I don’t think the following is unrealistic: The four 16-team super conferences are coming…The NCAA is going…Two teams from each super conference will make up an 8 team playoff for the Championship…ND will be forced to join a conference if they want to be a part of the National Championship Playoff system and all of its money…The Big 12 may have said “hey ND get in with us now, well let you keep your NBC contract and have your own network. We won’t have even revenue like the Big 10″…The big question for Pitt might be to take the first offer or not…Five years from now, Pitt will be in a super conference…It could be the Big 12, the Big 10, The ACC or a suddenly revitalized BE with ND, PSU, BC, Maryland, Va Tech, and VA…The good news is that Pitt and Pittsburgh are an attractive candidate for a super conference…Only time will tell.

Pitt is an Eastern school. It belongs in a new Big East. Now granted, I won’t complain if the Big 10 or ACC come knocking. But, this talk of the Big 12 is ridiculous. Pitt is too smart and won’t be The Long Horn’s bitch. Once the Sooners accept the invite to the Pac 10, the Big 12 will be officially dead. Don’t count on State Penn being part of a revitalized East Coast Conference. Currently, they are too busy reinstating dismissed players due to a shortage of quality running backs in the program. The hypocrisy of Poopy Pants.

Biel could defnitely be had, Alba will be a tough sell, especially because of the kids.

Didn’t the story say Pitt was a backup plan behind Ark.? This whole scenario is a joke and just pure speculation. No way it ever happens.

ND has no interest in playing Ok St and Texas Tech every year. If they ever join a conference, it will be the Big 10.

I dont say we should leave the big east but i ask you this which home game would you like to go to PITT playing cincnnati or PITT playing TEXAS OR Pitt playing Syracuse or PITT playing Oklahoma or Alabama which games would sell out.

Sellouts because of the opponent are good. Sellouts because of winning are even better.

This may be my favorite blog of all time. Short, to point, and funny. lol

The only way Pitt to Big 12 works is if some combination of ND, Penn State, & WVU go with us. Even then, the revenue splits and the Longhorn Network would leave us as a 2nd (or 3rd or 4th fiddle). No thanks. A revamped BE or some BE-ACC combo is the way to go. (I don’t want us to have any part in the Big 10 either for my own reasons. Just my humble opinion.

why not invite A&M To the Big East, especially if SEC gets wet feet about adding them? Then extend offers to Kansas and KState.

Pitt in the Big XII? Forget about it.

Awesome choice of Jessica’s. I’d rather fantasize about them than this conference nonsense. Just read Fittipaldos top 25. I guess they only play football in the SEC and Big Ten. If Tino plays well, we finish in the top 25. Iowa is our only opponent currently listed.

Good point Justin. Had not thought of that. Though I doubt it is viable. Aggies headed to the SEC is done in my view. Current noise and chaos all being generated by a lot of lawyering. But I wonder if the extremism of these conference shake ups is finally the death knell to the NCAA. One of the two things that will drive behavior is money. What will trump money is politics. DC has bigger fish to fry right now, but they eventually will intervene and mandate the white board.
Probably when USC gets invited to join the ACC. The absurdity of these moves continues to grow. I recall when Joe Pa started all of this that Bobby Knight predicted the end of conferences as we know them and darned if he wasn’t right yet again.

SEC does not have wet feet about Texas A&M. For legal reasons, they told A&M to begin the process before they make any formal decisions. Change is coming, no doubt about that. My only hope is that Pitt and WVU go as a package to the same conference.

I lost my focus after the mention of a Biel and Alba three-way. Wake me up when the Pitt opening game is starting.

Upside of that 3some is you don’t offend anyone when you sigh “ooohh Jessica, yea right there! LOL

Now on a serious note. Don’t discount the negotiating power of the Big East if TAM bolts the BigXII. If that occurs all of a sudden you have quite a few BigXII(IX) schools who are looking to cover their own asses and protect their self interests. In the first place, Texas is grabbing all the money, Oklahoma then decides to jump to the Big10 and that creates a cascade effect and a potential for other schools ready to abandon the BigXII sinking ship. What would be so bad about a fourteen school football conference that includes the likes of Texas Tech, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri or Oklahoma State. Grabbing any of those schools to round out the 12 team Big East with the addition of TCU coming in next year sounds like something I’d be exploring if I were the Big East Commiss. Would make for a pretty large basketball conference, but then I never understood the concept of the added non football playing schools getting an invite into the Big East in the first place. Could cull some of them from the Big East herd to make the basketball conference more managable.

OOPS, above I meant to say twelve school football conference for the BE.

“I dont say we should leave the big east but i ask you this which home game would you like to go to PITT playing cincnnati or PITT playing TEXAS OR Pitt playing Syracuse or PITT playing Oklahoma or Alabama which games would sell out.”

Frankcan, I was out of the country last year for the Miami game (seriously). Was the game a sell-out? Personally, I would rather watch a game against Cinci for the BE title than a game against Texas unless that game was for a conference championship. But watch Pitt play Texas just because they are Texas? Why????

From today’s Dallas Morning News:
Pittsburgh, which has strong Big 12 and Texas connections in its administration and coaching staff, also could be involved if Notre Dame were to join. SMU has expressed strong interest in membership.
link to dallasnews.com

I see this differently, who is #14 for the SEC. Until that is decided nothing happens. Could Texas A&M petition to join the Big East along with TCU? They would do so until the SEC decides

Big Guy i understand how you see it but most fans would ruther go see pitt play a top team like texas just like they do when we play ND. look i am not saying we should leave but the big east needs to get its shit together in reguards to football go to 12 schools stop farting around. if WVU and Louisville went with us to big 12 it could be very good. football would be king. not sayig i wont to leave but we need to finalize this big east or big 12 or SEC this should not happen every year we need a perment home one place or the outher.

Pitt to the Big 12-3? Why? As a BYU grad recently said to me “Why book passage on a sinking ship”? This is the time that the Big East commish should become proactive and try to pick up two or three schools from the Big 12-3. Don’t wait until September of 2012 John. Be PROACTIVE now. If Pitt moves anywhere it should be a BE-ACC hybrid with the top 8 teams from each league. But that will never happen.

Big East Commish Proactive? LOL It took Jamie Dixon’s prodding to get TCU. We have a better shot of TCU staying around if we get another Texas school. BE should go after A&M (if not, Houston) then bring in the 2 KS schools to get to 12 for football; then tell ND, DePaul and Marquette to take a hike. BE commish too worried about how Providence, Seton Hall or St Johns might be harmed!

Thank you Chas- we are just getting electricity back on after a long threesome with Irene and the actress from the “Good Wife” (OK – so I fantacize a little older)
Your comments about the threesome just cracked me up…

As far as the Big Ten or whatever, Pitt is going no where. Let’s concentrate on putting all our good vibes into Tino and this season.

Chas must be really, really bored to even bring this up. Why would Pitt leave the second least stable BCS conference to go to the least stable BCS conference? If anything happens after A&M leaves, it is that the Big East pick up Kansas and Kansas State if they are smart. We should also look at a second Texas school for TCU (Sorry ‘Nova!).

You are all on right path that is what i ment we need to do something big east ok but do it sec ok but do something the hell with the bb schools the best bb is played in the football schools any way at least the last 3 years pitt wvu the orange men louisville and who won it all not the catholic schools.

A Jessica sandwich — tasty. Throw in Jessica Rabbit for good measure. Oklahoma to the Pac Ten? That’s just wrong. Disapointing that Nebraska left for the Big Ten, but is it really that horrible if A&M leaves? They became less relevant than Missouri or Texas Tech this past decade and haven’t consistently good since Jackie Sherrill (much like Pitt). Go back to the old Big 8 and recruit Arkansas. The NCAA needs to show some sack and step in on all this crazy geography dissing conference busting…whose gonna stand up for territorial integrity and college football tradition?!

They should have some 2-3 degrees of seperation rule…your conference can only consist of contiguous states. OH-PA-WV-VA-MD-NJ-NY-MA

I like beating them but there’s no reason we need to be playing USF (or Miami before)…that’s just stupid. That’s what your non-conference schedule is for — to bring in 3-4 exotics you normally wouldn’t see until maybe a bowl game. After getting schooled by Iowa and MSU, not to mention Michigan and OSU for the past decade, hard for JoePa to say the Big Ten move was a success…but for the money.

[…] yeah, the Big XII is having their fantasy land moment. Last night’s stuff made that clear. The idea of Notre Dame — the great white whale of conferences everywhere […]

“there’s no reason we need to be playing USF (or Miami before)…that’s just stupid.”

Matt, we have a number of bloggers on this board who live in Florida, including the Tampa area. Maybe they should chime in on whether having USF (or even adding UCF) in the conference is stupid.

I live in Texas and I don’t want to play Texas, those arrogant bastards. But, playing TCU and Houston would be fine by me. The Long Horns are the Nitters of the South. Best of luck to A&M.

The big 12 can screw themselves. Or give us Kansas, K-State and Mizzou. Either way. Either way’s fine.

Thanks for thinking of us, BigGuy.

Matt: There are 11,907 current members of the Pitt Alumni Association living in Florida. That’s more than Ohio, New York, W. Virginia and any other “degree of separation” state you mentioned.

We like having Pitt play in Tampa as evidenced by the turnout of people in Pitt gear at the USF football and basketball games when the Panthers are in town.

And, many of us travel to the Burgh for games as well.

Chas has a new post out for aug 28 look at to days pittsburgh trib on line pitt refused to defuse rumor that it could join big 12

Bowling Green Panther, I’m with ya, an excellently entertaining blog post.

Pitt brings a nice crowd at USF. A group of about 10 of us go and it is a great time. This past year there was a pretty good Pitt showing at USF.

A little devil’s advocate here…

Why is the Big 12 necessarily a sinking ship? It seems that Texas and also ESPN are interested in propping it up. What network will prop up the Big East? All I have heard are ‘rumours’ about Comcast/NBC stepping up. It seems that while ESPN is interested in propping up the Big BII(-III) it might be interested in tearing apart the Big East.

And who says that we have to give up recruiting grounds? Kansas does well to recruit on the east coast (basketball). And…look, there are a lot of teams that recruit the DC to NY metroplex for hoops….why? That’s where the players are. I have faith that Dixon will still be able to recruit there.

Clearly hit a nerve with our sunshine state friends — didn’t want to upset anyone — I like Florida…lived in Ft. Myers for a year. Very happy to hear we have a strong Pitt contigency there and glad they make some noise. It makes sense then to play a Florida school for our non-conference schedule every year…like we used to with FSU.

But if I moved to the bay area, I wouldn’t expect Pitt to play Cal or Stanford every year — though a Pac 10/12 series would be cool. Not picking on any particular state, just trying to find some logic and tradition beyond just the $$$, that’s all.

@Matt N. No offense taken. Just wanted to point out that there’s a bigger contingent of Pitt alums and fans here than most people realize.

Plus having a conference rival who you play on an annual basis develops familiarity which helps with recruiting. You wouldn’t get that from just scheduling non-conference games.

You probably know that some of Pitt’s best players over the years have come from Florida. Combine that with the Texas/Oklahoma connections our new coach has and we could be in great shape in a few years if TG takes advantage of those opportunities.