The Big East will participate in two bowls this year that don’t have all the issues settled.

The latest incarnation of the unnamed bowl to be held in Houston now has a title sponsor, but no name determined. The NFL Network which was going to hold the broadcast rights to the game now holds the naming rights. They haven’t announced the name yet.

Then there is the Birmingham Bowl. They just hired an Assistant AD from Middle Tennessee State as their executive director. His first job is to go out and get a title sponsor for the bowl.

At least there’s a kind of symmetry.

Just to note that Pitt has a countdown clock on the front page to the start of Pitt’s season. Also, the ticket ads featuring H.B. Blades and Tyler Palko are there (Windows Media).

Great story about how Coach Dixon’s basketball camp can be more than simply about more income for the coach.

There is the toothy, beaming smile of Julius Page that was as much his identifying feature as his ability to sail over a would-be shot blocker and flush home a dunk.

There is the slightly pudgy profile of Jaron Brown, whose ferocity, versatility and Kentucky-bred kindness made him a fan favorite on a team that was the foundation for Pitt’s resurgence.

There is the long sinewy body of Chris McNeal, with his sharp elbows, deft body control and a never-quit motor.And the space-eating chassis, soft hands and incessant grin that endeared Ontario Lett to fans.

They all made their marks on a basketball floor in Oakland, and that is where they gathered again yesterday. Those former players were at the Petersen Events Center, working as counselors to the 200 campers at a weeklong basketball camp operated by Panthers coach Jamie Dixon.

“To me, it is important to make sure there is a welcome feeling and a sense of family that runs through not just our current guys, but past players,” Dixon said. “That is why guys like these have an invitation extended to them to work here. Sometimes, I think it is overlooked how vital it is to bridge the gap between past players and the current program, and this is a way to do that. It is also a way to make sure the campers get solid instruction.”

I’m not a fan of living in the past, but I think for college athletics one of the great things is emphasizing the tradition and the links. Whether it was laziness on the athletic department and the school, money things, or something else involving personality conflicts; Pitt from the late-80s to the 90s really did a poor job of connecting the past and present. That was definitely one of the more easily overlooked things that former AD Pedersen did at Pitt — reestablish the ties to past players and coaches.

And the players are aware of it now.

“I know I have a lot of friends here in Pittsburgh,” Lett said. “And everybody is always calling me saying, ‘Come back, come back.’ When I saw that they could use some guys to work camp, I had to come back here. Wherever it is I am in the world, I know I can always come back here to Pitt, and that is important to me.”

McNeal, who played for former Pitt coach Paul Evans and graduated from the university in 1993, has the same feeling. He is an assistant coach at George Wythe High School in Virginia and helps organize the Virginia Storm, an AAU basketball program.

Even though he played three Pitt regimes ago, the guy whose crowning night was a 27-point, 20-rebound performance in a win in March 1992 against Boston College at Fitzgerald Field House knows he has an open invitation to come back because he’s part of the family.

Keeping up those ties and warm feelings to Pitt cynically also helps for the future, when a guy like McNeal can think positively about Pitt and be receptive to Pitt recruiting efforts with his kids.

So, how do some other teams and their local coverage view the goings of BE Media Day?

You would think Rutgers, after beating Pitt, having a winning record for the first time since 1992(?), and its first bowl game since 1978 that Rutgers would be a little annoyed to be picked behind Pitt for 4th place in the Big East. You don’t know the disturbingly relentless optimism that comes from Rutgers — shining through the cynicism, bitterness and toxic fumes associated with the NY/NJ pro sports scene (and I type this as a Yankees fan).

Following up its first bowl game since 1978, Rutgers was selected No. 4 in the Big East preseason poll as voted by the media.

It’s the first time they’ve been included in the upper half of the conference in the preseason.

The Scarlet Knights received 125 points, just two shy of No. 3 Pittsburgh. With a 4-3 conference record, Rutgers finished tied for third last season, the first time it finished in the top four since 1992.

“It’s a huge shot in the arm for the program. Winning begets winning,” Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said at Big East Football Media Day here yesterday. “It helped in recruiting. The more we can win, the more we can leverage that and continue to build a program.

“All along, that’s been the plan. To have any success we had to build an infrastructure of a program that was missing. It took some time but I really enjoy our football team.”

You know, when I first came to Cleveland in ’94, I likened the residents to beaten puppies still trying to get affection and validation. We’re an up and coming city, we’re coming back! Really! We have the Indians winning, the Browns are close (whoops), we have the Rock Hall, the Flats are awesome, there’s so much here! There’s no burning river! Doncha’ agree?

There’s a bit of Rutgers in that kind of attitude. Even the NY Post can’t seem to help itself when it comes to Rutgers.

Instead there was great celebration on the banks of the old Raritan. Rutgers played in the first legitimate bowl game in history, losing 45-40 to Arizona State in Phoenix’s Insight Bowl. Surely Rutgers has passed the critical stage.

“I never looked at it that way,” said Schiano, who will take part in Big East Media Days today and tomorrow here. “We set out to build a championship program and that’s not about one season. Last season was great for the program and for the university and what it created was a window of opportunity. We have a foundation. Now we have to keep building on it.”

…

The days of walking into a recruit’s house and not being able to satisfy the question why the Scarlet Knights don’t play in late-December or January are over. Rutgers plays in a BCS conference, has state of the art facilities, and now expects to go to a bowl every year.

“We’ll have to play better in every game this year than we did last year,” Schiano said. “I was on the other side and I know there were programs out there that no matter what the score, believed they would beat Rutgers. Those days are over. People know they have to play a complete game, which means we have to be better.”

For UConn, their coach just wants to get them out there playing soon.

“I know I’ve been champing at the bit since the end of last season to go out and play,” Edsall said. “None of us were satisfied with what happened last year. The best way to get past that feeling is to get back on the field and compete.”

I was hoping to find out about the TV deals for the Big East, but they are keeping that underwraps for a bit longer.

“The football deal alone will surprise a lot of people because we weren’t supposed to be able to sell Big East football according to the doom and gloomers,” said associate commissioner Tom Odjakjian, who deals mostly with the conference’s network partners. “The football deal is very good. It will guarantee a lot of exposure for our programs. The basketball deal, however, is off the charts. Any questions about our conference, if there are still any out there, will be put to rest.”

Odjakjian said the new football contract, which begins in 2008, will still have weeknight games. But the ratings for those games have been very good, he said, and they have been national broadcasts. The game of the week package will remain with ESPN Regional but will include more networks because the Big Ten is moving a lot its games to the newly formed Big Ten Network.

Translation: get ready for plenty of weekday games and expect the Big East to be one of the last conferences to get their own channel. So much for being proactive and forward thinking with media delivery to fans and viewers.

I gave the ‘Eers the grudging and brief credit for their win in the Sugar Bowl when it happened. I found myself rooting for them in that game. The Hoopies. I know many of us did. For the simple reason that with them winning it helped the Big East in credibility, which of course helps Pitt. It was a necessity thing (well, for our buddy Harlan stuck in Atlanta, it was also good in the fact that all the UGA fans became very muted). The Big East in its first year in its new version did not, by any stretch, look good. A regular season that didn’t exactly shine, and no bowl wins to that point.

That’s the sort of reason why I will be carrying a grudge against the ACC and those 3 teams for some time. They put me in a position where it became more important for WVU — Pitt’s primary rivalry team — to win, and thus have to root for their success. The team that ran the crap out of Pitt in the Backyard Brawl last season. It starts churning my stomach the more I think about it.

The only thing that helps, just a little, is the hope that Pitt can put the Hoopie fans in the same reaching-for-the-Maalox position — soon.

So, you can imagine how much I simply enjoyed the over-arching theme of Big East Media Day.

And the optimism in Morgantown underscores the general optimism for the league. Louisville will most likely begin the season in or near the top 10. Pittsburgh Coach Dave Wannstedt, in his second season, has successfully recruited in the talent-rich local area. And even Rutgers is coming off the program’s first bowl appearance in nearly 30 years.

But the Mountaineers, with 15 returning starters from an 11-1 team, an easy schedule and dynamic young talent, have the league abuzz. They have the best young offensive duo in the league, and perhaps all of college football, in running back Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, both sophomores.

Slaton rushed for 5.5 yards a carry last season on his way to 112.8 yards a game. He won the Sugar Bowl’s most outstanding player award with 204 yards and 3 touchdowns.

…

The idea of discussing any Big East team competing for the national title began Jan. 2, the night the clouds lifted.

“I think it was critical,” Rutgers Coach Greg Schiano said. “I can tell you this, there were seven other Big East coaches rooting for West Virginia that night.”

It was the focus that showed up in every paper that carries AP stories.

West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez doesn’t agree that his team’s victory in the Sugar Bowl rescued the Big East from oblivion.

But he doesn’t mind people saying it, anyway.

“I’m glad people are talking about that instead of saying, ‘Oh, that loss really hurt,'” Rodriguez said Tuesday at Big East football media day. “I like to think that the league was OK regardless, but it’s a positive thing to have people talk about that win.”

It pervaded the coverage. That the optimism of the BE Media Day was directly related to the Sugar Bowl (not to mention some rapid revisionism).

The Big East commissioner couldn’t have been more relaxed Tuesday than if he was in a lawn chair listening to a Newport Jazz Festival.

“This is the first summer in a long time that we didn’t feel like we were under siege,” he said during the annual Big East football media day. “My sense is that people are more open-minded now. I feel a lot of people had made up their minds about this league, that this was the end.”

…

“You can almost sense this incredible change since the West Virginia game was over,” Tranghese said. “All we ever asked for was time and an opportunity to prove ourselves. There’s only one way to deal with criticism, and that’s to prove it on the field.”

While West Virginia and Louisville finished in the Top 20, newcomer South Florida played No. 3 Penn State and No. 17 Miami close, then shocked the country by blasting Louisville. Connecticut turned around and beat South Florida, and Rutgers ended its 27-year bowl drought and put on a show in the Insight Bowl in a 45-40 loss to Arizona State. And former NFL coach Dave Wannstedt has Pittsburgh moving up fast.

Where? Oh, where are the voices of reason? A West Virginia columnist actually saying, “whoah.”?

Bobby Petrino rooted just as hard as the next guy for West Virginia during the Sugar Bowl in January, knowing full well the impact a win over Georgia might have on the reputation and respect offered the Big East.

As they like to say in the NFL, however, upon further review, WVU’s 38-35 win that night might be less a knockout punch and merely a glancing blow to critics of the league. After all, it was just one game.

“You’d like to think it would quiet the critics,” the Louisville coach said Tuesday. “But the fact is, we have to do it again this year. That’s how it is every year. You go out and prove it on the field and continue to get better.”

…

Will it change things in the long run? Probably not. Petrino was right when he essentially brought up the what-have-you-done-lately point. A couple of non-conference losses here and there or some sloppy league games will bring the heat right back again.

I so look forward to the point where we can gleefully enjoy watching highlights of Mountaineer losses without having to consider the “impact” on the Big East.

There’s still plenty of material to get through, but I’ll focus on the Pitt stuff for now.

I noted in the video clips yesterday that Coach Wannstedt talked a bit about Palko, then Palko answered questions about himself and his goals. Palko stressed how his stats didn’t matter, only winning the game. Well, it can be argued that some of his stats do matter for the winning.

While this will be Palko’s third as captain, the point is clear: As Tyler goes so go the Panthers.

Last season, the first in Wannstedt’s system, the disparity between win-and-loss statistics from the quarterback tells the tale. In the Panthers’ five victories Palko threw for nine touchdowns versus two interceptions and rushed for six more. However, in the six losses Palko passed for eight touchdowns, ran for none and had 14 interceptions.

Wannstedt hopes Palko can be as comfortable coming into this season as he is. “I know our team better, I know what our guys can and can’t do. … I am a lot more comfortable, a lot more confident.”

Palko added, “Comfort comes from success. You pick up more as you have success.”

Another good way to be comfortable is if the O-line actually gives you a chance to make some reads and throw the ball without being buried in the turf.

It has been mentioned before, and most are aware that the move to the 12 game schedule is probably a harsher double-edged sword for Big East teams than most. The PAC-10 took advantage of it to go to a 9 game conference slate to actually allow all the teams to play each other. It also means they still only need to find 3 non-con games each year. All the other BCS Conferences stayed at 8 games in conference, but the Big East with only 8 members has to schedule 5 non-cons as opposed to 4.

The thing all coaches seem to agree, though, is that freshmen will play a bigger role than ever with an extra game. Injuries will be the primary reason.

“They may have to play out of necessity,” West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said. “With a 12-game schedule in the same amount of weeks, there’ll be less time for guys to recover from injuries.”

The effects will be felt not only on Saturday afternoons (or in the Big East’s case, Thursday and Friday nights). It will carry over to the practice field.

“It’s a long season,” Louisville coach Bobby Petrino said. “You have to be real smart about what you do on your bye weeks, what you do when you have days off and when you have weekday games. It’s a real challenge to take care of your players and make sure they’re as sharp as they can be.”

Coach Wannstedt knows Pitt would be playing a lot of Freshmen this year, regardless of the number of games.

“We’re going to have to play (freshmen) just because of our lack of depth,” Wannstedt said.

“When you bring in 25 guys and you have 85 on scholarship, that’s a little less than a third of your team that’s freshmen. So they’re gonna be in a position to play. How much and who, I don’t know.”

The ones most likely to get playing time are Dorin Dickerson, Elijah Fields, Nate Byham, Jovanni Chappel, Aaron Berry and Kevin Collier.

Wannstedt said he hasn’t yet determined whether Dickerson and Fields will be on offense or defense, let alone which positions they’ll play.

“The first four days (of preseason camp) before we put the pads on are going to be real critical,” Wannstedt said. “We’ve got to make a lot of decisions.”

Wannstedt said Berry, who “might be the best receiver on the team,” will begin camp as a cornerback. Byham’s path to playing time opened up when tight end John Pelusi blew out his knee during the offseason. Chappel enrolled in January and was dynamite during spring drills.

Coach Wannstedt is planning something a little different with the incoming players for the first week or so of practice.

But that presents a problem: How does he accurately and fairly evaluate the freshmen during training camp while still giving the returning veterans the opportunity to prove they deserve to keep their spots, or move up, on the depth chart?

The answer? It’s surprisingly simple but could be a stroke of brilliance — separate camps for the first week.

“It isn’t fair to ask freshmen to compete with upperclassmen when they don’t even know the plays,” Wannstedt said yesterday during Big East football media day.

“And it isn’t fair to ask upperclassmen who have been busting it for our program for two or three years to take a backseat while we evaluate younger kids trying to take their jobs.”

For the first five days of training camp, the veterans and those returning players among the two-deep depth chart will practice in the morning; freshmen, redshirt freshmen and some veterans further down on the depth chart will practice in the afternoon.

“By NCAA rules you can only have one practice per day during the first five days, but as long as it is within the time restraints and as long as the players are only out there once, you can split the practice up,” Wannstedt said.

“And I just think that given where we are as a football program, it is important for us to have the two different groups work separately for the first week because it will give every player on our team an opportunity to get a lot of work in.”

Paul Zeise, the P-G Pitt football beat writer, seems quite taken with the idea. I don’t know if any other programs do this, but it does seem like a pretty good idea. The time limits are on the players not the coaches so the coaches can effectively run two sets of drills.

The only downside could be the ever elusive concept of team chemistry by separating the players — especially the new kids — from the main units, you do make it harder to get all that bonding, unity, and respect for each other established early.

Of course, those are intangibles, and that wasn’t the problem last year. It was the product on the field that was why Pitt had a disappointing year. And Coach Wannstedt — who has always had a reputation as a “players coach” sees the benefit to the upperclassmen as well.

“It will give the varsity player who is battling for a spot a chance to prove to the coaches he is the guy, and it will give the freshman kids and younger players a chance to prove what they can do as well as get a lot of reps in and learn the system.”

Back to Media Day, and the one dark spot on what was a less defiant more upbeat event than last year, was the uncomfortable fact that in an 8 team league it seems to be a 2 team race.

There are problems, for sure. There appears to be a sharp drop-off in talent after the top two, with league linchpins Syracuse and Pittsburgh coming off poor seasons. The Orange, in Greg Robinson’s second year as head coach, was picked to finish in last place again this season.

“I still think for us to reach our maximum potential, Pittsburgh and Syracuse need to get back to where they were,” Tranghese said. “When they do, then I think we’ll start to really be what I think we can be.”

Hopefully, Pitt can shake things up this season.

Darrelle Revis is selling the spin that he hasn’t made any decisions yet about the NFL Draft.

Pitt cornerback Darrelle Revis insisted he is not ready to decide whether to give up his senior year and turn pro. “I’ll weigh my options after the season,” Revis said. Coach Dave Wannstedt said he hasn’t said anything yet to Revis about it. “Right now, he just needs to worry about having a good training camp,” Wannstedt said. “I think he’s got his head on right.”

Now, I’m not saying he won’t be focused on this season. In fact, I expect a great season from him. Revis has been an excellent player and has never caused any problems. I’m just of the opinion that he’s going pro after this season, and that he’s already leaning towards going pro. He’s a NFL-level CB and will definitely go on the first day.

Since Revis was one of the Pitt players at the BE Media Day, he’s going to be the subject of a few profile/puff pieces in the next few days or so. Here’s the first.

“He has a lot of great natural ability, but that only takes you so far,” the Pittsburgh coach said here yesterday during Big East Media Day. “The thing that separates Darrelle is that the intangible things are so positive. By that I mean his work ethic, his film study, his passion to be the best, those are the things that take a guy with great athletic ability, which he has, and puts him on top.

“He’s a gamer. Every team probably has one guy, maybe two, that you say you never want them to be off the field. You’d like them to return punts, you’d like them to return kickoffs, you’d like them to be a wideout and throw them the ball. He’s that top of guy.”
…
Regardless, whatever Revis gets, he’ll work harder to get more. It’s his makeup. His uncle, Sean Gilbert, a former Pitt star, played in the NFL for 12 years and taught his nephew the right way. NFL great Ty Law (also a cornerback) is a family friend who has led Revis in the right direction. The same can be said for his high school coach at Aliquippa, Mike Zmijinac, who told him, “You sleep hard, you eat hard, you …”

You do everything hard.

The message has been clear and the kid has the followed advice: keep working hard and never settle for what you have.

“You see a lot of kids, there’s a difference between talent and working hard,” Revis said. “That extra work ethic is going to take you to another level.

“I’m athletic, I can do things. I can probably jump from here to here on one foot, I can do all of that. But it’s a thing that you have to set yourself aside and the thing about doing that is working hard. The work ethic, pushing through a line, finish all the way through, just doing the little things. Do the little things and big things will happen.”

His skill, not just his athleticism, is why teams didn’t want to throw his way last year and will look to pick on the CB opposite of him this year.

There are natural rivalries that develop by local geography (Pitt-PSU, Pitt-WVU, USC-UCLA, Alabama-Auburn). There are rivalries that develop from years of strong conference battles for supremacy (Michigan-Ohio State, Tennessee-Florida, Oklahoma-Texas).

The worst thing that can be done, though, is for conferences to try and make a rivalry. For years, anyone and everyone has rightly lambasted the “Land Grant Trophy” game between Penn St. and Michigan St. as some juryrigged attempt by the Big 11 to give PSU a “rivalry” game in the conference to make them seem like more a part of the conference.

Unfortunately for Pitt fans, the Big East decided to do the same for Cinci by pairing them with Pitt for the River City Rivalry.

The Big East wasn’t trying to play that up at Media Day. Instead they were trying to talk up other possible rivalries.

“I think we’re a lot different than a year ago,” said Tranghese. “Last year we hadn’t played a game yet. It was all new. Now we’ve played each other and started to develop some rivalries and see what everyone is about.”

But who? There’s some effort to make L-ville and WVU rivals, but that only happens if they remain the top two teams in the league for a longer period than just a couple years.

The funny thing is the coaches aren’t even buying. The Big East office pushes the story, the media asks the coaches and, well…

Maybe someday, if Michael Tranghese’s vision for the Big East takes shape, Rutgers’ table won’t be placed so close to UConn’s.

The Big East commissioner opened the program by harping on the importance of rivalry development in the Big East, especially in the wake of the conference’s major shake-up and the addition of new teams last year.
…
For UConn, the closest Big East football schools geographically are Rutgers (Piscataway, N.J.) and Syracuse (upstate New York).

Edsall said he is still not sure where UConn’s most heated rivalries will develop.

“We’ve only been playing some of these teams for three years and I don’t know if you develop a rivalry in three years,” Edsall said. “You want those things to happen and I think they will. You can see some signs of things maybe getting a little bit closer to that. I think there’s a potential rivalry to be had with Syracuse and with Rutgers because of a proximity standpoint and some of the things that have already happened through the basketball end of it.”

Edsall, however, has a difficult time fitting Rutgers into his own conditions for a rivalry.

“To me, when you have rivalries I think it’s usually an in-state thing or bordering states or it’s just a history of playing for a long time,” Edsall said. “I think in the short history with [Rutgers], we’ve beaten them a few times, they beat us last year. The scores have been very close the last few years. It’s something you see that might be happening.”

Schiano said he would love to see a rivalry develop between UConn and Rutgers, but he doesn’t want to see it forced just for marketing.

For UConn fans, based on basketball, they want the rivalry to be with Syracuse. The ‘Cuse, though, might not be so interested as UConn is such a new team in football. Besides, the Orange have enough problems with football at the moment as summarized in the title to this article:

Now, that’s the way to market to fans.

Last year’s blanket coverage of Levon Kendall on the Under-21 Canadian National Team was so highly received how could I resist a chance to do it again.

Having missed out on qualifying for the world championships in Japan, head coach Leo Rautins is instead taking a young team to Europe for an eight-game exhibition schedule played in three countries against seven national teams.
…
“Our team is young,” said Rautins, who is in his second season as the national team head coach. “We have three 19-year-olds. A veteran for us is 23 years old. It’s a unique situation. We have the ability this summer to play these games and get to know each other, with no pressure.

“We need to get ready for next year and the year after.”

The core of the team is made up of players who won a bronze medal for Canada at the under-21 world championship last summer, one of Canada’s most significant international results.

“I think we had a group of guys who played together for quite a few years and that’s what they’re trying to establish here,” said Levon Kendall, the Vancouver forward who was the centrepiece of the under-21 team last year.

“We’ve got some guys who are going to be together and can look long term at qualifying for the Olympics and the worlds and can build toward that each summer. We did that with the younger team and it paid off.”

The team is being coached by former Syracuse player Leo Rautins, who is also the father of current ‘Cuse player Andy Rautins. The younger Rautins, just got added to the team.

“We had eight or nine coaches from across the country involved in the process of putting the team together,” Rautins said Monday. “There was no question that Andy earned a spot here. He shot the ball very well.”

So naturally, those coaches wouldn’t be influenced by the fact that he’s the head coach’s son.

Canada will not play in the FIBA World Championship in Japan in August. So this summer’s European tour is designed with an eye toward next year’s Olympic qualifying tournament and the 2008 Olympics. Andy Rautins is one of three 19-year-olds on the roster, and the team’s average age is 24.

“This is a summer of development and experience for us,” Rautins said. “We want to establish a core for the Olympic qualifier next year. We’re taking young players we feel have potential to play for us next year and in the Olympics the year after and mixing them with a group of experienced veterans.”

Along with Andy Rautins, the younger players on the Canadian squad include Pittsburgh senior Levon Kendall and Michigan sophomore Jevohn Shepherd.

The Canadian team travels to Italy today. It will play Italy, Greece and Serbia this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The team will then head to Germany for a pair of games against a German team that will be preparing for the FIBA World Championship and will be led by Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks. The trip will end with five games in Slovenia.

The Canadian National Team tanked last year, but the U-21 performed well. Good that Kendall will be playing some very good competition in the offseason. Hopefully his back will not act up.

There’s a lot of stories from Big East Media Day. I’m still sifting through them to skip the repeats or saying the same thing (to some degree they all do, but at what angle). Just get this out there, though, Pitt and UCF have worked out their contract issues with the games.

The problem came about when the UCF-Marshall game was moved to Oct. 4, a Wednesday night, to become an ESPN2 broadcast. That meant the Golden Knights will have eight days off before playing host to Pitt.

The Panthers, who play at Syracuse on Oct. 7, will have less time to prepare. In a letter to UCF officials, Long noted the terms of the contract called for each team to have the same number of days.

The Pitt-UCF game was moved to Friday, October 13, 8pm so ESPN2 can air it. Apparently that clause of the same number of days was put in there by former Pitt AD Steve Pederson. While the actual terms of the deal weren’t specified here’s what has been reported: Big East refs will end up calling the final game of the series at Heinz Field and the buyout clause has been upped to make it more difficult for UCF to bail on either of the games.

That buyout issue is significant. UCF was overbooked on road games for 2007 (in part because they had switched this year’s game with Pitt from a home to road). It’s hard enough to get decent games years in advance especially with the need for 5 non-con games. Patsy teams are going for the big paydays with that increased pressure, bailing on one deal to take a better. UCF just announced they are paying the buyout and bailing on their trip to Tennessee in 2007.

The Golden Knights paid $10,000 to get out of the football game, which was scheduled for Sept. 29 and contracted to bring a $500,000 payday.

Tennessee is replacing UCF with Louisiana-Lafayette. Presumably a weaker opponent and requiring a bigger cash guarantee from Tennessee.

Most of the stories for the Big East Media Day will be in tomorrow’s paper, because that’s the way the news cycle used to be. Some are ahead of the curve.

The AP, of course, already has its summary. And it’s all WVU, so let’s just move on.

The Louisville beat writer for the Courier-Journal, already has his piece up. The oh-so subtle angle, to promote a L-ville-WVU rivalry.

Yesterday, the majority of the focus clearly was on U of L and West Virginia. Both expect to be nationally ranked in preseason polls. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese pointed to a budding rivalry between the Cardinals and Mountaineers as a promising development for the league.

The teams staged a triple-overtime thriller in Morgantown last season, with the Mountaineers winning 46-44 after erasing a 24-7 third-quarter deficit. Both coaches called that game a good start. They meet this year on Nov. 2 at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.

“It’s not a rivalry yet, but it’s going to get there,” Rodriguez said. “When you start playing and it’s a game like we had and it’s triple overtime, then it accelerates the process. For us, the Pitt game, the backyard brawl is the No. 1 rivalry. And people are talking about our game with Marshall being a rivalry. But the Louisville game will probably become a rivalry much quicker.”

The advent of blogs and reporters has been a boon to transparency as they cop more often to getting the good grub.

Well, sure, last night I was at a free clam bake at the Eisenhower House in Fort Adams National Park outside Newport. All the lobster, chicken, steamed clams, corn on the cob, mussels, etc., you can eat. It’s tough, but we do what we have to do to get the news, you know? (And, if it makes anyone feel any better, I counted 17 mosquito bites on my forearms alone.)

And nothing like a nice setting to cushion the blow of being in Syracuse and covering the unanimous pick for the bottom of the conference.

The Big East video snippet interviews are up (Windows Media. If the direct link doesn’t work, go to the Media Day site and click “Video.”).

Coach Wannstedt is interviewed at the 6:30 mark. The off-camera (and sound) question he is asked is about Palko. Coach Wannstedt said it was Palko’s team. He was effusive in his praise for how he prepared and put in so much work during the offseason. The second question was about his expectations for the season. Here, it was a little interesting because Coach Wannstedt hedged sharply. He essentially said that while he wants to say winning the Big East, that would be getting ahead of things. Right now, the team can only take it one game at a time and see where things go. It definitely seemed that he was trying to balance the goals versus the expectations. I don’t think overconfidence by the coach will be an issue.

Tyler Palko was the only Pitt player on the interview. He was at about 7:45. He talked about dealing with adversity. That part of the problem last year was that the team didn’t handle adversity well, that it let them get to them. The team has to handle things better. Palko also stressed that winning was far more important than any individual stats. He just wants to win the game and he doesn’t care how or what his stat line looks like.

46 days and 2 plus hours until kickoff against UVa.

Man, I hope they have more than just these photos from the day. Looks like Coach Wannstedt wore a tie this year. Pitt players attending were Darrelle Revis, Tyler Palko and Steve Buches. Or at least they were the ones in the photo. I’m stunned if H.B. Blades didn’t make the trip for anything other than personal reasons.

Looking at the full TV schedule for the Big East reveals something a bit surprising. The Louisville-Pitt game is not even included on the ESPN Regional/Big East game list. I mean, I expected no coverage of the Citadel tilt, and I’m not stunned that the Toledo game isn’t televised (though it could be a very good game). But L-ville-Pitt not on the air? That may change.

UPDATE: They seem to be adding more photos throughout the day.

Interesting.

Pitt actually edged Rutgers slightly for 3rd in pre-season expectations. I guess there’s only so much that even the coaches can believe about Rutgers improving.

I would actually consider moving USF to 6 or 7. They have lost 10 players already of their incoming recruiting class to academics or other reasons with eligibility.

In something of a telling glitch in the brief paragraph summaries for each team, Syracuse wasn’t boldfaced and “accidentally” just part of the paragraph with Cinci.

Looking for any story. Pitt WR Coach (and former Florida WR) Aubrey Hill gets a “where are they now” piece from the Gainesville paper.

Hill, 34, said he has head coaching aspirations, but is happy working through the ranks before taking over his own program.

“Obviously, that’s the ultimate goal,” Hill said. “But I want to go the way most go first, being a recruiting coordinator, an offensive coordinator and then becoming a head coach.

“Right now, I’m learning from the best (Wannstedt) about how NFL guys do it. He does an outstanding job getting the most out of his players.”

Hill said he doesn’t get back to Gainesville very much, but is the Panthers’ primary recruiter for Maryland, northern Virginia, Washington D.C. and where he grew up, south Florida.

Hill’s going to have some pressure on him to get players like Pestano and Turner to perform better and more consistently than they have shown even through spring drills.