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September 3, 2015

Oh, ACC. I know the transition has been difficult for the last decade plus. To go from a basketball-centric conference to… well, slightly less of a basketball-centric conference.

Trust me. we get it. After the time spent in the Big East, we Pitt fans understand that there can be a slight incomprehension echoing in the conference offices about staying focused on football season.

Still, to release all the ACC college basketball schedules in the afternoon, the day before college football kicks off the season? Not a week ago or two weeks. Just some 30 hours before a game involving one of the teams from your own conference kicks off the season. That is some Big East level idiocy.

I’m not going to go any further. Here’s the PDF of the full ACC scheduling in basketball.

Here is just Pitt. PDF version.

More about this later when I take some time to look a little closer at things. In the meantime, college football season is only hours away.





LOL…Chas, you just gotta laugh about it.

Comment by Griogar 09.03.15 @ 7:41 am

It is almost like the BBall folks want to compete with Football for attention. Well it is the ACC.

Comment by gc 09.03.15 @ 8:59 am

What’s even more funny is Swofford, aggressive to the point of obnoxious on conference expansion, can’t seem to get it together to create an all-ACC network.

The long article on Triblive.com says essentially…nothing.

Isn’t there a relative of Swofford’s making money from the current arrangement??

link to triblive.com

Comment by Tony77019 09.03.15 @ 10:19 am

Realistically I see a miminum of 17 losses in this schedule. Not counting Duquesne.

Comment by Dan 72 09.03.15 @ 10:24 am

The ACC released the basketball schedule in about the same way as Pederson announced Pitt was wearing script that week.

Comment by Joey T 09.03.15 @ 10:53 am

The ACC has the largest population audience of any conference yet we do not have a dedicated Channel. Is he waiting on ND to join in FB?

Comment by Frank MD 09.03.15 @ 10:58 am

He is waiting for the deal with Raycom to expire.

Comment by Nick 09.03.15 @ 11:01 am

Frank MD. there is difference between population and actual audience. For example, NYC, Boston, Washington and Philly are among the largest cities yet they are mostly NFL cities, as is Pittsburgh. As a whole, Boston is very indifferent about DC, as is NYC about Syracuse or Rutgers, Philly about Temple, DC about Maryland, and Pgh about Pitt.

Comment by wbb 09.03.15 @ 11:13 am

.. Boston is indifferent about “BC”

Comment by wbb 09.03.15 @ 11:14 am

I see about 19-22 wins on there. Depending on the timing of the big wins and bad losses we have a decent/average shot at the tourney.

How are the Zags looking this year? ANY chance we can beat them? That would be a great win for perception.

Comment by tacocat 09.03.15 @ 11:19 am

if healthy, I would think that Pitt would have a good chance vs the Zags since they have a lot of experience returning .. which means a great deal in early games. I should say, however, I have no idea what Gonzaga has returning.

Comment by wbb 09.03.15 @ 11:48 am

@Comment by wbb 09.03.15 @ 11:14 am

BC is probably unlike every other school in the country. The hockey team outdraws in the football team (in terms of capacity) and the basketball team (#s and capacity).

Haha, indifferent might be the perfect word… they don’t even register.

Despite being the city’s namesake university, they aren’t even second or third fiddle in their own town. They aren’t even in the band.

Nobody cares about BC unless they went there. And given that their enrollment numbers are lower than Harvard, Northeastern, BU, and UMass….

and the fact that there are quite literally hundreds of prestigious small colleges and universities sprinkled around Boston and New England…

And the fact that the Pats, Sox, and Bruins all have fanatical, cult-like followings..

They have no chance. Even the alumni could care less.

Comment by BostonsCommon 09.03.15 @ 12:00 pm

I went to the Pitt BC hoops game a couple years back… I could have sat anywhere. Couldn’t have been more than 1,200 people in that old gym.

Nobody is driving out to Chestnut Hill for anything unless they live there.

Comment by BostonsCommon 09.03.15 @ 12:03 pm

Swofford quote
“Just within our footprint, the ACC will have the most television households and highest population of any conference nationally,” Swofford said. “It is also projected that by 2030, 55 percent of the U.S. population will lie within the Northeast and Southern states – prime ACC territory. The combination of our marketplace opportunities, along with the population numbers both current and projected, give the ACC enormous potential in both the near and distant future.”

Swofford said the conference is still exploring the viability of an ACC Channel when it comes to the broadcast and distribution of future ACC events.

Comment by Frank MD 09.03.15 @ 12:53 pm

Frank MD, there is no doubt that being in a highly populated area is beneficial … I’m not arguing that. However, the percentage of households interested in viewing your product also mattered.

If a city has 10M households but only 5% watching, is comparable to a 2M households with 25% watching.

For example, viewership of college FB in Columbus OH which I believe is now Ohio’s most populated city is much higher percentage wise than Pgh will ever see.

Comment by wbb 09.03.15 @ 1:13 pm

There is zero chance of an all-ACC network. Zero.

A couple weeks ago two events happened. The first was that Verizon announced a cable package that allows consumers to pick small groups channels. This was quickly followed by other cable companies announcing that they are exploring mini-packs of channels. The reason they are exploring these options are folks are slowly moving away from traditional cable packages and watching programming from Netflix, Hulu, Amazon or off of their Chromecast/Roku devices. A la carte TV is coming or cable providers will devolve to internet-only providers. Folks have too many internet programming options to justify paying for 250 channels of which you may watch 10 on a regular basis.

The second thing that happened was the Disney earnings call. Disney basically fired a shot across the bow of cable providers that said you either keep ESPN on all of your cable packages or we will go internet only. It isn’t much of a stretch for ESPN to do so as ESPN3 is basically there.

With the trend of consumers shedding channels vs. increasing channels I think that the addition of an ACC channel would be akin to starting a factory to make pay phones. To put it another way, my boss went to Texas and couldn’t wait to get the Longhorn Network. I asked him how that’s working out for him. His reply, “I’m sure girls diving is a fine sport but I really not interested in watching the dramatic 2013 meet against Tech at 2AM on a Tuesday.”

Comment by Yeti 09.03.15 @ 1:31 pm

I see a bubble team when I look at the schedule. I’d love to see more wins but just don’t know what we’re going to look like. I don’t see 17 losses though. That’s depressing Dan…I sure hope you’re not right.

Comment by The Hagen 09.03.15 @ 1:55 pm

Much ado about nothing …

Sam Werner ? @SWernerPG
Just spoke with #Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi, who “guaranteed” LT Adam Bisnowaty will be good to go on Saturday.

Comment by wbb 09.03.15 @ 1:56 pm

I remember that hoops game at BC. I texted my bro that it looked like a Pitt women’s home game

Comment by Nick 09.03.15 @ 1:57 pm

it’s tough being a college sports’ team in a pro city .. as if we didn’t know

Comment by wbb 09.03.15 @ 2:01 pm

wbb – I think all things considered, Pitt does pretty well.

After 30 years of mediocrity and incompetence, playing games in an off campus rent-a-stadium, in city/county with more State school alumni, in a Pro Sports town that also has world class cultural options…

After all that, Pitt still has not hit rock bottom. Averaging 45K crowds, and bumping into the 50s when even a remotely decent team with modest expectations takes the field… If that’s rock bottom. Well, they’re doing alright.

This town will support a winner, and show up to watch a winner. That’s the bottom line.

Comment by BostonsCommon 09.03.15 @ 2:26 pm

as little as 5 years ago (2008 thru 2010) Pitt averaged about 60,000 per game .. at least in ticket sales. If we can maintain that, it would be pretty good.

Comment by wbb 09.03.15 @ 2:55 pm

my bad … Pitt averaged 50,000 in 08, 54k in 09, and 51k in 010. Best attendance ever was 03 with nearly 60k average — 9th ranked pre-season and home games with ND, Miami and Va Tech certainly helped.

Comment by wbb 09.03.15 @ 3:02 pm

Pitt will win 25 games this season.

Comment by pitt1972 09.03.15 @ 3:13 pm

check this out .. pretty cool

link to twitter.com

Comment by wbb 09.03.15 @ 3:18 pm

For the sake of comparison, Ga Tech is on their best run since winning a share of the National Championship in 1990, 25 years ago, with 4 Coastal Championships since Paul Johnson took over, and they averaged 48k last year at the 55k seat Bobby Dodd.

I don’t know what reasonable expectations should be for a good Pitt football team. A good team, challenging for Coastal titles… 55-60k, with sellouts for name opponents and high stakes games?

Comment by BostonsCommon 09.03.15 @ 3:18 pm

@@@@@@

Release date of BB schedule is unimportant. Just very
very thankful we landed in a great conference!!!!!!

Comment by JR 09.03.15 @ 3:22 pm

Good is 50k So why do we need a 70k Heinz? With exception of BIG games like ND and Pedo State.
Typical avg more like 35-40k of actual fans in the seats. Build a 45k stadium expandable to 52k. Marquee games schedule at Heinz. We are a private school sharing the spotlight with a PRO team in town. Not like we’re the only football team within a 200 sq mile radius.

Comment by TX Panther 09.03.15 @ 5:01 pm

BB team should win 20 games given its cupcake OOC schedule. I figure we go 500 in conference play. NIT bound.

Comment by TX Panther 09.03.15 @ 5:02 pm

Basketball heads still rule the ACC. Football is an afterthought with some of the elites but more power brokers are realizing good football can help pay the basketball bills.

Comment by TX Panther 09.03.15 @ 5:04 pm

I guess we have to root for NC today over SC. On TV now.

Comment by Frank MD 09.03.15 @ 5:14 pm

Last year Pitt had 19 wins.

Here are the departures & incoming players:

link to en.wikipedia.org

If Pitt wins over 20 games let alone 25, Dixon is one superb coach….

BTW, Damon Wilson is a PG and by far the best of this lot coming in…..and I think we all know who’s going to get the bulk of minutes at PG this year.

Comment by Jackagain 09.03.15 @ 5:35 pm

If you win they will come. Watching preseason shows Phaoah Cooper was talked a lot about and from what I’ve seen Biyd is way better. So much for the local talent not being as good as th south. I hope UNC beats USC as another win for the ACC over the SEC will go overlooked, and you have to judge a conf as a whole not just at the top.

Comment by Steve h 09.03.15 @ 6:22 pm

^^^^Boyd

Comment by Steve h 09.03.15 @ 6:23 pm

ESPN scoreboard using the Script but still using Pittsburgh name

Comment by Frank MD 09.03.15 @ 6:46 pm

NC looks pretty athletic on both sides of the ball.

Comment by htp123 09.03.15 @ 7:10 pm

Matt House’s D looks impressive in his debut at FIU as they beat UCF 15-14 Go figure

Comment by wbb 09.03.15 @ 8:34 pm

Not terribly surprised that FIU’s D looked impressive. If it’s true that we learn from our mistakes, then House could have gotten his PHD in his 2 years at Pitt.

Comment by dinosaur 71 09.03.15 @ 8:58 pm

Jackagain, I’m looking at the departures and maybe two of those players were contributors. The new arrivals (which is missing Milligan) are all viable players and fill the needs of last year’s team (centers, shooters). Six new bodies, there is no way Dixon and the staff wiffed on all of them.

At what point did the football negativity start to the affect basketball?

Comment by tacocat 09.03.15 @ 8:58 pm

Taco…look where these guys transfered from. Oh…and I forgot to mention that Pitt has a harder BB schedule this year.

Comment by Jackagain 09.03.15 @ 9:30 pm

Attendance figures are squishy.

Are we going by tickets sold or butts in the seats? 50,000 butts in the seats is great. 50,000 tickets sold with 25,000 butts in the seats, not so much. I think we need report tickets sold.

Need to figure out how to get the butts in the seats and count them. That will measure the true success of the marketing department.

Not in bball mode….yet! Bill Self quoted today as saying Chieck Diello will qualify shortly. That is important since Damon Wilson went to the same school. Self also said that they waited for other players from the same high school to go through the process so that they could answer questions differently. Interesting take.

Comment by dhuffdaddy 09.03.15 @ 9:37 pm

So, I’m watching TCU/MN and the ticker scrolling at the bottom of the screen is showing Saturday’s games when I see a glorious thing … the ESPN ticker is using the PITT Script. Our identity has been returned.

Comment by Tossing Thabeets 09.03.15 @ 11:03 pm

Jackagain – addition by subtraction. This team is leaps and bounds better than last year’s with the new additions. Pitt, barring injury, will be in the tourney and comfortably.

Comment by Tossing Thabeets 09.03.15 @ 11:06 pm

@wbb

I’d like to think Conklin left him such a well oiled, disciplined, football smart D, that even House couldn’t F it up. But yeah, go figure. Held UCF, a team that was in a BCS bowl a couple years ago, to under 300 yds. 46 rushing.

Watching Minnesota TCU now. Larry Coker, who if anyone is a Seinfeld fan, looks like Stan the Caddy, is giving Rich Rod all he can handle.

So glad college football is back, so much better than the NFL. If it wasn’t for fantasy football, I’d pay even less attention than I do to the NFL…

Comment by Pap76 09.03.15 @ 11:27 pm

There’s been some questioning as to why not even the slightest mention of the name “Grimm” with all of the Re-shuffling going on with the O-Line.

Unless he’s MAGICALLY transformed himself since Spring… his PERCENT BODY FAT is still OFF THE CHARTS.

At this point, the name Grimm is much more likely to be mentioned in the same sentence as “Bust” than it is with “Starter.”

Comment by PittofDreams 09.03.15 @ 11:28 pm

I can see close to 20 wins but sub 500 in the ACC

Comment by Chick 09.04.15 @ 6:56 am

@Chick–I see no reason why this team should finish below 0.500 in ACC barring the loss for the season to injury of several key players.

Last season was an anomaly mainly due to inadequate post defense and rebounding. The ACC record should be similar to the year before last’s 11-7 (i.e. between 10-8 and 12-6). And OOC we probably win about 11.

Comment by pitt1972 09.04.15 @ 1:52 pm

TT, before ya get too enthusiastic, read this:
link to triblive.com

Comment by Jackagain 09.04.15 @ 4:49 pm

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