This works out well for the Pittsburgh media, who could use something about Pitt to write about during a bye week. The Big East released a flurry of press releases. Let’s start with the mundane. Propaganda possibly coming to a Fox Sports Net station near you, “Inside the Big East.

The half-hour program, which will be driven by features on BIG EAST student-athletes, will debut on December 31. Nivea for Men will be the presenting sponsor of the show.

“We’re excited about the launch of Inside The BIG EAST,” said BIG EAST Commissioner Michael Tranghese. “It’s going to be another vehicle for us to be able tell compelling stories about the people and teams in our conference.”

The show will be telecast on numerous regional cable networks throughout BIG EAST markets as well as nationally on CSTV. To date, Inside The BIG EAST has been cleared on CSTV, MSG Network in New York, Comcast SportsNet Chicago, Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, Fox Sports Pittsburgh, and Cox Sports Television of Rhode Island.

According to the press release, the company that is producing it does TV propaganda for Rutgers, Villanova, Seton Hall and St. John’s. They also do stuff for the Yankees.

The slightly more important information are the coaches pre-season votes. The pre-season player of the year is Ryan Gomes of Providence and rookie is Rudy Gay of UConn. I’m saying by the end of the year it will be Josh Boone of UConn or Chris Taft of Pitt (darkhorse Hakim Warrick, Syracuse). For Rookie, I don’t know the other teams well enough, but I think Gay won’t get enough time in another loaded UConn team. On the pre-season All-Big East team, Krauser and Taft were named to the 1st team. Once more, Chevon Troutman was overlooked. How he was passed over in favor of Whitney from Seton Hall and Sumpter at ‘Nova is beyond me.

Then, the “big” one. The coaches pre-season Big East Coaches poll.

1. Syracuse (9) 119
2. Connecticut (2) 106
3. Pittsburgh (1) 100
4. Notre Dame 88
5. Boston College 78
6. Providence 69
7. Villanova 59
8. Seton Hall 56
9. West Virginia 43
10. Rutgers 42
11. Georgetown 21
12. St. JohnÂ’s 11

* First-place votes in parentheses

Last year, Pitt was picked to be 4th in the Big East. Obviously the Big East coaches are not underestimating Pitt like last year — unlike many pre-season polls that have ND ahead of us. I think that is about right in the pre-season for Pitt. I have questions about ND’s heart. I think BC might be better.

It’s hard to argue Syracuse and UConn at one and two. I might flip it because UConn has so much talent, but considering they lost Gordon and Okafor it is understandable. Syracuse has just about the same team from last year back plus a supposedly ready to play Billy Edelin to resume at PG and allow McNamara to get back to shooting guard. (Did Pitt even try to recruit McNamara? This kid from Scranton, PA ends up at Syracuse, and I’ve never heard that Pitt even made an attempt. It haunted Pitt last year at the Pete, and I fear it will again.)

Now I have to ask if the Pitt Athletic Department has taken the rest of the week off? These press releases aren’t up on the Pitt site. Nor have they bothered putting up even the partial transcript from the Walt Harris press conference from Monday. I guess they figure if the football team has a bye week, so do they. I mean, the AP had a write-up based on the press releases out rather early this morning.

Pitt got a solid verbal from Oderick Turner out of New Jersey. Turner is both a defensive back and wide receiver. While Tom Lemming at ESPN listed Turner as the 25th best safety in high school, the 6’3″ 185 pound kid is coming to Pitt primarily as a WR. Turner is considered the 28th or 29th best player in New Jersey. His father, Odessa Turner, was an NFL WR for the Giants and 49ers from 1987-1993. He chose Pitt over NC St., Wisconsin, Syracuse and Indiana.

Bendel’s Inside the Big East column for ESPN.com doesn’t really say anything new.

Gene Collier has some fun picturing a Pitt-Penn St. game this year, with Penn St. winning 4-3.