Lee, you ignorant slut. Soccer does not suck, and the last time Manchester United played Celtic was in 2002 at Old Trafford in Manchester, with Celtic winning 4-3. Bitch.

Also, in spite of the academics of most of the Big11 schools being over-rated, even THEY can see that Syracuse is not a top academic institution. Syracuse is a playground for whiny Long Island brats who couldn’t get into a real school, but insist on having their parents pay $35,000/year tuition. That way, they don’t look bad at Thanksgiving break when comparing college choices with their HS friends over a few lines of quality Columbian powder cocaine.
That being said, if any school goes from the Big East to the Big11, it will likely be Pitt. Of course, the Big11 will likely not expand unless to admit Notre Dame.

As for whether Penn State sucks more or less than Miami or Virginia Tech, clearly the answer is more. Is this even up for debate? This is one of those “off the table because it has already been decided” issues – Penn State sucks more than any other school in the universe. The only school that comes close is Notre Dame (and it is close, by the way).

Pitt’s old uniforms and colors are better than the new ones. WTF can’t Pitt come out of the tunnels in its old uniforms for like one game a year… you know, like Joe Montana and Notre Dame in the green jerseys… just for us old guys…

Hail to Pitt anyways.

In my first post, I’m going to avoid the temptation of discussing (1) Maurice Clarett (like Herbstreit says, just slap him with the standard NCAA one or two game suspension already), (2) Trev Alberts’s moronic comments regarding Clarett on SportsCenter last night, (3) Ron Jaworski’s immediate rebuttal of said moronic comments (Youngstown State guys apparently still stand by Tressel), and (4) the idiot who put a 12 gauge shotgun blast through a local Target store’s sign last night (yes, he hit the bullseye… I have no idea why I find that so funny… at least he could read the sign) because we have more important business right now. And that is educating whatever readers we have (I’m not convinced that we have any) as to what points our little group has already argued to death and come to some kind of an agreement on.

1. Penn State sucks. Whether Penn State sucks more or less than Miami or Virginia Tech these days is open to argument. But Penn State definitely sucks. And I don’t care if half of my household’s income comes from there.

2. The loss of Miami and Virginia Tech from the Big East Football Conference admittedly means that in a few years, the remaining six conference members may be in danger of losing their automatic bid to the BCS bowls. This is why any idiot (thank you Joe Starkey of the Tribune Review) would argue that it is important for either Pitt, West Virginia, Syracuse, or Boston College to win the Big East Football Conference this year. But beyond that, I have my doubts as to whether the BCS would ever toss the Big East out. The BCS needs the remaining six Big East Football Conference members to maintain its slim majority over the Division I-A membership. Thus, if the Big East were to get tossed out, they’d have to find a new conference to take its place. And marketshare wise, I doubt the Mountain West could compete — as good of a conference as it admittedly is.

3. It is probably in Pitt’s best interest for the Big East to survive the loss of Miami and Virginia Tech and to re-invigorate itself with the addition of several new football playing members. I, being an alumnus of both Pitt (undergraduate) and Ohio State (graduate), would personally like to see Pitt skip off to the Big Ten. But that’s just for my silly little selfish reasons. Even I will admit that Pitt is probably better off in a revitalized Big East than it would be in the Big Ten… as much fun as it would be to see Lloyd Carr have to deal with Larry Fitzgerald…

4. Pitt has the potential to be the Iowa of 2003. We are the dark horse of the NCAA more than anybody else except maybe Auburn. There. As Chas noted below (I still need to learn how to cite, by the way), that’s been done to death. Pitt’s good. Everybody knows. Now shut the hell up. Besides, the Hoopies (local Pittsburghese for people from or related to West Virginia) beat us last year, and they didn’t lose much talent.

5. The American Film Institute is a bunch of idiots. We’ve argued every manufactured list that they’ve ever come out with to the same conclusion. AFI sucks.

6. Soccer sucks. We all agree on that. Glasgow Celtic, in particular, really sucks (beat Manchester United once, fer chrissakes).

7. We personally doubt that the Big Ten will ever expand unless Notre Dame is involved. Everybody said as much at the Big Ten pre-season press conference earlier this month. That being said, I am not at all convinced that if they did expand, they would look at Pitt before Syracuse. Yes, Pitt fits the academic profile of a Big Ten school better. But the Big Ten is already in the Pittsburgh marketplace. New York State is new territory. All I know for sure is that the Hoopies are entirely out of the mix. Being a party school finally caught up with them.

That being said, I’m hoping that it doesn’t come to that and the Big East is revitalized.

8. We’re praying for a @#%*@#! blizzard to hit Pittsburgh on November 29th. Let the Hurricanes finally play in the cold. By the way, I hope that either Syracuse, Boston College, or West Virginia beats the ‘Canes too. And smack Traitor Tech around while you’re at it.

9. Damn. We can’t wait for college football season to start.

Hail to Pitt!

There seem to be some glitches with blogger’s invitation system that has kept the other members of Pitt Sports Blather from signing on. Hopefully, they will be able to get through soon and join in the fun.

Reading this, really, really pisses me off.

A month ago at Big East media day, Commissioner Michael Tranghese said a decision on the matter would be made by early September because it was the conference’s first step toward rebuilding after the loss of Miami and Virginia Tech to the Atlantic Coast Conference. At the time the split was widely thought of as being inevitable.

“I’m not sure that is still the timetable because [a split] is a much more complicated issue than anyone would think,” Long said. “And let me say this split is not a foregone conclusion. The discussions now are more about perhaps the possibility of [the Big East] staying together and all the schools working together to becoming a stronger conference.”

Long did not comment on whether or not he or the university was in favor of a split but said that Pitt’s status as one of the top remaining football programs in the conference gives it a position of strength within the negotiations.

I was heartened when I first read that the Big East was going to do what it had to do. I mean even Smizik in the Post-Gazette can realize it. As soon as the ACC raid started, I was saying this. And I realize, this could merely be posturing and soothing hurt feelings of b-ball only ADs in the Big East, but so what. If they even try to go to some 16 team monstrosity with 8 football/b-ball schools and 8 b-ball only schools it will be the ugliest, worst thing for Pitt.

As it stands now, Pitt has to wait and hope the Big 11 comes calling for Pitt fans to actually feel any real long term hope of the program thriving. Right now, every month brings a new fear that the BCS will push out the Big East and Pitt.

In a statement of the obvious, a column declaring the need for Pitt to win the whole Big East for the good and future of the Big East after this season. Of course, for some, this has been readily apparent for a while.

I’d like to declare that the terms “sleeper” and “dark horse” are no longer applicable to Pitt this football season, after something like the 50th article mentioning them as a possible BCS team.