I happened to flick back to ESPN a few minutes into the halftime report — it’s not like anyone other than VT fans were watching that blowout by that point. They got to the Pontiac Game Changing Performance, and sure enough it was Eric Gill rumbling down the sidelines. They said the final vote was actually much closer than it had been in the morning. Pitt over Michigan St. 35.X% to 33.X%. Mark May seemed quite happy.

For all those who voted, and especially some of you who voted numerous times by continually deleting the voting cookie, we can feel good about this. Pitt’s general scholarship fund received $5000. Naturally it was all about getting scholarship money for the school. It’s not like we were doing this as a point of pride or anything.

A fun week for rank hypocrisy, conspiracy and stupidity in college football. You had Bob Stoops ruminating about an ESPN/SEC Conspiracy of talking heads. Bob Stoops, the Oklahoma head coach. The coach of a team who’s entire year has been the subject of an ongoing ESPN.com special series “The Program.” You then had the college coaches decide that their poll votes that helps determine the rankings should remain a secret. This led to this commentary by Pat Forde.

Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops (12) has no such excuse for his ruminations this week about ESPN analysts pumping up Auburn as perhaps a more worthy Orange Bowl prospect than his squad. (The SEC has a contract with ESPN, the Big 12 does not. Neither, for that matter, does the Pac-10 and USC.)

“All people ought to be aware who their contracts are with and what some of their agendas may be,” Stoops said.

Right. And if Stoops thinks ESPN is predisposed to favoring the Tigers over the Sooners, he’s invited to peruse this web site in search of the weekly “Auburn: The Program” material.

In light of all this suspicion, it is doubly discouraging that the American Football Coaches Association has voted to keep coaches’ Top 25 ballots secret. Coaches are accusing referees and television networks of playing dirty politics, but won’t make their votes — which are vital to the outcome of the BCS system — public? Sounds like a double standard to The Dash.

Oh, then there is yet another blast against the lie by college presidents about not wanting a Div. I-A playoff.

The No. 1 argument against a playoff has to do with the integrity of the academic calendar. Presidents do not want to extend the football season into the second semester. Institutions of higher education should first and foremost be about academics, but the campus honchos are disingenuous — not to mention inconsistent — in throwing around the academic card so freely when it comes to Division I-A football.

If the integrity of the academic calendar is so vital, then explain why the Big Ten is pushing a proposal to extend the college baseball season until July? Or why spring sports like baseball, tennis, softball and track and field already run beyond the end of the semester?

Nobody utters a peep when a freshman at a school operating under the quarter calendar, like UCLA, where classes begin in late September, can possibly play four games before hitting his first college book. And nobody jumps on a soapbox about the NCAA tournament overlapping final exams at schools on the quarter system. Or acknowledges the multitude of college sports that wrap around semesters or quarters.

And if these college presidents are so ethically high-minded, why do they sit in stone silence while the college football schedule — specifically rivalry games like USC-UCLA, the conference championship games, and the 20 days allotted for bowl game practice — runs up against final exams in December? It’s about money and perception. The campus CEOs will grab every green dollar so long as they come up short of appearing to be in the business of turning the college game into the NFL, and yet the sad truth is the college game is every bit as commercialized.

Not that this is all anything new, but this sort of thing should be repeated every now and again to keep building more pressure. Expect a lot more of it should USC, Oklahoma and Auburn end undefeated.

Another batch of preseason prognostications and commentaries.

Sports Illustrated just released it’s College Basketball Preview. They rank Pitt #13. Their piece focuses on Chris Taft.

Look for Taft and junior guard Carl Krauser to take expanded leadership roles this season, with one goal in mind: “It may be early, but I’m saying it now — we’re winning a national championship,” Taft says, “and don’t forget who told you that.”

This is straight from the actual magazine, it wasn’t on the preview:

Enemy Lines an opposing coach’s view:

Their mind-set is to try to break your spirit; they don’t care if they beat you 50-48. They play a half-court, slug-it-out style on offense, and they don’t give you an inch in half-court defense. … Chevon Troutman is as physical a low-post player as there is in the country; he knows how to engage in hand-to-hand combat. … The team’s success depends on the maturity of Carl Krauser and Chris Taft. Krauser doesn’t have to score 20 a game for them to be good. In fact, if he tries to score too much, it could hurt the team. Taft has great hands and is as good a low post scoring option as there is in the country.

And note, that they call them “Pitt” not Pittsburgh. After years of trying to change the moniker, it is time to give up the ghost on it.

The USA Today Preview of Pitt is not that different from most other evaluations. Great D, struggle to shoot, Taft and Krauser. The usual.

CollegeHoopsnet puts Pitt at #15, and has a very good breakdown of the team. They are one of the few to see that Ramon will likely get a lot of minutes because of his ability to shoot 3s. Also, their preview is the only one I’ve read to recognize the issue I’ve been harping on for a while:

It will be interesting to see who squeezes into the Pitt starting lineup. Coach Dixon could put sophomore Aaron Gray in at center and, along with Taft and Troutman, go with a big lineup. That might be the only option if two wing players canÂ’t step up and prove they should be starting. With so many options, something will be working for Pitt by the time they need it. The usual soft schedule will give plenty of time for Coach Dixon to sort everything out before the Big East schedule begins.

Then Dan Shanoff on ESPN.com, Page 2 gives his “Hot/Not for College Basketball” this year. Ashley Judd remains the hot fan. Until Jessica Alba or Adriana Lima starts showing up at games, this isn’t likely to change any time soon. Sorry, got distracted. The point was that under REAL top NBA Prospect, Chris Taft was Hot and Chris Paul was Not.

But I had to share.

Marquette University’s students, alumni, faculty, staffand others connected to the school are having their say on whether to change its nickname from Golden Eagles back to Warriors.

The school has conducted focus groups and forums, and a special committee has been tracking down facts on the issue – such as how many schools use the two nicknames. The most far-reaching effort is a 28-page online survey about the topic.

Sadly the survey is only open to the alumni. Turns out an alum offered the school $2 million to change the name back to Warriors. Read the article to see some of the questions. This amused me:

“If Marquette were to keep its athletics nickname Golden Eagles, please check the statement which most closely reflects what you would be willing to do with clothing or items bearing any Marquette Warriors logo or nickname.”

Among the options: “I would be willing to get rid of these items.”

If the school does go back to Marquette it will be a sanitized version — much like the Golden State Warriors of the NBA — with no references or images based on American Indians .

I’m happy to type that both Pitt and WVU have released their game notes for the Backyard Brawl early. Usually they hold them until Monday, but both schools have released them. Both are in PDF. Here’s Pitt‘s and WVU‘s. The Backyard Brawl is ESPN’s marquee game for Thanksgiving. In the booth will be Tirico, Herbstreit and Corso. Jill Arrington will be on the sidelines — bring binoculars.

Here is Pitt’s Gameday Press Release.

You can read some of WVU’s “Coach Rod” thoughts about their loss to BC and the coming Pitt game here.

The game is also Senior Day for Pitt.

Pitt leads the all-time series 58-35-2. Pitt’s longest win streak against WVU is 15 from 1929-1946 (no games between the two from 40-43). WVU rattled off 5 straight from 1992-1996.

Pitt’s depth chart doesn’t show much in the way of changes. Allen Richardson, inexplicably, is still the punt returner. Josh Lay will start at Right CB, and Darrelle Revis at Left CB (Mike Phillips will back up Revis for this game). I’m guessing that Lay will get the assignment against WVU’s best receiver, Chris Henry.

The Tale of the Tape

PITTSBURGH——————————— WEST VIRGINIA
28.8 ………………………………. Points ………………………………. 33.0
360.3 ……………………….. Total Offense ……………………….. 424.0
106.7 ………………………. Rushing Yards ………………………. 258.3
38.8 ………………………. Rushing Attempts ………………………. 49.4
2.8 …………………………. Yards Per Carry …………………………. 5.2
253.7 ……………………… Passing Yardage ……………………… 165.7
33.8 ………………………. Passing Attempts ………………………. 20.2
13.0 ……………….. Yards Per Pass Completion ……………….. 13.6
25.1 ………………………… Points Allowed ………………………… 20.0
396.4 ……………………….. Total Defense ……………………….. 330.6
131.6 …………………. Rushing Yards Allowed …………………. 124.9
264.9 …………………. Passing Yards Allowed …………………. 205.7
+8 …………………………. Turnover Margin …………………………. +5

More on the stats in a later post.

The news cycle is at a trickle.

We have a puff piece on Defensive Lineman and way too smart a guy Vince Crochunis. Triple major who has moved on to graduate work. Whoa.

Column taking backhanded whacks at the Big East by saying, “at least it’s competitive.” What can you say. Only a fool, a liar or someone on the Big East Conference payroll would even try to argue that the Big East hasn’t been hideous this year.

One article well worth reading concerns future scheduling issues. It starts out giving you hope that Pitt will really be stepping up in non-conference opponents. Something all members of the BE are going to need to do to counter the overall weakness of the conference at this time.

If top-shelf Big East teams are going to compete for Bowl Championship Series games, future non-conference schedules must reflect a significant upgrade in difficulty.

“We talk about that as athletic directors,” Pitt athletic director Jeff Long said. “We realize as a conference that we need to step up. By and large, we all want to. Now it’s about the hard work to get these teams, logistically, to play us.”

Long said he has “a couple more” series to announce in the next few months. The contracts are negotiated but a few minor details have to be worked out. He said the series are with other BCS conferences schools.

Promising. Very promising. But then you get this.

Long also said games against Division I-AA opponents will count toward bowl eligibility every season if some NCAA legislation is passed. That means Pitt fans can probably expect to have I-AA teams on the schedule almost every year.

“I can tell you that a number of high-powered schools are excited about that, and they’re excited to get those I-AA schools on the schedule,” Long said.

“I think that’s something our fans have to get used to. There’s not enough games to go around without those I-AA games.”
…
“The kinds of teams we want to schedule are basically booked up at this time. There’s just not that much out there to get, unless someone wants to change their existing schedule. There’s a lot of wait-and-see out there.

“I’m kind of gambling that something will break for me for in 2005, so I can get a quality opponent. If not, I’m going to have to get a fill opponent. I don’t want to do that, but the reality is that I might have to again.”

If you want to know why Auburn is still a solid #3 behind Oklahoma in the BCS take a look at the two schools non-cons. Oklahoma didn’t exactly play it tough (Houston, Bowling Green and Oregon), but Auburn was downright embarrassing — Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Monroe, and the Citadel. Dragged down the Strength of Schedule brutally. Even playing in the toughest conference wasn’t enough to help Auburn overcome that non-con.

I am not happy with the idea of annual games against some rotating stable of I-AA teams. It is not something I want to “get used to.”

Eric Gill was named the “John Mackey Tight End of the Week” by the Nassau County Sports Commission. His big rumble down the sideline at the end of the Pitt-ND game now has a 17 point lead over the nearest play (46-29%) for the Pontac/ESPN Game Changing Performance play of the week. Voting ends today, and will be announced on ESPN during the game tonight.

Greg Lee is now 6th in the country and leads the Big East with a 103 yards per game average.