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!
