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.
