I was significantly late to the wedding reception of one of my closest friends because of this game. He understood. And the blue streak of expletives deleted when I explained how it unfolded was impressive. That said, I have to conclude that this is his fault.
Back in 2003, another of our group got married. No big deal. An early wedding and the away game was at night. Plenty of time for the wedding and the reception. We gathered. We celebrated and later that evening we congregated at some bar in Altoona. And watched Pitt lose on the road to Toledo. He should have known better. Regardless of all the very good, logistical and logical reasons for having the wedding today — he should have known better.
Eight years later, history repeated. The wedding went quickly wedding receptions enough, and with the gap in time between the wedding and reception I went to a halfway point and to a place of nostalgia. I found myself in The Cage watching the game. Once there, with the way the game unfolded, I couldn’t leave. A good 2 hours late and I had to repeat to many what exactly happened. I felt shell-shocked after a while. And judging by the looks on their faces, they felt it just in the descriptions of the events.
About the only thing I can say is that it doesn’t look like there will be anymore nuptials in the future. Probably.
That was an epic fail. So many facets of a collapse. From Tino continuing to show that he cannot handle the offense for four quarters. To the defense not able to defend when teams go hurry-up — even though that is what they practice against. To a secondary and linebackers that really don’t seem to have a grasp of what they should be doing.
Changing subjects because this is just too painful.
And in the midst of this, Pitt and Syracuse appear to be all but a done deal to head to the ACC according to reports. Something that is so good for Pitt, yet on a personal level will be painful and create a churn of emotions.
I interact, talk, tweet, e-mail, etc. with so many Big East writers. Guys who care just as passionately about their team as I do, Pitt. I want their teams to lose on the field or court to Pitt. I may abhor some of their programs. But I like them. And to see them stuck having to worry about their programs’ long-term survival — having angsted over Pitt’s enough times since 2003 — is not something I would wish upon them. In fact, it flat out sucks. But…
I also know that any of them would be just as elated for their own program to have this opportunity. The fact is that while the ACC may be marginally better than the Big East in football and marginally just off the Big East in basketball, it is the longterm stability of the ACC that makes it a more attractive conference. It is a true conference with football and basketball. Not split loyalties and conflicting interests. It does not have partial members (for now, after all who knows what will come of the Texas rumors).
Pitt worked like hell to keep the Big East together in 2003. There were mixed reports that Pitt even rejected some overtures to be a part of the ACC instead of BC when the raids happened. In the years since, the Big East survived, but thrived isn’t quite the right word. It survived. It was hopeful for finally getting a big TV payout after years of being pathetically behind all other conferences. But that isn’t enough. Hoping to pick off BIg 12 leftovers and expanding the bloat to a 12/20 split loyalty conference just shaves the TV money pie into smaller slices.
WVU has made grunting, rutting noises about how it would be happy to hear from the SEC. By accounts, some 10 teams have been reaching out to the ACC in varying levels of effort — and you know that includes a bunch of other Big East teams. In the end, Pitt’s leaders have to do what is best for Pitt first. Getting out of the Big East is exactly the right thing.
Providence(the league office) did nothing, even Jamie recruited TCU, his alma mater. So he might be a little pissed about that.
We jumped leagues before, as we were a charter member of the Eastern Eight, which also included charter member Villanova. They left after like 1 year for the BigEast, they didn’t think anything of ditching the Eastern Eight and Pitt for greener pastures. And Louisville didn’t have any problems ditching C-USA for the BE either. This AD of their’s is a real dipsh*t.
Pitt is making history, just like we did in the 1956 Sugar Bowl. And it should be Pitt’s place to usher in a new era in college football, not OU or Texas. Hail to PITT!
If WVU latches on somewhere, the BIgEast for football is effectively dead.
It didn’t matter that they have two teams from Michigan,two from Indiana while hoping to add a 3rd, Notre Dame. So it will serve him right if he eventually ends up a 2nd team from Iowa…..Iowa State.
2. If the Big East ends up dissolving, I would love to see the ACC at least alternate between conference tournament in Greensboro, NC and Madison Square Garden.
Me either.
Our former rival up in Beantown appears to be happy Pitt is joining them in the ACC:
How about Rednecks & Yankees…..since this is the anniversary of the Civil War beginning. haha
Pitt
Syracuse
BC
Maryland
Miami (yes it’s by far more northern in culture than southern, not even close)
Va TEch (only cause they had previous rivalries with the former BE schools
Duke (had to have 7 in division, plus each division needs a doormat or two, plus Duke has a lot of yankees.
Rednecks:
UNC
NC State
Clemson
FSU
GT
UVA
Wake Forest
The Blue/Gray Game…..haha
Hoobastank, you really don’t listen to that bubble gum, wannabe rock group do you??? Please tell me it ain’t true!!! LOL
Ah, Uuuuba, as someone posted above, whipped Va. Tech last three times.
And believe it or not, on a positve note from today, what it did show me, was Pitt can play with anyone. What I mean by that, is, Pitt isn’t going to get beat by anyone 56 to 3. Which, frankly, I had a fear of today, that it would be some sort of blow out, back to Majors II.
No, not candy coating, horrible loss in the 4th quarter, many adjustments to be made, but, whipping Iowa, in Iowa, and I don’t care if it’s the “Iowa that isn’t any good this year Iowa”, they played fantastic for 3 quarters.
Terrible loss, moved on allready, looking forward to ND, and hopefully Trey Anderson.
Anyhow, you sound like a bitter troll. Pitt just hit the friggin’ jackpot!!! No other way to put it. There are only going to be 4 power, super, whatever word you want to use, conferences, and friggin’ Pitt is in one!!!
Hey, we’re all a little sad with the losses of some rivalries, but, c’mon, Syracuse, Duke, UNC, Maryland, and at many times over the years, Ga.Tech, Wake Forest and NC. State in hoops.
Funny, I’ve gone to many games at College Park, Byrd Stadium, fans have been great. Perhaps it’s the attitude you have. I bet there are very few places you haven’t run into problems, huh???
Football, Va Tech,BC, Maryland, Miami, FSU, Ga. Tech with the option, and occaisionally good programs at Wake, NC St and UVA.
Say what you want, I’d rather be playing Clemson, Florida State and North Carolina than Cincy, USF and something called a Rutgers.
And more to the point, nothing else could be done, except to be one of the 8-10 programs that are gonna be left out of the Big 4, and that wasn’t an option.
Hail to Pitt!!!
How does this hurt NYC recruiting exactly??? Was that you again with that comment uuba?? Too tired to scroll, but, not too tired to type.
I’ll explain this one more time. Pitt got recruits from connections in New York, because of:
1. The connections themselves and the recrutiers, assistant coaches.
2. Pitt played in arguably the best hoops conference in the East the last 10 years. People nationally gave it to the ACC a bit 7-10 years ago, then even for many years, and the BE has had the edge the past couple years. Anyhow, always have been the best two for a long time.
3. Pitt getting vastly improved and becoming a national power.
4. Coach Howland and Coach Dixon.
So, there you have it.
Now, what is going to happen, is the Big East will disolve some more in the coming year, maybe month, maybe next week. WVU, UCONN, maybe Louisville or Rutgers will be exiting stage right.
I would think UCONN and WVU will find new homes for sure if they haven’t allready and just haven’t announced.
So, you are now going to have the BE, become, probably a secondary football/basketball conference, with several national powers gone, or more, OR
they will become a mid-major basketball league. Perhaps the “Catholic League” we’ve all mentioned over the years.
This is no disrespect to them, but, probably will go down one of these two ways.
I believe Coach Dixon will stay, why would he want to go anywhere else??? If he wants to be a player, if that is his issue, he is allready in one of the Big 4. I guess he could spite Pitt and go coach TCU or Loyola, but’s he’s got an ego, and he’ll be as big as ever now.
If he would happen to leave, then it’s up to Pitt to find a new guy, which would be much easier, since they are in one of the Big 4 and have the Pete, and the tradition now.
I digress, he’ll be here.
Now, back to the NYC recruits…… They are going to want to go, where the best hoops are, correct??? The power basketball league, and the all together power league, because you now have a real conference, is now the ACC.
The kids aren’t going to go to a school in the BE nearly as much, their goal will be the ACC.
The BE future, will be, what the Atlantic 10 is now, to the BE.
Even hoop players, want to go to a school that has football, or in the BE case, are involved with schools that have football, they want to be part of the “in” crowd. The ACC will now be, all of the EAST’s “in” league.
You mean, kids from NYC are now going to go to Seton Hall and St. Johns, or Villanova and Rutgers, so they can play Marquette, Providence and Cincinnati.
Or, are the kids going to want to go to Pitt and Syracuse, and play Duke, N. Carolina, Wake Forest and Maryland in the “Big” conference, that is on tv every night and twice on Monday???
This is also going to not only keep NYC, we will now have fertile southern ground to go recruit.
No, other than not playing Villanova and Georgetwon, this is a huge win, win, win for Pitt.
Wouldn’t that be something, if WVU and UCONN were the 15th and 16th members of the ACC. We could have our cake and eat it too!!!!
UUUbba, your posts smell of a troll, at a school who might be, being left out?????
Feel sad about the Big East. ACC probably a good move and nice the ‘cuse is along for the ride, but seems like we could have made it work out with some key additions. Maybe not, but feels like a sad breakup…like a girlfriend who treated you well and you liked her but just didn’t love her. Staring out a window, maybe tears, maybe not, que the “Every time you go away…” song. Damn, I’m getting sad again baby.
Seriously, this is good news for the University as a whole and I’m behind the move to the ACC if it benefits PITT. I don’t follow this kind of news as much as other fans because my emphasis in on the football program and the people involved… and that really isn’t affected by which conference we are in. Not to say I’m not glad – I am because better competition will make the PITT football program better in the long run.
But I can’t help but feel sorry for TCU a little bit here – they got a screw job I think.
Really, in the grand scheme of things, who cares what Jamie Dixon’s opinion on this conference switch is? If Dokish is correct, and he usually is, Dixon’s concern revolves around his not being able to recruit the NY-NJ-Philly area, right? Sorry, but I think that’s pretty self-serving.
Who’s to say he can’t still do that – hell, he just landed a kid from New Zealand didn’t he? There has got to be a lot of kids from that area playing, or who have played, in the ACC.
Finally, Dixon is an employee and we fans have to remind ourselves of that. PITT made the decision to switch conferences because it will benefit PITT in the long run – hopefully for decades. There was no need, or any responsibility to, get Dixon’s approval on this… because his opinion really doesn’t matter on this issue.
Dokish’s thoughts: link to bebballreportpitt.blogspot.com
Congratulations, Pitt. This is a great ending to what otherwise was a deflating weekend.
With the addition of Pitt and Syracuse the ACC strengthens it’s basketball and weakens the Big East’s. It was a smart move for all parties considered.
This is a great move by Pitt. Granted ACC football has not ever been great, but so what? The ACC is not controlled by basketball-only colleges whose interests are at cross purposes to the football schools. It is also a good move for the other sports.
While ACC basketball has been down outside of UNC and Duke, there is no reason to think it will stay that way. Maryland has no excuse not to be a championship caliber team, given its location.
I would have preferred the Numerically Challenged Big 10, as Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Penn State are all close by, but they did not want Pitt, so Pitt did the next best thing.
Let’s not forget that Virginia Tech usually brought big crowds to Pittsburgh for football. This move does not necessarily mean the end of the Backyard Brawl – I think WVU goes to the SEC after the A&M thing gets sorted out.
Pitt now gets a toehold in recruiting in the Washington, DC area for football and basketball, as well as Atlanta and Miami.
The Big East never did what it needed to do – split the basketball schools from the football schools and build the football school conference by adding any number of teams such as Temple, Central Florida, Houston or someone else.
Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida will eventually throw in with the remnants of the Big XII and Conference USA.
Now, let’s see if the ACC does some of the innovative things the Big 10 has done, such as the academic consortium and its own television network.
I also firmly believe that WVU is headed to the SEC. In fact, that may have been what started this. I’m sure that Luck at WVU passed some backchannel info to Pitt/Syracuse.
R.I.P. Big East as a football conference!
1) basketball (and winter/spring sports) in January 2013
2) football (and fall sports) in Fall 2014
Going to be a tough 27 months on the road. Shoe is on the other foot now. Remember how we treated BC, VT, and Miami?
My hope is that the ACC is planning to go to 16 and UCONN and maybe WVU get an invite. Rutgers will probably get an invite to the Big Tenwelve.
Louisville, Cincy and TCU are the big losers here. They really have no chance to get asked to join a “Super” conference. WVU, UCONN and Rutgers are all in good shape – probably a little nervous but they should land on their feet.
As for basketball recruiting, you can now sell kids on being able to go and play Duke and NC, 2 of the top 5 programs in the country.
“Hey Mark (Nordenberg) this is John (Swofford) calling you from N.C. Hope Y’all folks are doing well up there. We were just finishing up our Council of President’s meeting and we all wanted to run something up the flag pole. Would PITT be interested in joining the ACC if an invitation were extended by one of our presidents to you and one other school? You don’t have to answer just yet. Call me tomorrow as I have a few other return calls to make to Morgantown, Storrs, Jersey, Lousville, and Cincinnati to discuss a few things. Please get back to me at YOUR convenience.”
Mark Nordenberg – “Did you say that your were adding two (not 7)?”
Mark Norenberg whispering to Jerry Cochran “Jerry – Didnt WVU and Lousiville say that they had to keep their options open (about the SEC and B12)?”
Done deal! We had no choice. I love the BIG EAST but this one had to be done.
Nice, but I don’t think the ACC would ever be interested in Tier 3 schools like Cincy, Louisville and even WVU. 7 of the ACC schools are ranked in the Top 50 of Academic rankings. Most schools of any one conf. in the Top 50. So they were also beyond sports looking for academic fits.
I will not miss the BIgEast for football at all,
basketball yes….football no.
