So as usual on a Sunday after marathon college sports watching on Saturday, I spend Sunday with the kids. Easing back into things.

Going into the weekend, Pitt was rising in the eyes of most media.

ESPN.com’s power rankings put Pitt at #10.

Luke Winn at SI.com was really high on Pitt, shooting them up to #6.

Here’s the reason why I’m way more bullish on Pitt than AP poll voters have been:

Quality road wins* by AP top 25 teams not named Pitt: Eight

Quality road wins by Pitt: Three

(* I’m defining a quality road win as one against a top-60 team in the Pomeroy Ratings, in that team’s home gym.)

The value of road wins, like the ones the Panthers have pulled off in January against Syracuse, Cincinnati and UConn, cannot be understated. The other 24 teams in the AP poll have just eight between them, which means Pitt has 10 times the road clout of your average ranked team. Jamie Dixon‘s team needs to be considered a real contender for the Big East title.

Of course that was before the Louisville game (and UConn has decided to unravel completely). Garry Parrish at CBSSports ranks Pitt #8 after the weekend and Jeff Goodman at FoxSports.com says Pitt is #7.

UConn is unsurprisingly unranked after being unable to handle Michigan. UNC is barely there.