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It was announced yesterday that Pitt will be a part of the Big East/SEC Invitational. They will play a host to the invitational and will play Tennessee on December 11 at the Consol Energy Center. It will be the second game of the double header with the other game being Rutgers and Auburn. Tip offs have yet to be announced and the Pitt game will be televised on ESPN.

Pitt was previously announced to play in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic and will play two of the three, Illinois, Maryland, and Texas. And will host preliminary games against Rhode Island and Illinois-Chicago.

Pitt and Duquesne will play again this year in the City Game and it is expected to be the first college basketball game in the Consol Energy Center.

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?

They also named their Preseason All Americans, Dion Lewis and Greg Romeus were named to the 1st team, while Jonathan Baldwin was named to the 2nd team.

Congratulations to these three players.

Lombardi Award Watch List – Award that recognizes the top down lineman, tight end, or linebacker.

Jason Pinkston and Greg Romeus are both on the watch list.

Nationalchamps.net Preseason All American teams

Jason Pinkston and Dion Lewis were named to the first team, while Jonathan Baldwin and Greg Romeus were named to the second team.

Congratulations to these players and we here at The Pitt Blog are sure that we’ll see more nominations come across the wire in the coming weeks.

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.

Nate Byham (TE) went as the 182nd pick (6th round) to the San Francisco 49ers.
Dorin Dickerson (TE) went as the 227th pick (7th round) to the Houston Texans.

They weren’t the only Panthers to get a shot at the NFL though. After the draft, a few Panthers were signed as free agents. They are:

Bill Stull (QB) – Kansas City Chiefs
John Malecki (OG) – Tennessee Titans
Mick Williams (DT) – New York Jets
Aaron Berry (CB) – Detroit Lions

Adam Gunn (LB) was also invited to attend the Green Bay Packers minicamp as an undrafted free agent, but is still unsigned.

Congratulations to these Pitt Panthers as they head to the NFL. Hail to Pitt!