The Big East schedule is sort of known — at least home and away part. The non-con is mostly complete with the Philly challenge the usual City Game, the Big East/SEC game at Tennessee.

Heck, now we even know that one of the exhibition games will be with Kentucky… Wesleyan College.

In addition, Pittsburgh Coach Jamie Dixon (a California Native) and KWC Coach Todd Lee (a former assistant at UC-Irvine) have worked out a deal to have the Pitt Panthers square off against the KWC Panthers.

It will be Panther on Panther action. KWC is a D-2 school and apparently thinking about dropping to D-3.

The one gap in Pitt’s schedule is in December. Coach Dixon likes to get at least one game each year in Madison Square Garden. Since Pitt has St. John’s at the Pete and no non-con tournaments in MSG, that means trying to schedule one. It hasn’t happened yet.

Pitt may reportedly be eyeing a spot at the Garden on Dec. 10 as part of a doubleheader with the Duke-Washington game. I reported in Feb. 27 that Pitt-Duke were expected to play at the Garden in December — it was virtually a done deal — but it fell through.

Michigan State has been mentioned as a possible opponent, but that is looking less likely to happen.

It’s hard to imagine opposing teams wouldn’t want the exposure and atmosphere of a nationally televised game against Pitt at the Garden. But, according to Dixon, they are hardly lining up for the game.

Pitt has played a non-conference game in the NYC metro area each of the past four seasons, including Texas and Maryland last year in the Coaches vs. Cancer event, which the Panthers won at the Garden.

A game at MSG would also boost Pitt’s non-conference schedule. The only BCS non-conference opponent so far this season is at Tennessee on Dec. 3 as part of the Big East-SEC Challenge.

While Pitt has had averaged one of the ten toughest non-con schedules over the last 4 years (Insider subs), 2011-12 is not looking that strong. Oh, it won’t be pathetic thanks to Coach Dixon being smart enough to avoid playing sub-200 RPI teams, but Tennessee won’t be that good and nothing really stands out.

At this point, the elite names are likely out (MSU, UNC, Ky…). It’s also unlikely any team on the West Coast really wants to come all the way to MSG this late (UCLA, Arizona, Gonzaga).

They need some team with quality and at least a decent name recognition. Hopefully a team like Xavier, Mississippi St. or K-State could be persuaded. Or if really desperate, maybe even Penn State.