In something of a surprise the Trav’on Chapman case has resulted in some real jail time stemming from a guilty plea.

Former Kent Roosevelt star quarterback and University of Pittsburgh freshman Tra’Von Chapman pled guilty to a charge of attempted assault on Monday afternoon in Portage County Municipal Court.

Judge Barbara Oswick accepted the plea and ordered Chapman to spend three days in jail, pay a $200 fine, 40 hours of community service and must report to adult probation Aug. 2. Judge also issued a no-contact order, which prohibits Chapman from speaking to the victim or her family.

“Attempted assault” is a class 4 misdemeanor — the lowest classification for misdemeanors in Ohio. That’s why I was surprised a first-time offender would get any jail time. Technically the the judge can order jail time but it is also for no more than 30 days under the Ohio Revised Code (Sec. 2929.24(A)(4)). But, according to the stories, Chapman was sentenced to 90 days with 87 suspended.

Of course, Chapman was also ordered to fulfill 40 hours of community service and it seems the court suspended 20 of that by his working 20 hours with his old high school football team this summer. So, yeah. I really shouldn’t think too much about the details of the sentencing.

(more…)

If it wasn’t for live sports, I’d probably be a cord cutter. It isn’t that I dislike stuff on TV. Far from it. I watch plenty. It’s just that it is all time-shifted and when I get around to it. I’m not overly concerned about being at the water-cooler discussing last night’s Archer.There’s stuff over 2 years old on my DVR that I still haven’t gotten around to watching (no spoilers for the season/series finale of Awake, please). So between on-demand subscription services and the ever-dropping prices of series on DVDs, the wife and I could easily save money and drop DirecTV. But for sports.

People like me are the reason those rights fees keep rising. It is mostly immune to time-shifting which means sitting through ads, promos and everything else. In light of the recent spate of new rights deals for college sports programming. Along with the new FoxSports1 and their negotiations for carriage. Well it means cable/satellite TV rates keep going up.

(more…)

Okay, time for links I just found interesting. Some related to Pitt. Some just about college football generally. Some of it stuff to put in the back of your mind for later:

Mike Morgan, a former Panther O-lineman is now the headcoach at Plum High School. He had been on Terry Smith’s staff at Gateway. He’s got work to do.

Morgan faces a major rebuilding job. Plum, which plays in the WPIAL’s ultra-competitive Class AAAA Southeastern Conference, has not won a game in nearly two years. The Mustangs will enter the season on a 16-game losing streak. Their previous win came against Kittanning in the second game of the 2011 season. A season ago, the Mustangs scored only 69 points and lost all but one of their games by at least 28 points.

Yeesh. Good luck, dude.

(more…)

One last thing on Friday.

A pretty good interview with Paul Chryst on the David Glenn Show (down in ACC country). About 7 minutes long. Chryst comes off less, um, taciturn.

On the other hand, there is this Tumblr that amuses… well, me.

Enjoy the weekend.

Rori Blair, a DE from Upper Saint Clair, announced that he has given his verbal commitment to Pitt today. Blair is not properly rated by the recruiting services because he did not play his senior year and was granted an extra year to finish high school. He’s a very unique person and player. The reason?

(more…)

Kept meaning to note that Daeysean Rippy has decided to transfer to Colorado. He may never be heard from again, but it’s a good choice if you want to get out on the field because there just isn’t much talent already in place to stand in front of you. Good luck.

Also, Chavas Rawlins. The one time WVU early enrollee who decided to transfer after realizing he would never get a chance to play QB there, because WVU like every where else really wanted him on defense. While he was apparently desirous of going to Pitt, it didn’t happen. Whether because WVU blocked him or because Pitt also would only take him as a defensive back it isn’t clear.

But he finally found a program that will let him play QB: Duquesne.

Good luck.

The new Big East better be wildly successful beyond expectations. And quickly. They already know that the ACC is gunning for NYC.

Don’t forget the Big Ten.

“Make no mistake about it: We’re going to be out there with events and with press opportunities, and we’re going to work hard to build relationships and friendships,” Delany said. “We know it’s a competitive area for everything, and so we won’t dominate anything, but we want to be relevant for years to come.”

That means, as he told The Star-Ledger Thursday, that “everything is on the table” — even the Big Ten football kickoff, an annual event that attracts thousands of fans at $100 a pop for a luncheon and autograph session with coaches and players.

That one has a long history here and won’t move any time soon. But the Big Ten basketball tip-off? The postseason hoops tournament? All of that could be coming to a hotel ballroom or an arena in the New York area, sooner than later, because Delany wants to conquer the media capital of the world.

The ACC would do well to force its way into MSG or Barclays soon. Better to be battling the Big 10 from a position inside than trying to vie with them for the spot.

Last ACC Media Days tie-in. Time to clear the links for all Pitt related stuff.

NFL.com’s draft guy thinks Pitt and Syracuse will see their recruiting improve now that they have access to the South.

While adding Pitt and Syracuse has helped expand the ACC’s geographic footprint in the Northeast, the move to the ACC should help the recruiting efforts of Pitt and Syracuse, especially in the Southeast. The Big East was a Northeast-centric league, with only Louisville and USF located in the Southeast. Kentucky, though, produces barely of handful of top-level recruits annually. Now, Syracuse and Pitt will venture outside the Northeast for the vast majority of their game.

As for the importance of recruiting Florida and Georgia, 11 of the 25 players on the preseason All-ACC team are from those two states. It’s hard to see Pitt and Syracuse grabbing top-tier prospects from Florida and Georgia, but schools can win a lot of games with second-tier guys from those states.

Of course, Pitt kind of needs someone who can recruit those areas to get those kids, beyond just one or two.

(more…)

Nearing the end of the ACC Media Days info posts/dumps. Dave Teel is one of the best ACC beat writers out there. Just does more than simply cover VT and UVa. He covers the ACC. Teel should be on the reading list at least a couple times a week.

His notes following the Media Days are just loaded.

The drumbeat to NYC for the ACC Basketball Tournament continues:

“When you have the footprint we now have, and you have Syracuse, and then you have the relationship with the Yankees and the Pinstripe Bowl … there are natural tie-ins there,” Swofford said. “Obviously Fox wanted exposure, we wanted exposure, in the New York area. It’s worked out really well.”

Over breakfast Monday, Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage told me he expected decisions on future ACC basketball tournaments at October’s annual fall meetings or shortly thereafter. He and other U.Va. administrators have advocated a long look at New York, home to the Knicks’ Madison Square Garden Nets’ Barclays Center.

Both arenas are presently occupied for postseason, the Garden by the Big East, Barclays by the Newport News-based Atlantic 10. Terms of the Big East’s deal are uncertain, Swofford said, while the A-10 is contracted at Barclays for the next four seasons.

Both arenas figure to require a multi-year commitment from the ACC, which is set to stage its 2014 and ’15 tournaments in Greensboro. Swofford said such an agreement is possible, and while ACC coaches prefer the more hallowed Garden and nearby Times Square, he made clear Barclays in Brooklyn is very much in play.

“From everything we can gather talking to people in and around New York, Brooklyn generally speaking is very trendy, very hot and attractive right now,” Swofford said, “and only is projected to become more so, and part of that is related to Barclays Center.

“There’s a subway stop that empties right at the building itself. There are projected hotels and so forth to be built, restaurants.”

I mentioned to Swofford the positive vibe downtown venues such as Charlotte and Washington, D.C., provide, in direct contrast to Greensboro.

“That kind of situation is appealing,” he said. “You do see it in Charlotte with our football championship game or our basketball tournament. My favorite Final Four cities are the cities where you can walk. You check into the hotel and you walk to the arena, restaurants, whether it’s San Antonio, New Orleans, Indianapolis, Atlanta.”

At this point, about the only ACC people that want to keep the ACC Tournament in Greensboro are probably just the ADs and college presidents at schools in North Carolina. While the ACC Tournament has never gone more than a year away for Greensboro, that is definitely changing.

(more…)

The trickle of non-con scheduling continues. As part of the Legends Classic that Pitt will play at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, they will also get a couple home games that are ostensibly part of the tournament. One of those teams will be Lehigh.

Lehigh University’s men’s basketball team was chosen to be a part of the 2013 Legends Classic and will play road games against the University of Houston on Nov. 17 and University of Pittsburgh on Nov. 20.

Last year Pitt played Lehigh at the Pete as part of the NIT Season Tip-Off, and it went so well they decided to do it again. The game actually gets some national run as it will be aired on ESPNU that Wednesday. Giving Pitt a chance to get to .500 against the Mountain Hawks.

In a previous post I said there were a couple themes running through every major conference media day. The other theme was the idea of the major conferences sort of splitting off from the rest of the 1-A.

They wouldn’t leave the NCAA. Oh, heavens no. They want that protection. They want to give their fans, media, and the courts that pinata to pin all the blame on when trouble hits. But they want to have a different division that appreciates their unique status.

Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner John Swofford said Monday the next six months are “very important” to the future of the NCAA and predicted that significant structural and governance changes could be implemented at the governing body’s annual convention in January.

Among the changes up for discussion would be the formation of a so-called “super division” that would allow athletic departments with high-revenue football programs to make some of their own rules and implement things like athlete stipends. Many of those initiatives have been blocked by lower-revenue programs, which make up the majority of the NCAA.

This echoes the comments from Mike Slive of the SEC and Bob Bowlsby at the Big 12.

(more…)

The ACC announced its all-ACC Preseason team. Only Safety Jason Hendricks made the team from Pitt. Florida State led the conference with six players.

The ACC doesn’t have multiple all-ACC squads. Instead they list the top-4 vote getters for each position — along with their total number of votes. Defensive Tackle Aaron Donald just missed making the All-ACC. Only one other Pitt player made the top-4, and it was not WR Devin Street. Punter Matt Yoklic finished third.

It’s not terribly surprising that Pitt didn’t place many players. Aside from the obvious questions of talent, the ACC media as a whole is not exactly familiar with Pitt (or Syracuse which didn’t place a player).

If you have been following assorted major conference media days there have been a couple themes that have come up at each one from the conference level. One of them is the new penalties and mechanisms for review of targeting penalties.

The new penalties were announced back in March, but the details were still being worked out.

The NCAA on Thursday announced that the playing rules oversight panel approved a new rule that would allow officials to eject players who target and contact defenseless players above the shoulders, effective for the 2013 season.

The ejection would be in addition to the existing 15-yard penalty.

Under Wednesday’s decision, players would be ejected for the remainder of the game if the penalty occurs in the first half. If the foul occurs in the second half or overtime, the player is ejected for the remainder of the game and the first half of the next contest. The ejection portion of the penalty can be subject to a video review.

Officiating crews for every conference have been getting instructed on this, along with the video review. Now the media (and some coaches) are getting their information.

(more…)

Specifically a season opening big win.

We are all excited for this first season in the ACC. Just as we are all very excited for the first game. A Labor Day night game with all the bells and whistles at home against a top team like Florida State. Visions dance in our heads of a big-time atmosphere. Lots of electricity in the air. Pitt riding the continuity of having the same head coach for more than one year and just putting a heroic effort in to defeat the Seminoles.

Just one nagging question.

When was the last time Pitt did that in a season or home opener?

We all know the disappointments and stunners to start a year. Dave Wannstedt offered us ND and Bowling Green. Last year we had the Youngstown State debacle.

Going to toss this out to everyone, because I just don’t have a good answer. I have trouble going with the 2006 pounding of Virginia since the Cavs were 5-7 that year, but that might be the closest thing in the last 20 years.

Is it the almost upset of Texas in 1994 under Johnny Majors? Is that too much of a reach? Whipping Hoopies in Morgantown under Paul Hackett  in 1991?

I know it’s a small sample size, simply because Pitt — like most of college football — rarely starts the season off with a bang. Still, I can’t find much before 1976 and beating Notre Dame in South Bend to start the national championship season.

I won’t kid you. Chryst didn’t exactly reveal much. If you watched his public appearances, he is still maintaining that the QB position is still wide open and that both Savage and Voytik will get equal opportunities. He said that in the spring as well, but it was readily apparent who was getting most of the first team snaps. During smaller interviews there was still nothing. He was quoted as saying: “I’m pretty comfortable with anyone between 5’9″ and 6’6″”

On the ESPNU interview he was asked about the Rushel Shell departure and then the attempt to return to the program late. To no one’s surprise Chryst completely avoided answering that question. About the most he said is that people make decisions and everyone needs to move on.

During his ACC presser, as Chryst drained the energy from the reporters the moderator tried to keep it going for the allotted 15 minutes by asking him to talk about the running back depth chart. His exact words were, “talk about what’s left.” There’s your motivation, Isaac Bennett. You are what’s left.

(more…)