes something like this:
University of Pittsburgh athletics are moving to the Big 10 conference, according to sources close to the school.
Some athletes were informed of the move over the weekend, a little birdie tells me.
This quote came from Ben Maller of Fox Sports Radio. While it’s not the original source of the rumor, it serves as a short and accurate summary of the rumors that were floating around.
We didn’t want to comment on the rumors until we had a chance to investigate them.
Well we investigated and can now say that the rumors are false. The first hint to anyone that this was all just a case of bad information spreading on the Internet was the Twitter post by Pitt Associate Athletic Director EJ Borghetti on Sunday night. His post read:
Now hear this: rumors on Internet message boards should be read for amusement purposes only, and not consumed as responsible journalism.
Wanting something more official than a Twitter post, we directly contacted the Media Relations staff at Pitt’s Athletic Department yesterday to obtain a statement about the rumors and were told (in summary): There is no statement to give because there’s nothing to give a statement about.
If that’s still not enough evidence for you, take a look at this article by The Pitt News. In the article, EJ Borghetti is once again quoted as saying:
Any internet reports that suggest Pitt is planning to make an announcement on its conference membership this week are untrue.
And just in case you’re a fan of those mysterious inside sources, we spoke off the record with one of our own inside sources who told us that there was no meeting with the men’s basketball team and that the coaches had not said anything about the subject to the players. [We don't condone nameless sources. This paragraph is true, but is included here for the irony.]
Now, we’re not suggesting that Pitt will never join the Big Ten Conference. They may or may not join the Big Ten Conference in the future. We’re not suggesting that the Big Ten Conference isn’t interested in Pitt. They may or may not be interested in Pitt. All that we’re saying is this: The rumors that were spreading over the Internet the past few days are false.
The Big East Bowl Recap
Jan 6th
Well the 2009-2010 bowl season is just about over. Only the BCS National Championship between Texas and Alabama remains. The Big East finished its bowl season with a postseason record of 4-2. We’re going to recap the Big East’s bowl season starting with the scoreboard, followed by our commentary on the results.
| Meineke Car Care Bowl | |
|---|---|
| Pitt UNC |
19 (10-3, 5-2 Big East) 17 (8-5, 4-4 ACC) |
| AllState Sugar Bowl | |
|---|---|
| Cincinnati Florida |
24 (12-1, 7-0 Big East) 51 (13-1, 8-0 SEC) |
| Konica Minolta Gator Bowl | |
|---|---|
| WVU Florida State |
21 (9-4, 5-2 Big East) 33 (7-6, 4-4 ACC) |
| PapaJohns.com Bowl | |
|---|---|
| South Carolina UConn |
7 (7-6, 3-5 SEC) 20 (8-5, 3-4 Big East) |
| International Bowl | |
|---|---|
| USF N. Illinois |
27 (8-5, 3-4 Big East) 3 (7-6, 5-3 MAC) |
| St. Petersburg Bowl by Beef ‘O’ Brady’s | |
|---|---|
| UCF Rutgers |
24 (8-5, 6-2 C-USA) 45 (9-4, 3-4 Big East) |
Dan:
A 4-2 bowl season record might appear pretty good at first glance. But some people would have you think that it’s actually a poor record for the Big East this year. I’ve seen a few articles that pointed out that Cincy was blown out by Florida and WVU lost to a 6-6 FSU team, turning the Big East’s two losses into pretty awful losses.I don’t buy it though. Sure, Cincy did get blown out by Florida. But you have to attribute some of that poor play to Brian Kelly leaving the Bearcats without their head coach for the bowl game. He did make a lot of the offensive calls, afterall. At any rate, Cincy lost to a great Florida team. They were a team that was ranked first in the nation for most of the season. Florida was the better team. But the play of a single team certainly doesn’t reflect the overall strength or performance of the entire conference.
As for WVU, I feel like they deserve a little more criticism than Cincy. WVU played a pretty bad FSU team. Granted, the fact that it was Bobby Bowden’s final game probably fueled FSU, and it was a virtual road game for WVU. They still shouldn’t have lost that game. Where was Devine late in that game? Come on WVU. Still, the circumstances just seemed to favor FSU.
On the other hand, there were four other games that turned out pretty well for the Big East. Pitt’s win over UNC is my pick for top Big East bowl win. That’s not a homer pick. UNC may have had a mediocre season by the record, but they had a top ranked defense and a home crowd in Charlotte. Pitt went in and let Dion Lewis rack up another 100+ yard game on that 6th ranked defense. The Panthers outplayed UNC despite making a few mistakes and came away with a win. UConn’s win is my pick for the second best win. As much as the SEC will want to point to the Sugar Bowl outcome, Big East fans can point to this one. UConn, after overcoming tragedy this season, pulled out a decisive victory over South Carolina, an SEC opponent.
And what about the other two wins? Well USF blew out Northern Illinois, a MAC opponent. Rutgers rolled right over UCF from C-USA. Isn’t that enough to silence the Big East haters that claim we’re a mid-major conference? The Big East simply plays at a higher level than those conferences and it showed in these two wins.
So about that 4-2 record? Well let’s put aside the fact that it’s better than the SEC, Big 12, ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-10 this year (and yes, that will stand despite the outcome of the BCS National Championship). We can even forget for a minute that the Big East sends a larger percentage of teams to bowls consistently. What’s most impressive to me is that since 2006, the Big East now has gone 17-6 in bowl games. Until people start respecting this conference, the best thing the teams of the Big East can do is keep posting records like this.
Mike:
The Big East went 4-2 this bowl season, not too shabby if you think about it. I predicted 5-1. Looking back though, how impressive is that 4-2 record? Rutgers and USF were expected to win their games against weak opponents, Cincinnati and West Virginia laid eggs in their games, Pitt beat a decent North Carolina team in what was a practical road game for them, and Connecticut had the most impressive win by beating South Carolina. I give the nod to UConn because of the tragedy they went through this year and the fact that South Carolina is a team from a dominate SEC. They barely edged Pitt in my opinion. As the record shows, the ACC had another terrible bowl year, so how great is that win for Pitt?Looking back at my predictions, I wasn’t too far off on some. I really thought the Rutgers game would be closer and more of a defensive game then what it was. I figured UConn and USF would run away with their games. I honestly thought Pitt would just run up and down and all around on North Carolina and that game ended up being much closer than expected. West Virginia, I have no idea what happened there, being up 14-3 and then just not using Noel Devine. That would be like Pitt not using Dion Lewis or Jonathan Baldwin. Uh, what? Looking back, I wasn’t even that far off with the Cincinnati game, I figured they would lose and by double digits, but I didn’t think it would be that ugly.
All in all, it was a good year for Big East football. They had 0 teams ranked in the Top 25 to begin the year, but should end up with 2, maybe 3, teams ranked: Pitt, Cincy, maybe WVU. It was supposed to be a down year for talent and the teams in general, yet we saw the birth of new stars. Next year should be another fun year for Big East football. You have to figure Pitt and UConn are the two front runners. WVU and Cincy are next depending on players going to the pros and coaching transition for Cincy. Rutgers could easily be around the top next year, while USF is still a question mark, and Louisville and Syracuse are still rebuilding. It’s been a year full of memories, some good, some bad. But in the end, it was another successful Big East football season.
We’re not finished with our coverage of the 2009-2010 football season just yet. Look for a BCS National Championship preview tomorrow morning. Plus, we’re going to recap the Panthers successful 10-3 season in detail as soon as the final BCS rankings are released.
Also, don’t forget that Pitt basketball is in full swing now as they’ve entered into the Big East portion of the schedule. Look for an increase in our coverage of men’s basketball now that football season is over and basketball season is heating up.
Big East Bowl Preview
Dec 19th
We are less then 24 hours away from the first bowl game of the college bowl season. I’m not calling it the Capital One Bowl Week, because A. we are not sponsored through Capitol One and B. a week is 7 days, not 20 days. So we will be discussing it as the College Bowl Season. I plan on previewing every Big East team bowl game and what to expect. We will go more in depth for the Pitt-North Carolina game next week.
St. Petersburg Bowl – Rutgers vs UCF
This is the first bowl game that a Big East team plays in. It is also one of the first games to kick off the College Bowl Season, kickoff is at 8:00 PM on December 19, on ESPN.
Both teams are 8-4, with UCF representing C-USA. This game will pretty much be a road game for the Scarlet Knights with it being in St. Petersburg. Rutgers looks to extend their bowl win streak to 4 games, while UCF is just happy to be bowling.
Neither team has a high powered offense and neither team has allowed many points against them. Rutgers is led by freshman QB Tom Savage and sophomore RB Joe Martinek who will be running against the number 4 rush defense. UCF is led by senior QB Brett Hodges.
I don’t expect a high scoring affair, and quite frankly there is not much interest in this game.
Prediction: 24-10 Rutgers
Meineke Car Care Bowl – Pitt vs North Carolina
This is the game every Pitt fan cares about. We all know the game time, 4:30 PM, December 26, on ESPN. This game is all about redemption for Pitt, redemption after losing a shot at the Sugar Bowl or even the Gator Bowl. North Carolina is happy to be there thanks to Florida St. going to the Gator Bowl. We will discuss this game more in depth next week.
Konica Minolta Gator Bowl – WVU vs Florida St.
This may be one of the most interesting bowls this year. Bobby Bowden’s last game, a game he weaseled himself into, against the team he coached against for 10 years. This game is at 1:00 PM on CBS on January 1. Bowden weaseled his way into this game by saying he wants his last bowl game in Florida, and naturally the Gator Bowl is quick to snatch FSU up. I can’t blame them though. If you aren’t a BCS game, it’s all about the money and hoping you can make an interesting game. My problem is, what stops other coaches from doing this? What stops Joe Paterno from saying in his last year he wants to play in the Rose Bowl even if PSU doesn’t qualify in the BCS?
Logic says WVU should run away with this game behind star running back Noel Devine, but the heart says FSU pulls out an upset to send Bowden off in the sunset. WVU is 8-4, while FSU is 6-6. FSU was a weird team this year, they looked great at times, and other times completely awful. But then again that can be said about WVU as well.
FSU has a high powered offense, but who can forget the WVU defense who shut down Pitt and Cincinnati this year? I have to go with logic over heart.
Prediction: 24-21 WVU
Sugar Bowl – Florida vs Cincinnati
Cincinnati was 1 second away from a National Title game against Alabama, but now they have to take on Florida in the Sugar Bowl on January 1 at 8:30 on FOX.
This game will be very interesting, no Brian Kelly for Cincinnati, how will the seniors react and lead the team against Florida? For Florida, how will they bounce back from the ugly defeat against Alabama? How will Tim Tebow end his historic college career?
This game has all the storylines for an instant classic. Florida can put up the points with anyone, but they can play defense as well. Cincinnati, as Pitt fans well know, can put up the points in no time at all. Cincinnati doesn’t really play defense, lets be honest, they don’t. They are on the field for so long and they allow so many points. I look forward to seeing Tony Pike and Mardy Gilyard try to figure out the Florida defense. And lets not forget Florida lost their defensive coordinator to Louisville, how will this affect them in this game?
I look for a high scoring affair in this game, and it should be a lot of fun to watch. I just wish, and I’m sure every Pitt fan wishes, it was Pitt playing Florida and not Cincinnati.
Prediction: 45-31 Florida
International Bowl – Northern Illinois vs South Florida
This game takes place on January 2 at 12 on ESPN2, and honestly this may be one of the worst bowl games out there. I’m sure USF is not too pleased in going up to Canada, and who knows what is going on with Jim Levitt’s investigation right now.
Both teams are 7-5 and honestly I don’t know much more about Northern Illinois. South Florida is a weird team, they looked amazing at home, but on the road, they looked terrible.
Prediction: 24-7 USF
PapaJohns.com Bowl – UConn vs South Carolina
It’s a great story seeing UConn in a bowl game after the tragic death of Jasper Howard. They get to play South Carolina on January 2 at 2:00 on ESPN.
You know everyone is going to be pulling for UConn, except maybe people from South Carolina, but you have to love the story of seeing UConn here. But you can never discount a team coached by Steve Spurrier. Both teams finished the year 7-5, but UConn could have finished so much better. There were plenty of close losses for this team.
UConn has a much higher powered offense and defense then South Carolina and I see UConn’s up and down year to end on an up and they can truly remember Jasper Howard.
Prediction: 31-14 UConn
Overall Record for the Big East: 5-1.
So now I have a major gripe. Remember back when it actually meant something to play in a January bowl? When playing in a BCS bowl game or one of the other major bowls meant something? Where is the prestige in a January bowl now?
Simply put, there is no prestige in playing in a January bowl any more. There are simply too many January bowl games. There are 34 bowl games, too many to begin with but that’s a subject for another time. Of those 34 games, 14 are in January. That’s 41% of the games. 28 teams playing a game in January, some of those games are just: the 5 BCS games and a couple of the other major, classic, January 1 games. But seriously, the International Bowl, Liberty Bowl, PapaJohns.com Bowl, and the GMAC Bowl, that’s four games right there that have no purpose being in January. Simply put there are too many January bowl games that are meaningless and hold no tradition, why give them the prestige and honor of being in January?
I’d love to hear others opinions on this, leave us some comments to discuss.
Pitt Cleans up in Big East Awards
Dec 9th
Running Back Dion Lewis won the Big East Offensive Player of the Year and the Big East Rookie of the Year awards. He is the first person to do so since Virginia Tech’s Michael Vick.
Defensive End Greg Romeus and Defensive Tackle Mick Williams each won a share of the Big East Defensive Players of the Year, the first time two team members have shared the award.
First Team Big East:
Offense:
WR Jonathan Baldwin
OT Jason Pinkston
OG John Malecki
TE Dorin Dickerson
QB Bill Stull
RB Dion Lewis – unanimous decision
Defense:
DL Greg Romeus – unanimous decision
DL Mick Williams
LB Adam Gunn
CB Aaron Berry
Second Team Big East:
Offense:
TE Nate Byham
K Dan Hutchins
Defense:
DL Gus Mustakas
S Dom DeCicco
Baldwin Named Big East Offensive Player of the Week
Nov 16th
Congratulations to Jonathan Baldwin. Baldwin was announced as this week’s Big East Offensive Player of the Week for his performance against Notre Dame. Baldwin had 5 receptions for 142 yards and 1 touchdown.
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