The cycle has finally concluded. Yesterday was the official changing of conference affiliations for this year. Louisville entered the ACC. Maryland and Rutgers went to the Big Ten. East Carolina, Tulane and Tulsa go to the American. Conference USA called up some other teams.
There will still be moves. Navy is joining the American in another year. Cinci and UConn will continue to beg the Big XII and any other conference that might have them for a chance. But for now, things have reached a settling point.
So, this may be a bit rambling, but just some of my final thoughts on the whole expansiopocolypse thing.
Maryland and Rutgers will get paid… eventually. I’ll make fun of them along with everyone else. Mainly Maryland rather than Rutgers. I mean really, Rutgers. Of course they took that life preserver rather than stay in the American. So they will be a doormat in the Big Ten in football. Is that really that much worse than being a middling team in the American?
Maryland, well Maryland was so broke and digging out from fiscal messes, they didn’t have much of a choice at that point. The battle with the ACC over their $52 million exit fee will be the lingering aspect of this cycle. This will not go to trial since the Big Ten will put plenty of pressure on Maryland to settle rather than risk anything coming out in court that will damage them.
My personal theory is that Maryland is doing the lawsuit partially to try and get the fees knocked down. But mainly to delay when to pay. They are cash crunched. Since they announced their dedarture, the ACC has been holding their money from TV, bowls and NCAA Tournament shares as offset. Maryland will likely get some help from the Big Ten to help settle this with money taken out of their revenue share in the future.
The Big Ten will make money and insist that Maryland and Rutgers fit. They will also downplay the fan grumbling of dilution even as they see attendance suffer a bit with less than impressive conference games.
The SEC is fine.
Louisville is feeling a lot like Pitt and Cuse did last year. Just so goddammed happy to have made it off the Big East/American mess. Everything else is just a detail to be worked out later.
BYU is finding that whole life as an independent is not what it was cracked up to be. Their football coach is openly lobbying for the Big XII to come calling. It’s not that BYU isn’t making money and getting exposure. It is that they aren’t particularly relevant. That hurts recruiting, and in the long term will hurt their program.
The problem for BYU is that they are a religious institution that will not yield on certain issues within a conference. The biggest hurdle is the logistical mess they create. Specifically, the school’s insistence on keeping Sunday Sabbath. That means all athletic events. From the Big XII Men’s Basketball Conference Championship game to a track competition. They cannot take place on a Sunday. Given how far flung the conference is at this point, they need Sundays for events.
The Big XII already has one program that likes to throw it’s weight around and set the terms. No way does Texas let another school come in and to dictate to the others.
Ultimately, I wouldn’t be surprised to see BYU quietly rejoin the Mountain West within 5 years.
The Big XII is going to wait on any further expansion of their own until they see the longer term effects of the West Virginia experiment. Not simply whether West Virginia can compete in the conference. How they can recruit and what the extra travel does to the given how far they are from the rest of the schools. Most importantly, does West Virginia bring them any added value beyond the needed tenth team?
If the answers aren’t positive, then there will be little impetuous for going to 12. What would USF and/or UCF really add other than extra recruiting trips to Florida? Would Cinci really help their media footprint?
The Big XII in my view will be the lynchpin to the next wave of expansiopocolypse in ten to twelve years. As their Grant of Rights come nearing their expiration date.
That is, assuming college sports landscape hasn’t been changed dramatically after the O’Bannon case.
Oddly enough, my wife’s mom taught Zappa in grade school in Havre de Grace MD.
Happy 4th to all. I hope we all take this day to appreciate living in the greatest country in history!
Love the fourth. Rekindles my faith in this country with local parades and fireworks. Always miss the Burgh fireworks sitting on the hill in Schenely Park.
People in my area are pushing the kids towards State schools. A few years ago everybody in Bergen County, NJ wanted the expensive private colleges; snoby area. At $60M to $70M per year and poor job market has changed all that.
Now find those pass rushers Mr. Douglas!
Pitt Flunky, your daughter must be pretty smart or have a good athletic skill to get that scholarship.
Congratulations, mine has a major debt load after, undergrad and graduate degrees at Pitt. We paid for half the undergrad and she worked but had to borrow most of the rest.
College debt is a major factor holding back the economic growth of this country. Instead of purchasing homes and other consumer goods, our kids are paying interest to the government and banks while the banks get money from the government for practically nothing.
When I got out of school my school loans were the equivalent of a car loan, today they are the equivalent of a substantial home mortgage.
When we were kids a good summer job could make a substantial debt in college expenses. Now, you might be able to pay for your books.
Also, you may want to look out for game with the Hawks (L Patterson) and with the Bucks (Gil Brown)
Nonetheless, Rivals (Pantherlair) removed his name from the commitment list earlier this week while both 247 and Scout (PantherDigest) keeps his name listed.
link to pittsburgh.scout.com
I remember reading in the PG that Zach Challingworth ran a sub 40 and was chastised by Joe D a couple of years ago. So even if you find these times incredulous, the fact is that these people are fast. (Personally, I don’t find much of a difference between a 4.38 and a 4.43)
Had a niece, who grew up in Miami, go to FSU for a year.
She bailed after one year, I remember her always calling it……….
Tallabama!!! LOL
What percentage of uncontested three pointers do you think Pitt sharp shooter Ashton Gibbs could have made? I’m thinking that Slim’s 15 for 24 is probably in the same ballpark — except that Slim is about 6’7 not just 6’2.
Comment by Howard 07.03.14 @ 4:37 pm
Ashton was deadly on uncontested FT’s so I’d say about 65% on uncontested 3’s. If Twiggy can shoot like him and is 6’7″ and growing, he’ll be very tough to guard on the perimeter, especially if he also develops any type of dribble drive moves off a shot fake ala Sam Young.
Comment by wbb 07.03.14 @ 6:18 pm
Yes I do remember Connie Hawkins, who led the Pgh. Pipers to the ABA championship in I think 1968 or ’67 and then they moved to Minneapolis. Sort of an earlier version of Dr. J with the one handed shots/moves/dunks.
And then a couple years later we got the Pgh.Condors led by John Brister. Actually a couple of my friends were Condor ball boys. The Condors were one of the worst teams in ABA history, but at least we had a team. Terrible/underfunded ownership group.
I think Heyman also played in the ABA ?
Pretty amazing considering all the starting pitching injuries/problems/callups.
Bucs have now won 11 of the last 14 games !
The Big Ten, of course, made up for it and grabbed MD and Rutgers. They got themselves a share of two mega metro markets. NYC will always be NYC no matter where all the Conn. and Jersey people move to. Of course, Northern NJ remains a bedroom for NYC. I would love to loose about 1MM up here!
I wish the ACC got it done first. It would have beeen better long range for Pitt, Syracuse, and BC .
ND will never join a conference full time, they don’t have to. It could hurt us not being able to play them every year. Tradition is paramount to a school’s rep.
Enough bullshit from me!
“There’s no philosophy change,” Dixon said. “It is what it is: Grades, character, size, skill. They can all play. I’ve been here 15 years, and we haven’t had guys like that.”
Here’s the link:
On the other hand, one of the star freshman recruits of the alleged high character OSU Coach just got picked up on suspected drug charges.
If this is Pitt’s course … high grades and character, and wins 7-9 games (FB) and makes NCAA tourney every year (BB) … I can deal with it.
Article yesterday said Oklahoma picked up a star wide receiver that had been dropped for Marijuana and other problems by Missouri. Football 1st, character second.
And you can just look at many of the recent Heisman winners to attest to that. Or, you can have a model figurehead (Tebow) surrounded by a team that led the NCAA in arrests over a 4 year period, I guess.
The PSU scandal is the most heinous, but there are plenty of other recent debacles. Should the female population be put at risk as at Vanderbilt, FSU or many others. Do you have an institutional method of keeping kids in school like at North Carolina. Do you just pay kids like they have done at many “winning programs”? Do you ignore NCAA rules like RichRod and many others?
Pitt is probably going to give Randall a second chance and I’m ok with that, but how far do you go?
I don’t know the answer, but I think Chryst and Dixon are on the right track in setting a priority on student-athletes. Unlike say, Kentucky who’s priority has nothing to do with college athletes.
That said, it pays off to lead the clean life of Paul Chryst. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good. This very easily could have been a Pitt headline so let’s not be cocky about the kids we have in tow right now. We have been lucky in some respects and this is one of those times. We would have gladly taken Sprinkles in the 2013 class.
Hopefully Pitt lands an OL or talented WR in the coming weeks. Isn’t there a quiet period right about now?
wbb said it is a quiet time. Although you can never have enough OL or WR, we are pretty deep. We need high quality pass rushers for the future.
Playing really well at Montour, hope it translates in the ACC.
There is a quiet period until next week .. although players can still commit if they wish.
I would like to see a LB or 2, and maybe another DL.
Read the article about Jeter. Am certainly glad that we came to Pitt.
But, who is the writer for the PP-G? Hayes Gardner?
H2P
H2P
Dan….I find it interesting that your niece grew up in the cesspool known as Miami. And while she probably wasn’t aware…but the Tallabama remark is viewed by many as a compliment.
See how that works? Different strokes my friend.
As for me….a former Burger, The idea that I wake up in beautiful weather…..surrounded by hot looking women in every part of this town….where someone in their early 50’s is a senior citizen…where the beach is 45 minutes away….without the traffic, crime, cost of living of that cesspool Miami…..Tallabama is pretty sweet place to live good Sir…….
I especially liked the part about Jeter wanting to leave Vanderbilt because he had a team goal (to win a national championship) that was not shared by his teammates.
I actually think that a national championship is possible, not this year, but in 2 or 3 years. This year’s sophomore class (Jeter, Young, Artis, Jones and Newkirk) is outstanding. And we may also get strong contributions from sharp-shooter Slim and one-and-done Cheik Diallo.
The Old Oaken Bucket??
Oh, the River City Rivalry Trophy, ah, yes.
Military gets the 7th or 8th pick of ACC teams.
Which means another 6-6 type season. Meh
It’s almost like they wrote the story together
No story on Peter Knox yet. Maybe due to the quiet period, no press release, so no so-called journalism.
Were there games at Montour last night? Any updates?
Boyd’s skill set is so huge that if Voytik is capable of simply presenting him the ball, Boyd will take care of the rest. I’ve never seen a true Freshman WR so talented in protecting the incoming pass from the defensive back coverage. In fact, some of Boyd’s most spectacular highlight reel catches were actually balls left up for grabs and/or just off the mark passes that Tyler simply out maneuvered the competition to come down with.
That kind of player comes around very rarely, and he has only scratched the surface of his production potential. I hope that I’m correct on this one because Boyd could provide the “entertainment factor” for Pitt Football this year that Pitt’s PR Dept. could hitch their marketing to so they can put more butts in those bright yellow Heinz Field during a season that lacks those marque teams for our home games this season.
Please start a new thread. You don’t have to write anything of value. Just make it easier on me to see new comments. It takes forever to load this on my phone.
H2P
No further information has been provided
Not really concerned about his numbers, has anyone seen him run???
Does his knee look better, does he look more confident like he’s putting the injury behind him?
Anyone at the games, noticed anything??
Dan, I did read where Uchebo still has a slight limp although his mobility is better than the past season, he still is not 100%
Again … with a grain of salt
