Conference USA, resigned to the fact that it will lose it’s 4 best basketball programs (and 3 of its 4 best football programs) to the Big East — Louisville, Cincinnati, DePaul, Marquette, and probably South Florida — is doing its own raiding.

Rice, Southern Methodist and Tulsa will leave the Western Athletic Conference to join Conference USA, presidents from two of the schools said Friday.

This is being done (1) to keep TCU from leaving for the Mountain West, and (2) so these schools can play more central time zone games.

Marshall appears to be poised for an invitation as well.

For Pitt and the short term, this is a good thing.

I think it is clear that Pitt will be in the Big East for at least 3-5 more years. (Even if the Big 11 does expand and invites Pitt, it will take some time before it all happens.) In this time period, the BCS will expand and change — the Big East will lose its automatic bid, but there will be an at-large bid specifically reserved for some of the other conferences. This is the best that can be hoped for right now, and it may for a while placate some of the non-BCS conferences.

The way I’d like to see the other BCS bid be offered is to just a few conferences — say Big East, Mountain West, and maybe C-USA or the MAC. Ideally, TCU would still leave for Mountain West, effectively cutting C-USA completely out of the BCS picture. Like I said, I’m looking at making the best of a bad situation.

OF course one thing Pitt has to do, is up it’s non-conference cupcake schedule. The problem is, that Pitt is working at a tier of just above a mid-major. Good luck in getting the schools from the BCS conferences to play home-and-home games.

Therefore, looking at this scenario, the best way to do it is to play teams in a similar position — some of the good Mountain West teams — BYU, Utah, Air Force and Colorado St.

This is something Pitt has to be doing right now in working out the schedule. Play real competition.

FOXSports.com/Sporting News columnist Trey Luerssen blasted the Big Ten’s 11 team structure in a scathing piece yesterday.

It [October 18] was supposed to be a day the Big Ten race became a little clearer. Instead, the only thing clear was that the Big Ten is a mess. Once again, the dinosaur of the BCS could make it through the season with co-champions that never play each other.

We’ve seen this before from the league that can’t count, the conference with 11 teams that says it has 10. Last season, Iowa and Ohio State made it through their respective conference schedules unscathed. Did the two teams play each other? No…

Big Ten teams can’t play all of the other conference teams each year. There are too many. Yet, there are not enough. The league could solve its problems by adding a 12th team, allowing the Big Ten to play a conference championship game. That hasn’t happened. Whether the conference is holding out hope that Notre Dame joins, or it is just clueless, it does a disservice to the schools, fans and most important the players and coaches who aren’t allowed to settle matters on the field.

The Big 12 and SEC have championship games. It works so well that the ACC wanted a championship game so much, it opened itself up to the scorn of the entire Northeast and the court system…

After Saturday’s action, two Big Ten teams remain unbeaten in conference play. Purdue, which defeated Wisconsin, and Michigan State, which beat Minnesota, sit atop the conference standings without a loss. Here’s a shock: The Spartans and the Boilermakers don’t play each other this year.

Right behind Purdue and Michigan State sit Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio State. All have one loss. The Buckeyes already lost to Wisconsin, and of course they play rival Michigan. But guess what? That’s right, Wisconsin and Michigan don’t play…

This is what we know: Until these leagues [Big Ten and PAC-10] are brought into the 21st century, the Big 12, SEC and ACC will be stronger, more exciting leagues to watch and play in. That’s right, most recruits have no desire to go schools where you have to kiss your sister. (brackets and emphasis mine)

Me? I love Big Ten football. It is the oldest, most tradition-laden conference in America. It has more attendance per game and sells more merchandise than any other conference. Three of the four on-campus 100,000-plus seat stadiums in the country are in the Big Ten. Nowhere are rivalries more heated. Remember, SEC fans, that ESPN ranked Ohio State-Michigan as the top sports rivalry of the 20th Century, edging out even Yankees-Red Sox.

All that being said, I can’t find a single thing in Luerssen’s diatribe that I disagree with.

It is time for the Big Ten to expand. And don’t even give me that crap about a conference championship game being a competitive disadvantage to getting a Big Ten team to the national championship game unscathed. Every other major conference except for the left coast PAC-10 already has that disadvantage. The important thing is that the Big Ten is in danger of becoming a tie-laden dinosaur that slowly fades into irrelevance due to it’s inability to crown a true conference champion.

And nobody has been victimized by Big Ten Conference Championship ties over the past decade than Ohio State. Ties cost us (I’m a Pitt and OSU grad) two trips to the Rose Bowl since 1995.

OK, now that we’ve established that the Big Ten should expand to twelve teams, we can get to what I really find interesting about Luerssen’s piece.

Are the Big Ten and PAC-10 guilty of being snobs? Is Pittsburgh somehow below the schools in the Big Ten? Are Utah and BYU somehow not good enough for the PAC-10? (emphasis mine)

I absolutely love it when any nationally syndicated columnist just assumes that Pitt is the best choice to become the Big Ten’s 12th team. Those of you who have been reading PSB for awhile (as if anybody reads us at all) remember that I’ve often worried that the Big Ten might pick Syracuse over Pitt for geographical reasons (the Big Ten already has a presence in the Pittsburgh marketplace [via Penn State], but not in New York State) — despite the fact that Pitt is academically, athleticly, and research-capacity-wise a far better fit for the Big Ten.

And incidentally, Pittsburgh is hardly beneath the Big Ten athleticly (wanna play hoops?), academically (wanna compare freshmen SAT scores?), or research-capacity-wise (wanna compare medical/psychiatric hospitals/schools?). Really, only our law school is a joke…

So, Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney, learn a lesson from Major League Baseball and increase competition before you, too, slowly fade into irrelevance. Expand to 12 teams and establish your conference championship game now. And when it comes to picking your 12th member, grab the one that brings the most to the table. After Notre Dame turns you down again (speaking of dinosaurs slowly fading into irrelevance), Trey Luerssen and I think your choice will be clear.

And maybe you’ll even get to create some stupid trophy for the Pitt-Penn State game (The Halushki Bowl?).

Hail to the Big Ten, and Hail to the Big Ten Doing What’s In Its Best Interest

In early August, I had the following comment on RB Brandon Miree after pointing out a puff piece on him.

Miree is one of the keys to Pitt having a great year. If he goes down to injury, or doesn’t play well, Pitt’s BCS hopes are shot.

As we’ve seen from the running game since he’s gone down to a calf injury back in the Toledo loss, Pitt has none. Even I didn’t know/think there would be such a drop-off in talent at the running back position.

More bad news, looks like he’ll miss the Syracuse game this weekend.

No one has really paid attention to this, in explaining how Pitt has been so disappointing and inconsistent. Partially,I think it’s because when you speak of Pitt’s offense it really seems to come down to Fitzgerald and Rutherford. The other part is that this was an injury that hasn’t gone away and lingered so there is no timetable for his return. It was thought that he would play at Texas A&M, but now it’s a month later and he’s still out.

Even when he comes back, it will likely take a game or so to get close to normal. Unfortunately, Pitt doesn’t have the time.

Just some random thoughts on some things I saw from college football

Miami running a fake punt on Temple. Against Temple? What? Larry Coker couldn’t find a blind guy on crutches to trip?

Minnesota dropping another game to a Michigan school at home. Can you believe Mason still has support amongst some Ohio St. Alum over Tressel? Mason should be grateful that Paterno is still coaching, otherwise he’d have the title of most overrated Big 11 coach.

Akron beats Central Florida. That’s not going to help you get a bid over the Bulls of South Florida into the carcass of the Big East.

Northern Illinois and TCU both stay undefeated. Anything that pressures the BCS to open up further is a good thing at this point. Go Huskies! Go Horned Frogs!