Buried in the news piece about the Big East basketball schedule was something that really bothered me.

The Duke game is tentatively Pitt’s only neutral-site game, but that could change as Pitt officials are working with Duquesne to get the annual City Game moved from the Palumbo Center to Mellon Arena.

If the two sides can reach an agreement on moving the game, it would mark the first time the game was played at a neutral site since 2001. That marked the end of a run of 12 consecutive City Games that were played at Mellon Arena.

Nooooo!!!!

I absolutely hated Pitt games at the Civic Arena. Horribly removed from the action. It literally sucked the life out of basketball games there. Now Pitt wants to bring that atmosphere back even for one game? Don’t they remember how lousy it was?
I get that playing at the Palumbo Center isn’t exactly lucrative for Pitt. That the small gym is cramped and doesn’t produce much revenue for Pitt. It’s good that the school hasn’t gone Penn State and canceled the game or even demanded a 2-for-1. This is just a bad idea.
The Civic Arena creates all sorts of annoyances and inconveniences. From having to figure out the re-accommodating of season ticket holders and the resentments it would cause when the seats suck because of the bad sight lines and detached feel. To the smaller turnout by the students.

Deep breath everyone. It may be a lousy logo replacing a lousy logo, but it is only a secondary logo. For example, that needed replacement of the 1997-era “Pittsburgh” logo and panther head in the Pete that was in the paper today. It’s not like it’s going to be with the new dino-cat. They will just have the block “PITT.” Right?

That’s because a giant tile logo that reads “Pittsburgh,” built at a cost of more than $100,000 into the main lobby floor of the Petersen Events Center, will be torn up and modified under an effort to put the “PITT” back in Pitt athletics.

Jeff Long, the school’s athletic director, yesterday confirmed the planned work this summer inside the 12,500-seat arena, which opened in 2002 and is home to the school’s basketball teams.

He said the Panther head inside the logo also will be updated to a newer, sleeker version announced last month.

Oh, wait. Crap.

It would have been fine with just the big block lettered logo. Clean, simple and uncomplicated. On the bright side, when you go into the Pete, you will at least be able to stomp on that dino-cat to get some of the frustration out of your system.

The Pitt Athletic Department has confirmed the new logo through a press release to the media, an e-mail to Panther Club members, and on the website.

The University of Pittsburgh’s torch-cut Panther head, first unveiled in 1997, is being reintroduced with a sleeker, more polished look. The new mark is the result of the creative efforts of the Pitt Athletic Department and Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC).

I called that they would use the word “sleeker”. By the way, we also know who to blame for coming up with this.

But wait, there’s more of this drivel…

The new Panther head will be a secondary mark for Pitt Athletics. The primary logo will remain the arching block-style PITT, first introduced in 2005. The PITT logo will continue to be the featured mark on the uniforms for each of the University of Pittsburgh’s 19 intercollegiate teams.

“We have been known as Pitt for more than a century and that name and logo will continue to be our primary identity,” Athletic Director Jeff Long said. “After receiving consistent public feedback, we felt the time was right to give our Panther head a more refined, contemporary look and one that is easily reproduced and recognized.”

Merchandise with the “sleeker” Panther will be available in stores beginning July 2. Those of you who can’t wait that long can shop on the Pitt online store which is carrying the new clothing as we speak.

Most people you ask will say any logo choice that the Pitt Athletic Department makes which doesn’t involve changing back to script is a wrong choice. Even if you don’t think that, I’m sure we can all join in saying this is about as bad as it gets.

What we have is a replacement of secondary logo including a “sleeker,” more “modern” look. Yeah, right. Expect to see both of those words in the press release.

Some are calling it “Dinocat 2.0,” others saying it looks like a harmless dog. The topic has six pages (and counting) on the message boards. Chas also wrote about it over at the FanHouse.

I’m moving across town, meaning less computer/blogging time until everything is complete (hopefully soon), and it makes the drive to Heinz Field only about 10 minutes longer. I don’t think this was ever considered as part of the new house:

They’re offered by York Heating and Air Conditioning and come in a variety of NCAA teams. Seriously, they’ll put a logo on anything if it squeezes some cash out of people. Better make sure you order your Furman Paladins air conditioner before they run out.

I look forward to this story in the next alumni e-mail.

A former defensive lineman for the Los Angeles Raiders and the Cleveland Browns pleaded guilty yesterday to helping his live-in girlfriend run a high-end prostitution ring out of his parents’ Monroeville home.

Three other defendants face charges this month in connection with the prostitution and drug ring investigators say was run by the ball player’s girlfriend, Amy Schifano.

After kissing his mother and hustling his parents out of the courtroom, a subdued John Robert “Buck” Buczkowski, 43, stepped forward and pleaded to two counts of promoting prostitution, six counts of possessing and dealing cocaine, and one count each of participating in a corrupt organization, conspiracy, dealing in the proceeds of an illegal activity and illegal use of a cell phone.

He faced a sentence of 43¹/₂ to 87 years had he gone to trial. Instead, he agreed to testify against his co-defendants if they proceed to trial.

After a short-lived career in the NFL, the former Gateway and University of Pittsburgh football star bought the Gold Rush restaurant and bar in Monroeville and ran it with his parents.

The girlfriend seems to have been a real go-getter. She seemed to be the brains and facing the most charges. Buck apparently was the muscle.

I didn’t believe it then, or now. No, not the charges, the claim that this was a high-end prostitution ring. Out of Monroeville? For around $200/appointment? Talk about the affordable prices in Pittsburgh.

This came as no shock to me. I fully expected Pitt to want to fight any attempts to change the Commonwealth’s open records law to include Pitt, Penn State and Temple. Penn State may be out on point on this, and getting the most attention. Pitt is in there as well fighting against it.

In written testimony submitted for Pitt, Paul Supowitz, vice chancellor for governmental relations, said “the public is entitled to know how the university makes use of the funds provided by the commonwealth. However, inclusion in the broadly mandated disclosure requirements of a full open records provision will have very unnecessary and detrimental results for the University of Pittsburgh.”

Pitt and Penn State emphasized concern about their status as competitive research universities. Spanier said Pileggi’s bill would make Pennsylvania’s public research universities less attractive for company partnerships and deals surrounding licensing technology.

Oh, bull-effing-crap. Can they please cite the state that can claim the competitive advantage from a lack of open records that aided university research partnerships with companies? Pennsylvania has one of the weakest and worst open records laws — to go with the historically lack of transparency of government — amongst the 50 states. Lack of state government transparency should not be a competitive advantage.

You know what’s depressing about the hearing, only 3 of the 11 state senators on the committee bothered to show up for it.

The bill falls short of a similar proposal advocated by Mr. Rendell, the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association and others.

True open records law reform must include language that presumes government records are open to the public, testified Teri Henning, chief counsel for the newspaper association.

Senate Bill 1 does not change the presumption that records are closed unless the requester proves otherwise.

“Most state laws, and the federal Freedom of Information Act, begin with the presumption that records in the possession of agencies that relate to public business are public records,” she said.

It’s not even that strong a bill, though, the sponsor of the bill, State Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi is interested in amending the bill to change the presumption.

“Since introducing Senate Bill 1, I’ve heard from many people who believe that the legal presumption should be that a government record is public unless it meets an exception specifically listed in law. That position was also advocated by several of those who testified at today’s public hearing.

“I am now convinced that we should reverse the presumption in Pennsylvania’s law, despite concerns that doing so could lead to an increase in litigation and delay the benefit from strengthening our Open Records Act.

“Reversing the presumption is a major change, and we need to carefully balance the right of citizens to review records with the need for appropriate exceptions to protect legitimate interests. Developing the list of exceptions should involve input from a wide spectrum of interested parties.

“My goal is to work with Sen. Piccola and other members of the Senate, members of the House, Gov. Rendell, the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association and other organizations. I hope to prepare an amendment to Senate Bill 1 which can be offered in the State Government Committee as soon as possible.”

Sorry if this seems off-topic, but the sad fact is that Pitt is just as eager as Penn State to keep the status quo. Pitt may have made the base salaries of its highest paid coaches publicly known, but they are happy to keep Paterno’s and the situation the same. That doesn’t make Pitt better on the issue. It just makes the school a little more savvy about staying directly out of the argument.

Not sure how I missed this the first time I scanned through, but this is a nice little gem.

Strong allegedly broke Sappleton’s two cell phones and Sappleton was pushed to the ground. Medics checked Sappleton and found no abrasions, contusions or swelling relative to the incident.

Strong’s lady friend had two cell phones? For some reason this made me laugh. And yes, this is in fact the most Pitt related news we’ve seen this weekend.

Only 89 days until kickoff.

Darrell Strong didn’t take Memorial Day off from causing trouble.

Strong, 21, of Sunrise, Fla., is accused of damaging the woman’s purse and cell phone during the altercation that began in an apartment and moved to a fast-food restaurant in the Waterfront complex where police were called at 7:55 p.m. Monday, Homestead police Chief Jeffrey DeSimone said.

Of course it’s known that Dave Wannstedt can be harsh with his punishment of players, even for seemingly small offenses.

“After meeting with Darrell, I have decided that he will be subject to internal disciplinary measures effective immediately.”

Thankfully he wasn’t stupid enough to injure her and is was a dispute with some shoving (not like that kind of action should be condoned either) or else we could have another pretty big punishment handed down my Wannstedt.

There are very few fans that would be against a return to the script Pitt and colors from Pitt’s better days. There’s been plenty of discussion about it and I don’t care why we’re not wearing it, whether it be something legal or someone just making an executive decision about it — I just want to see a return to those colors.

Are we going to see that soon? Well, there are some seemingly small changes being made according to Sitting Ringside.

The “PANTHERS” across the chest will be replaced with “PITT” and blue pants will return for the first time since 2003, when they were worn against Virginia Tech.

It seems like we’ll never get to the point where we see the same jerseys that we wore against Youngstown State in that throwback game. Thankfully I picked mine up in that auction of the game-used jerseys because we might never see them on a Pitt team regularly for a while.