Thanks for the ECU Cheerleading Team link, Chas. Matt and Biff are really hot, but I think my favorite is Jake …

An ongoing concern at this blog will be the reformatting of the Big East and beyond. This is something we’ve been arguing over since May.

Basically, it’s a given that the Big East will raid at least two schools from Conference USA for football. Most likely Louisville and Cinci. Of course other members of C-USA that play both football and b-ball are looking to get in on it.

Schools are positioning themselves for another shakeup of the conference landscape once the Big East completes its expansion plans, which could happen as soon as late October. C-USA member East Carolina is interested in joining the Big East, and it took a serious step toward making that happen when it hired former SEC commissioner and BCS czar Roy Kramer as an athletic department consultant.

I don’t care who they freaking hire. East Carolina would be a pathetic choice to include in Big East survival expansion.

I have nothing personal against ECU. I don’t even know ECU — but what are they, the sixth choice for North Carolina kids (Duke, UNC, NC St., Wake, UNC-Greensboro). The last thing Big East expansion needs is another team that really pines to become a part of the ACC. On the plus side, they actually have a real site with pictures for their cheerleaders (pay attention, Pitt).

Besides that, they bring absolutely nothing to the basketball side of things. Football wise they have been better than I thought, but they are a poor fit. No name recognition; no cache; nothing. The Big East would be better served keeping Temple.

It used to be that a fan of Pitt would only get to glance at the team media guide, unless you knew somebody in the athletic department or won a free copy on a local sports radio show. Then, it evolved to where you could buy your own copy — which still seemed unfair since the media and the entire athletic department got the propaganda free.

Now, the entire Pitt media guide is available for free download in PDF. It’s great to actually have all the historical information and present roster and coaching information easily available. The 386 page media guide is broken up into separate sections, with the 386th page containing the vital information “NCAA Guidelines for Panther Boosters.” Maybe it’s related to reading too much about Maurice Clarett and OSU out here in Cleveland, I just like that at the end of the media guide.

I don’t know if other schools do this, but it makes a lot of sense.

There may be a silver lining to losing recruit Walter Walters, a 6’9″ center from Detroit. Since Howland left for UCLA, and took assistant coach Ernie Ziegler with him, Walters changed his mind about attending Pitt. Our loss? Sure, although he has yet to qualify academically.

The up side for Pitt is we already have 3 other big men coming to Pitt next year – Chris Taft, Dante Milligan and Aaron Gray, all top 100 center/forwards in their own rights, AND all academic qualifiers. New coach Jamie Dixon didn’t have any scholarships to spare, but now he can go out and try for a backup point guard. Carl Krauser will start now the Brandin Knight has graduated, but as of now there is no adequate backup PG. Maybe we can get a JUCO transfer?