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August 19, 2010

I would argue that nothing in the June conference expansion insanity was matched for sheer lunacy in such a compressed period as yesterday.

Briefly recapping and a hat tip to the Wiz of Odds for some links.

News leaked that BYU was going to bolt the MWC and strike out as an independent in football. They would pull a ND and join the WAC in all other sports.

Keep in mind that BYU was the lead team in creating the MWC and crippling the WAC in the first place.

The WAC, though, with losing Boise to MWC kind of has no choice. They need something to help them, and if they can get BYU to at least play a few home-and-homes with their schools in football (like ND and the Big East) it keeps them viable.

The MWC has to scramble, since it already is losing Utah. Even with the addition of Boise, this hurts on many levels. Not the least is the complete loss of the Utah market. Make jokes all you want, they still need any reasonably large TV markets they can get to offset Wyoming and New Mexico.

They extend offers rapidly to some WAC schools, but after Boise St. the WAC raised the exit fee to $5 million and that makes it unlikely anyone would run. Plus, it isn’t like the MWC is looking that good right now.

The WCC (Gonzaga’s conference) abruptly makes it known they would like to get in on that hot Mormon action since they don’t have any football in the first place it would give BYU more freedom to schedule.

It is speculated that TCU might bolt the MWC to return to C-USA — where they do have natural in-state “rivalries” with Houston, UTEP, Rice and SMU.

It comes out that Nevada never signed off on the new WAC exit fee and takes the MWC up on its offer. As does Fresno State.

The MWC is still viable and might still be able to keep everyone from jumping. Speculation that the MWC might make a move to get Houston on board.

BYU makes no announcement at this time as the WAC landing seems a lot less viable. Still it seems damn likely they are still going to go independent at this point, but BYU does know they need a place for the non-football sports.

The WAC is down to something like 6 teams, and even Hawaii is pondering independence.

So what does this have to do with Pitt and the Big East?

Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician has the piece to read on it.

The Big East is officially turning into college football’s Dukes of Hazzard.  They keep getting into crazy predicaments only to jump the General Lee at the last moment and live to see another day.

It looks like they’re going to get raided by the Big Ten…somehow the mighty Big 12 crumbles instead.

Just when it seemed like a non-BCS conference was overtaking it in the hearts and minds of fans everywhere…that conference loses two of it’s best programs.

The Big East doesn’t do anything proactively to protect itself…but then again it looks like it doesn’t have to.

The Mountain West by the end of last season was making plenty of claims to be better than the Big East and from a perception standpoint — they were gaining traction with TCU, Utah and BYU at the top. Even losing Utah, they were swapping in Boise.

Now BYU is bolting and while TCU and Boise are at the top, it becomes harder to ignore the Wyoming, New Mexico, UNLV (and now Nevada) at the bottom. To say nothing of the sheer mediocrity (at best) of Fresno St., SDSU, and Colorado St.

Really weird stuff going on out west.





Congratulations on successfully using the words “hot”, “Mormon” and “action” consecutively

Comment by Pabs 08.19.10 @ 11:34 am

A couple of years ago I was present for a Fresno/SD (forgot which) whupping on RU. This was when RU was at the top of the BE.

‘nuf said, back to Woot!

Comment by Steve 08.19.10 @ 6:47 pm

i tiny bit off topic but did anyone happen to notice the recent USNews & W orld Report rankings of US Universities?

You may recall the big deal the B10 made of academics being such an important criterion in selecting a new member.

WEll, Nebraska ranked tied for 104 — way below any other B10 school, and more importantly, way below any other of the schools who were thought to be candidates except for Missouri.

The 4 BE schools, Pitt, Cuse, RU and UConn, all finished much higher. BTW, Pitt abd RU tied for 64th which would have put hem right in the middle of the pack of B10 schools.

Comment by wbb 08.19.10 @ 8:17 pm

Hey !!! Anyone else get screwed on parking ????

Comment by Joe 08.19.10 @ 10:17 pm

Yes, Joe – add your name to the chorus. Sounds like lots of disappointed Pitt fans.

Comment by Patrick 08.19.10 @ 10:39 pm

Yeah apparently multiple people got screwed on parking if you go back a couple of posts people were talking about it there.

Comment by Twink 08.19.10 @ 10:47 pm

“Tino will learn from it. He is learning every day. That is all part of the maturing process.”

link to pittsburghlive.com

Still scary. Enough learning already. It’s time to BE the QB of a top 15 team. If not, someone else.

Comment by Steve 08.20.10 @ 6:43 am

Half of the Gold 2 parking lot was eliminated for the new amphitheater being built. I think the parkning had a domino effect from that.

Comment by KeyboardKev 08.20.10 @ 7:45 am

Also, I think the new hotel opened across from the Pirates stadium, so I’m sure some of that Parking Lot (Red 6) now belongs to that hotel. I have been in Red 6 for about 10 years or so now, and was moved to Red 7. Can’t say it matters much to me…What steams my clams is the major construction that will begin this month on Route 28…I know that Pittsburgh being Pittsburgh, they will also have major construction on 376 at the same time!

Comment by HbgFrank 08.20.10 @ 12:31 pm

I get that Pitt cannot control the severe reduction in spaces (primarily in the Gold lots), but what I don’t understand is why new assignments are so scattered. Our ticket group includes approximately 65 tickets, all in Section 133. Our group orders 13 parking passes. For the past several years, all of the passes have been in Gold 4. This year, they are spread through 5 different parking areas (with the largest cluster being in the GRS garage). The garage does not permit tailgating, and we are so spread out in the other lots (1 pass for each lot) that pre-game activities will be almost impossible to undertake.

So, with all the talk of enhancing game day experience, what Pitt has done is essentially make it impossible for many groups to tailgate. Makes perfect sense…

Comment by Pantherman13 08.20.10 @ 1:21 pm

I did not renew my tickets this year because it was just too exhausting getting to and from the stadium on Saturdays (had to decide between keeping Pitt or Steelers as I would not do both). I agree with HbgFrank about the traffic patterns. Now that I am reading about the parking mess, I think I made the right decision. I agree that Pitt cannot control the fact that some parking has been taken for commercial development, but they obviously have not handled it very well and they simply cannot get cooperation from the city and PennDot. Sad.

Comment by wally 08.20.10 @ 1:55 pm

[…] to the MWC/WAC and BYU stuff from last week, one of the things that came out near the end of the week were talks between […]


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