Okay, football stuff coming later. First a bunch of links to touch on some other topics.

The daily bomb threats on Pitt’s campus last spring should not re-occur. The FBI has their man (sort of). It’s as weird as possible.

A 64-year-old, wheelchair-using Scottish man from Dublin, who already has served a prison sentence for emailing hoax bomb threats, was indicted Wednesday as the person responsible for emailing a series of 40 false bomb threats targeting the University of Pittsburgh during the spring semester.

A federal grand jury in Pittsburgh also charged the suspect, Adam Stuart Busby, with sending emailed bomb threats to federal courthouses in Pittsburgh, Erie and Johnstown and with threatening U.S. Attorney David J. Hickton.

Speaking at a news conference announcing the indictments, Mr. Hickton said Interpol had been alerted to the federal warrant charging Mr. Busby, who currently is in custody in Dublin on a Scottish warrant for similar crimes there. He would not speculate on any timetable for extraditing Mr. Busby from Ireland to face prosecution.

…

According to The Irish Times, Mr. Busby has multiple sclerosis and is a leader of the Scottish National Liberation Army, which seeks independence for his homeland. He recently was released from prison on a 2010 conviction in Ireland for emailing two false bomb threats in 2006 to Heathrow Airport in London. Those threats, which cited specific international flights, claimed to be from the Scottish National Liberation Army, according to the Times.

Since last month Mr. Busby has been held in custody in Dublin on a European Union warrant seeking his extradition to Scotland for additional charges of sending false threats, according to Irish media outlets. He is charged with making hoax threats in 2010, mostly by email to media organizations, that threatened then-British Prime Minister Gordon Brown with a noxious substance, and claimed buildings would be bombed and that the English water supply would be contaminated, Irish news media reported.

The FBI wouldn’t give a reason for why he targeted Pitt for the bomb threats (Editor note: I know this is somehow related to you, McClearn).

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A few links/stories not directly related to Pitt but putting out there.

Northwestern has been Under Armour-ized. It’s not good. It’s not Maryland bad, but in the Big 10 it is radical.

Want to see how a lot of teams will probably (or should) schedule in the ACC when they go to a 9 game schedule? Virginia Tech is a good example.

The 2015 Akron game that was listed on Tech’s website under future schedules has been canceled.

The Hokies’ nonconference schedule in the next few years looks like this:

2013: vs. Alabama in Atlanta, vs. Marshall, vs. Western Carolina

2014: vs. William and Mary, at Ohio State, vs. Western Michigan

2015: vs. Furman, vs. Ohio State, vs. East Carolina

2016: vs. Wisconsin, vs. Liberty, at East Carolina

By being pushed back, the East Carolina series would have one more home-and-home cycle in 2017 and ’18.

The Hokies also are scheduled for a trip to Wisconsin in 2017 to satisfy that home-and-home agreement…

Every year has one marquee non-con. VT relies a little heavy on local 1-AA foes for an extreme patsy for my tastes. The third game isn’t bad. Especially with the always dangerous ECU team out there.

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Maybe it’s because of all the scandal coverage is being devoted to Happy Valley. Maybe it’s because the school already punished itself in related events, including the firing of their head coach and forced resignation of the AD. Maybe it’s because it has been dragging on for some two years. Maybe it is because so many journalists happen to come from this school. Or maybe it’s because nearly two years later we still don’t exactly know who or how many players were part of the huge academic fraud scandal that happened at North Carolina.

Everyone knows about the agent-related scandal at UNC that ultimately cost Butch Davis his job. The other component that came out of the scandal was academic. And it has proven to be a huge infestation of a problem. One that involved an entire academic department and was wide-reaching through all of UNC athletics — though, with an extra emphasis on football.

Willis Brooks and Jay Smith, two UNC-CH history professors who are concerned about the case’s impact on the university’s academic integrity, said the enrollment and pay data suggest Nyang’oro had set up a system for athletes to get into classes they could pass.

“The only logic I can conjure is (Nyang’oro) was protecting seats,” said Brooks, a professor emeritus who served on the faculty athletic committee in the early 1990s. “And since the preponderance of people who took the seats are athletes, there is circumstantial evidence,” he said.

This included a class, “launched two days before the start of a summer 2011 semester and immediately filled with 18 football players and a former player. Academic advisers to the football players knew the class did not meet and only involved a term paper, but still placed the athletes in the classes.”

Newspapers looking into this found irregular classes dating back to 1999.

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Oh, Gilbert. Why? Do you not understand the expectations upon you? You were to be the latest at Pitt to make a stunning leap from your sophomore to junior year. Like Sam Young before you and Aaron Gray before him. It was all lined up for you. Moving to the starting rotation. One of the players expected to be the team leaders. Healthy and knowing it was your chance.

And now? You have put yourself at risk of being Wally Pipped. What happened?

Pitt’s most experienced men’s basketball player will miss the first half of the season on academic suspension.

Redshirt junior Gilbert Brown, who was expected to be the starting small forward for the Panthers, will miss at least the first 11 games after he was suspended from the university last night.

Brown, a 6-foot-6, 200-pound native of Harrisburg who has played in 72 career games for the Panthers, will be eligible to rejoin the team Dec. 20.

Brown has had a team-first attitude that got him the team’s “Coaches Award” after the 2007-08 season. At the end of this season you won the “Academic Excellence Award.” Are you trying to make a mockery of the sanctity that envelops team awards?

Well, it definitely lowers expectations to start the season.

Brown is expected to enroll at the end of the fall term and could be eligible to rejoin the Panthers Dec. 20. In that case, he would miss Pitt’s first 11 games – including the O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic in Kansas City and Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden – but could return in time for the beginning of Big East Conference play.

The 6-foot-6, 200-pound redshirt junior small forward from Harrisburg was expected to play a pivotal role for the Panthers, who lost four starters from their Elite Eight team that finished 31-5. Pitt’s lone returning starter, senior guard Jermaine Dixon, is out until mid-September with a foot injury.

The game against Wichita State was no gimme in the CBE, but it becomes even more difficult to have  a chance at Texas.

What the loss of Brown does, is it opens the door for two players in particular at the spot. Sophomore Nasir Robinson and freshman Lamar Patterson will have more opportunities to play early.

More likely, it means Pitt could go with a 3-guard lineup a lot more frequently. Brad Wanamaker playing as a wing guard, or Pitt could go very small at times up front with a mix of guards Chase Adams, Jermaine Dixon, Travon Woodall and Ashton Gibbs. In some cases extremely small and perimeter based if Adams, Woodall and Gibbs were out there together — spread the floor and get the open 3?

Well, the basketball team this offseason was being too positive I guess. This is a big slap of reality in the face.

Given that Maurice Williams has the potential for the NFL, I have to believe he wouldn’t make it permanent at Edinboro.

When Williams was ruled ineligible for the 2008 season, Pitt confirmed Williams was going to attend summer school there.

“It’s nothing that was a surprise,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt told the Erie Times-News earlier this month. “We’ve had ongoing discussions with Mo this whole semester that he knew what he had to get done academically. I would preface everything by saying he’s the first guy on the football field.

“Never misses a weight workout. Works as hard as we like. The disappointing thing is that he didn’t put the same type of effort and interest in the academic end of it like he addressed the football and weight workouts.”

The school was planning to red-shirt him.

“We will red-shirt him this year and I expect him to be a major player here in the next couple of years,” Wannstedt said earlier this month.

He would still have to sit out the year if he transferred to Edinboro. This appears to be about Williams — an Erie native — taking courses over the summer while being home.

If he was really leaving, I doubt he would be worried so much about taking the summer courses.

The article notes that former Panther Tommie Campbell transferred to Edinboro, but dropped out after a year. He had been suspended for several games because of not going to class.

Yep. More than just rumors about Mo Williams academic issues. He has been declared academically ineligible.

Williams plans to remain on Pitt’s team and take a redshirt season. He would have three seasons of eligibility remaining.

“We believe Maurice can achieve a lot at Pitt, both academically and athletically, and our expectations are for him to use this as motivation for improvement,” Panthers coach Dave Wannstedt said in a statement.

How come Pitt never makes public those kinds of press releases on ther website?

While much of the attention is on the fact that this throws the door wide open for incoming freshman stud Jonathon Baldwin to take Williams spot as the #3 WR/deep threat. It is also more opportunities for T.J. Porter and Cedric McGee to get more chances. Even Dorin Dickerson at TE becomes a more important option.

This is the second M. Williams, that’s a WR in the Big East to have severe academic issues to end his season this week — at least Mo Williams simply struggled rather than being caught cheating (“multiple times”? Really? How many times are you allowed to attempt that at Syracuse?).

Well, looks like a couple players may have some work ahead of them.

Sources tell PSI that two members of the Pitt football team will be fighting an uphill battle to keep their academic eligibility. Fullback Shane Brooks and wide receiver Mo Williams both will need to score “very well” in the classroom this summer if they hope to be apart of the 2008 team.

The reports about Williams started last week, so this is beginning to look like more than just catching up with some classes.

There’s depth at WR, and with Baldwin coming in this year it isn’t a killer. Still Williams looked great in the spring and was a near-lock on the two-deep. Hopefully this turns out to be slightly exaggerated.

As for Shane Brooks, well for the sake of the APR and his own future he needs to pick it up. From a football standpoint, it means little. Conredge Collins is the starting fullback and redshirt freshman Henry Hynoski is waiting. Brooks, a junior, was never looking at major playing time.