If you are like me, you really haven’t given too much thought to Father’s Day too much thought. Then it is upon you, and you realize that you didn’t get anything. Time to scramble and figure out that last minute gift.

This is my suggestion if your dad likes sports and to think a little (or you get it for yourself): Scorecasting by Tobias Moskowitz and L. Jon Wertheim. Full disclosure, I was sent a free copy of the book to review.

Scorecasting is a kind of Freakonomics for sports. Tobias Moskowitz is a behavioral economist at the University of Chicago, and L. Jon Wertheim is a veteran Sports Illustrated writer. They put together a good read exploring some of the myths in sports and applied economic principles to explain and understand them. .

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The depth chart for Pitt at tailback has been expected to be Ray Graham and one of four freshmen coming in August. Not exactly the most inspiring, but since Pitt has had two true freshman tailbacks emerge as impact starters previously, it hasn’t been the most pressing concern to most Pitt fans.

Yet it seems Pitt might end up with some experienced help, to back up Graham.

Wisconsin running back Zach Brown visited Pittsburgh the past three days and is considering transferring there, sources told ESPN’s Joe Schad.

…

Brown redshirted last season and is expected to be eligible to play in the fall after finishing his history degree. Brown ran for 568 yards as a freshman, but saw his playing time diminish as a sophomore and junior.

He decided to redshirt last year, with the Badgers boasting a group of backs that included Montee Ball, James White and John Clay.

Clay left school early, but Brown never jumped up the depth chart this spring.

Brown would make a useful back-up and give a chance to redshirt more of the incoming freshmen running backs.

Well, I think we all knew this was going to be the major post topic of the day.

I want to thank Pitt and Penn State for making this announcement now. It was getting down to minimum content time here at PittBlather. I’m talking bottom of the barrel, tangentially related, minimal stuff.

I mean, sure the actual game is some 1914 days away or so, but it is still exciting news. All over the Pennsylvania papers and picked up nationally on the wires.

There are and will be plenty of people to try and minimize this. To say it is not the same as it once was. It no longer has the national significance from the 70s and 80s. Fine. They are right. Both teams are in different conferences. It’s a non-con game that will be played in mid-September. We have no idea what either team will look like in 5 years. All of that is true. But it still matters. It is still a big deal. It still has a lot of people excited.

If Pitt announced season tickets were available for the 2016 season right now, I’d be putting my money down. My parents are both Penn State grads. Shortly after the news broke my dad called to ask whether I’m getting an extra ticket for the game so he can go.

On to the link round-up.

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