Paul Rhoads is coming back. Deep breath. Just poured the rest of a bottle of Makers Mark (thanks, Lee) into a glass. I’m not sure if I’m going to drink it or pour it on myself and set myself on fire.

In addition to Rhoads, Bob Junko(Defensive Tackles) and Curtis Bray (Linebackers) will be back. From the present staff, Wannstedt is still in discussions with Bill Bleil (Tackles/Tight Ends) and Charlie Partridge (Defensive Ends).

As for new hires, in addition to Paul Dunn, Aubrey Hill was hired. Here’s Hill’s info:

Hill, who played and coached under Steve Spurrier’s “Fun ‘n Gun” offense at Florida, joins the Panthers after working at NCAA I-AA Elon (N.C.) University as receivers coach last year. He previously was the receivers coach at Duke from 1999-2003 and additionally served in a pair of NFL coaching internships.
…
Hill helped Florida to a four-year record of 43-10-1 (.806) and three SEC championships. He compiled 86 receptions and 18 touchdowns for his career and caught a touchdown every 4.78 catches, the third best TD ratio in Gators history. He was a team captain as a senior in 1994.

Following his playing career, Hill served as a Florida graduate assistant from 1996-98. In his first season as an assistant, Florida captured the national championship with a 12-1 mark, capped by a 52-20 victory over Florida State in the Sugar Bowl. During his three years on the Florida staff, the Gators went a combined 32-5 (.865).

Those NFL internships? Washington (2001) and Miami (2002). Obviously, Wanny knows and likes him.

While official titles haven’t been announced, I’m guessing that there won’t be many changes. Hill, I’m guessing will be the receivers coach. He seems to have enthusiasm and ambition.

The only downside, is that means the present receivers coach Pete Carmichael is out. Not sure about how he was as a recruiter (he is in his 60s) but as a coach there must be some credit given for the development of Greg Lee this year, along with Joe DelSardo. There was some concern going into the season with WRs since Brookhart left for the Akron gig.

You know, I’m not some long-time Big East worshipping, pining for the “glory days” of the mid-80s of BE basketball. Still, my memories of Georgetown were trips to the Civic Arena because they were such big games they were played there instead of Fitzgerald in the late 80s. They were the team Pitt wanted to be. Now, they are using Pitt as their measuring stick as to where they are in the conference.

The young Georgetown Hoyas open the Big East portion of their schedule tonight at No. 16 Pittsburgh (10-1) and should get a better idea what they can expect over the next 10 weeks.

And Georgetown knows Pitt could be in a mood.

This might not be the ideal time for Georgetown to play the Panthers, considering that Pittsburgh is coming off of a stunning loss to Bucknell. The 69-66 defeat marked just the second time in 46 games that Pittsburgh had lost at the three-year-old Petersen Events Center. The Panthers have not lost back-to-back home games since February 2001.

“Bucknell probably stirred up the hornet’s nest,” Thompson said with a smile. “They’re not going to be in a good mood.”

Pitt better not be in a good mood. Despite the reversal of fortunes, neither team has ever won more than 5 straight games. Pitt has a 5 game winning streak against G-town.

And just for a bitter reminder as to how big the win was, from the San Francisco Chronicle:

No, it really was the previously undefeated, No. 10 Pittsburgh Panthers that lost. It was Bucknell, a Patriot League team from Lewisburg, Pa., that did not offer athletic scholarships until two years ago, that got the win. The site was Pittsburgh’s Petersen Events Center, where the Panthers were 43-1 before Sunday. The only loss had been an overtime defeat to Syracuse, and Connecticut is 0-2 at Petersen.

Bucknell did what UConn could not in beating the Panthers in their new arena.

“We were having our team meeting about 11 o’clock this morning (Tuesday), and the kids said, “Hey, coach, we got to turn on ESPN to catch the top 10 plays of the week, ’cause we’ll be on,” coach Pat Flannery said.

Flannery thought they were kidding, but when No. 1 came up, there were the Bucknell players running around after the upset.

Flannery’s weekly alumni luncheon that usually draws 30 or 40 people had 150 people show up Tuesday.

A paper in SF needs to point out the upset. Actually, interesting to learn that the Patriot League teams are now offering some sports scholarships.

Game’s on in less than an hour.

Alright, a few days late (had to fly back to Pittsburgh and finally get onto Blogger).

In keeping with the gangsta feel of my pre-trip post, I’m pleased to relay that the planes I flew to and from Phoenix on (with Northwest) all had “NWA” painted in big letters.

As for the service, I did make it to and from Phoenix in one piece, so here’s to NWA for that. Otherwise, too many connections; the stewardesses were not nearly hot enough (one from Pittsburgh-Detroit-Milwaukee was cute, but the others were middle aged women or screamingly gay men). Of all the airports I visited, I’d say Phoenix sucked the most – no people movers (there were three different terminals, though, so maybe the others had better amenities). Minneapolis-St. Paul was the largest, Detroit was so-so, but Milwaukee had the best looking women by far. Who would have thought? Milwaukee? I don’t know what it was: maybe it was Wisconsin students flying in and out – either way, tons of good looking 17-34 women. Even the moms were attractive – the town could be renamed MILF-waukee! They also have a Miller beer pub there, as well as a General Billy Mitchell museum. I spent over 5 hours in that airport, drinking some kind of Red Lager (Lienenfleguel-von-farhfergnugen or something?) which was very good, and watching the hotties walk by.

Anyway, I finally got to Arizona around 6pm Friday, December 31. My buddy Mike, who I went to both HS and Pitt with, and who painted Mountaineer Field in whiskey spiked vomit back in 1997 (missing the great 4th and 17 OT), arrived earlier that morning and picked me up in his pimpin’ Chrysler rental car. Sadly, it was stuck on high beams, so we wisely chose to take a cab to new year’s eve celebrations – nothing says “pull me over, I’m drunk!” like driving around town with high beams. Mike had been up to the Pitt HQ hotel (the Princess resort – very swanky) for the afternoon gathering, and picked up some free Pitt stuff – a ticket holder, a button that said “boot the Utes!” and some Pitt mini towels.

We called up one of our law-student interns who attended ASU as an udergrad, and we met him and his crew in Old Town Scottsdale for the block party there. Good fun, but too many dudes. I was still on Eastern time, so I enjoyed drinking until 4am EST. The weather was much cooler than expected – we could see our breath at the block party, and I caught a little bit of a cold.

The game was at 6:30pm MST (8:30pm EST), so we headed to Tempe and Mill Avenue for some pre-game fun. The weather was 60’s and beautiful. We ate some Mexican, drank some beer, and headed towards the north end of the stadium for the Alumni association pre-game. We had two extra tickets, at $85 in the upper level 35 yard line – the best offer we got was $15 for both. Utah fans, clad in red, were everywhere, and very few Pitt fans were in sight.

We had to completely circumnavigate the stadium and the surrounding hillsides (it is so close to those two “Buttes”, or hills, that you see on TV that you can’t walk between the butte and the stadium to get to the other side. After that long walk, we finally entered the Worlds Largest College Football Party, and quickly found the Pitt section. This is the only time we didn’t feel completely outnumbered the entire time we were in Tempe. We watched the Rose Bowl, drank some more beer, and watched the band march in and play some Pitt songs. We met a lot of Pitt fans, and everyone was very friendly – I guess safety in numbers breeds camaraderie.

The lines were so long at the Utah tent for food they started coming to our area – a few good natured exchanges took place, with the occasional Mormon joke – all in good fun. They were giving away blue and gold beads (mini footballs, actually) and more of those towels – they ran out of beads, but we loaded up on towels. Then, after drinking several beers courtesy of our new friends (we met some business people and a young lady named Kerry, a recent Pitt grad who lives in LA, who’s father is from Mike and I’s hometown), we departed for the long walk back around to the other side of the stadium – the only way in!

To our dismay, we were corralled into a path that prevented us from getting to the other side of the stadium before we had to present our tickets – thus we had to eat the two extra $85 tickets. That made us want to drink – and drink we did! Beer was sold at the stadium, and the Utah fans seemed to only want to buy food and soft drinks.

Mike and I went up to our four seats in section 204, while Kerry went down to section 7 – her aunt is on the Board of Trustees and got her tickets at the 50 yard line, sitting a few seats down from Nordenberg. Our seats were good, however – 35yd line bleachers with backs. [Our law-student intern and his friends bought $175 club seats for $30 a piece – booze, food – everything but a complementary hand job. I was pissed!] Still, we were in a relatively pro-Pitt section (about 60% to 70% for Pitt), which was nice considering about 90% of the rest of the stadium was in red!

The Utah fans in front of us were cool. Two young late 20’s early 30’s couples, with one wife possessing two ample breasts bursting through a tight red sweater, complete with one black Utah pin over each nipple. Very nice. The guys were knowlegable about football, and we spoke of the power of the porn-stash (they were skeptical of Wannstedt’s hiring, but we set them straight).

Larry Fitzgerald was the honorary Pitt captain, and the Pitt band played well – Utah fans near us had band-envy (their band must suck ass).

The game: sucked. Pitt did not have an answer for the Utah offense, and Alex Smith was amazing. They could run, pass, and always seemed to get the key first downs. I think they punted once! I don’t remember Pitt turning the ball over at all – it was just that Utah drove the field. No defensive adjustments – what could they possibly do? I blame Rhodes a little, but Utah had better athletes making better plays.

Pitt’s offense was offensive, and in a bad way. Palko was running for his life the whole game. No adjustments by Harris – no extra fullback or TE to pick up blitzes, no quick shuffles to thwart the blitzing linebackers, and no running game whatsoever. And what the hell did Harris try that field goal for?

I’m not trying to shock anyone, but Mike and I actually left the game early. Yes, you read that correctly. I was too disgusted to watch anymore, and there were several hours of drinking ahead of us. We met Kerry and some of her friends who didn’t bother with the game out in a nightclub in Scottsdale. Drinks were expensive, but VERY strong. There were a couple of former Pitt players at the club as well – I recognized their names, but I can’t remember them. We drank to 4am EST, drove back to the hotel (yes, drove with the high beams on), and I promptly passed out on the lazy-boy chair.

I awoke at 8am MST the next day to hear Mike talking to his kids on the phone in the next room. My head…the pain! I had forgotten how my old room mate was a morning person, and it was really pissing me off. Anyway, I slept until lunch time, and Mike and I hit a really bad strip club on Scottsdale Road, Babes. Not all nude, no VIP section, no food, no Canadian style lap dances – we were the only two patrons in the bar, which made it kind of creepy. The two dancers were so-so, both too skinny and small breasted (the hostess was nice, and cute). There, I drank the first non-alcoholic beverage of the entire weekend – I went all of Friday and Saturday without ingesting a single pop, glass of water or juice that wasn’t mixed with booze.

Mike took his rental car to the airport, flew back to Dallas Sunday evening, and I just walked around near the hotel, and got some good local Mexican food. On Monday it rained like hell, and it caused flight delays at the airport. All in all, a fun trip. I regret not hitting an Indian casino, but I probably would have lost too much money anyway. I highly recommend going to a bowl game – just one closer to home so it isn’t such an expensive trip.

[The Big East basketball season is about to begin, and so I finally reprint my brief history of the Big East. This was originally posted on College Basketball Blog back in mid-December. The reprint of Part 1 is here.]

How did it come to this? The Big East will become a 16 team lumbering behemoth in basketball next year, and a 8 team weakling in football. Both seem ill-fitting. How did it get here? Where is it going? Arguably, the seeds for the present situation were sewn in the first 5 years of the Big East’s existence. This is, disturbingly enough, Part 2 of something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Part 1 is here. Part 2 covers the time period of 1992 to now and the future.

Football and its money transcends all.

1992 saw the creation of the Bowl Coalition. The goal was to try and set things up for a true national champion without disrupting the bowl system (or conference alliances with particular bowls). The Bowl Coalition lasted 2 more seasons. It was scrapped after the 1994 season.

It was replaced by the Bowl Alliance, where 4 conferences (SEC, ACC, Big East and the Big 12 [technically, in ’95 it was still the Big 8 and Southwest]), match-up the consensus #1 and #2 teams in a bowl game. The hitch was that the Big 11 and PAC-10 refused to join, preferring to stay with the Rose Bowl. The Bowl Alliance, like its forerunner, lasted 3 seasons.

This led to the formation of the Bowl Championship Series in 1998. This time all 6 conferences — ACC, Big East, Big 11, Big 12, PAC-10 and SEC — agreed to participate.

As for basketball, the impact of expansion for football began to be felt. For the 1995-96 season, the Big East basketball league went from 10 to 13 teams as Notre Dame, Rutgers and WVU became full members. The quality of the Big East had been suffering from the expansion. Too many teams near the bottom. Pitt, Rutgers, WVU, Miami and even ND at first were all not very good teams. You were also seeing the b-ball only schools start to drop in quality. The early to mid ’90s was not a great time to watch the Big East.

The league was split into the BE 7 and BE 6 divisions in 1995. There was no logical split for the divisions. Providence and Miami were in the same division, but Pitt and WVU were not. That split was scrapped after the 1996-97 season.

Unfortunately, the divisional format was restored upon Virginia Tech’s full admission into the Big East in 2000. They were not the same divisions as before, but they were still despised. The division format hurt the conference as a whole for getting teams into the NCAA Tournament. One division, invariably would be stronger than the other, and you would have them beating each other up. Less teams in the NCAA Tournament, less money for the Big East. They were scrapped after the 2002-03 season.

The Big East was still a big name in basketball, but the football money was just dwarfing everything. The BCS, for all of its faults, did what it really was supposed to do: generate lots and lots of cash for the participating conferences and schools. The #1 vs. #2 was incidental. That’s what the public reason was, but really it was and is about the cash for the programs and departments. (Why else did you see such politicking and complaining by Cal and the PAC 10 about Texas getting the other at-large bid? It’s not like it would affect the national championship. Follow the money.)

The money had gotten immense. So much so, that the ACC — the conference everyone looks to when talking about all that is great about college basketball — decided that it needed to get a bigger share of the pie. In the history of the BCS and Bowl Alliance, only 2 conferences failed to place an at-large team in one of the extra slots: the ACC and the Big East.

The ACC was looking at low TV ratings for its televised football games and reduced revenue on its next TV contract. Additionally, NCAA rules prohibit Conference Championship games without at least 12 members. The ACC, at only 9 members made a business decision. It needed to go to a 12 team football-first conference.

Miami and two other members of the Big East football conference were the logical choices. Really, they were the only choices. The other major conferences were very stable and quite lucrative in their revenue. The Big East football, though was even smaller than the ACC. Miami, of course was the linchpin. Miami had a traditional rivalry game with FSU, an ACC member, and was a geographical fit.

So the ACC, quietly, began sniffing around Miami. Trying to gauge their interest. Miami had interest, and quiet discussions ensued. Eventually, though, these things do not stay quiet. Too many people, too many institutions involved. By April 2003, the Big East Commissioner, Mike Tranghese, made it public what the ACC was up to. Unfortunately, that was about all he accomplished.

Tranghese merely put it out in the public. He and the rest of the Big East did not act decisively. They dithered and made proclamations. I admit, as alum and concerned first, and foremost about Pitt, this can be seen as biased to the football/basketball programs. The plain fact, though, is that there had been a split coming between football/basketball athletic programs and the basketball only programs in the Big East. Even at 14 teams in the BE there were problems and grumblings on the basketball side about the schedule, about how football was too important, how the basketball tournament kept 2 schools at home every year, and that the basketball schools were having their interests ignored.

I was blogging about this for some time when it was going down.

For those unfamiliar with everything here’s the condensed Reader’s Digest version from after it became public that the ACC was looking to raid the Big East:

• Miami admitted interest, and it was revealed that it wanted to take Syracuse and BC with them.
• Both schools conceded they would jump — Syracuse, reluctantly; BC, realistically.
• Rumor time. No real news. Stories that the BE would counter offer to Miami by splitting into two conferences. The BE-football would split off and expand. VT was scrambling to try and survive. Political pressure in the state of Virginia. UConn tried to muscle out BC for an invite.
• BE filed a lawsuit against BC, Miami and the ACC. Seemed to actually surprise ACC and threw the whole mess into question.
• BE rather than use the opportunity to push the obvious solution of splitting the divergent interests of basketball only schools with football/basketball schools into two separate conferences, stared talking about becoming a 16 team conference. Failed to secure assurances from all member schools that they will remain loyal BE teams no matter what.
• ACC and Miami regrouped. Political pressure from Virginia forced UVA to back Virginia Tech for membership. VT jumped at the first offer.
• Miami announced it was leaving for the ACC.

With Miami gone, what I saw as clearly necessary back in May 2003 — splitting the BE apart — looked like it would happen. But then things changed. First, and foremost, Mike Tranghese, the BE Commissioner and in 2003, the guy who had just come off a stint as the mouthpiece for defending the BCS said he wouldn’t serve as commissioner of either part of a split Big East.

This boxed in the football-playing BE teams. They needed Tranghese and his personal ties to other BCS conference commissioners to help keep them in the BCS with an automatic bid. The other conferences could boot the BE easily enough if they hadn’t dealt with the commissioner, but not if he was one of them. A guy who helped defend their little system.

Tranghese was making one last play to protect his school (Providence) and the basketball only programs. The basketball schools had been in a down period, as the balance of basketball power had clearly shifted away from the likes of Seton Hall, St. John’s, Villanova and Georgetown in the Big East. The power was with UConn, Syracuse, Pitt and even BC. At best, the basketball only schools didn’t look much stronger than the Atlantic 10. The basketball schools needed to keep their association with the stronger members of the Big East.

So the only way to keep Tranghese and his connections was to remain in the BE with basketball only schools. At least for the short term. The b-ball schools weren’t going to let themselves be put in an overwhelming minority position, since it was clear that sooner or later the BE football teams would split off. That is why, rather than look to replace Miami, VT and BC with Louisville, Cinci and USF; you had the Big East add 2 basketball only schools as well.

Next year, the Big East will begin playing its 16-team megaconference schedule. The Big East Tournament will still be limited to only 12 teams, so the bottom 4 do not even make it to Madison Square Garden. The system is built for pissing off the member schools.

To repeat, the whole point is to give both sides time to build up their strength, and prepare for another raid. The basketball only schools are not in the best shape. They need the new infusion of Marquette and DePaul (ND will be in this side of the sheet, since they are a football indy).

The dominance of basketball right now in the BE is on the side of the schools that also play football — Syracuse, Pitt, UConn, and add in Louisville and Cinci.

By the end of the 2009-10 season, at the latest, the BE will officially split. You can expect the football schools to make one more run at ND (and fail) then expand to 12 with possibly Memphis, Marshall, East Carolina and/or Central Florida.

Likewise on the basketball side, you can expect them to try and keep ND and pick and choose over UMass, Temple, St. Joe’s, St. Louis, Xavier and/or Charlotte.

The real battle will be over the rights to the name “Big East.”

For the football schools, there is one other wrinkle that concerns their future. Expansion by another conference. The most obvious is the Big 11. They can maintain that they have no interest in expansion at this time. That they don’t want a conference championship game. But sooner or later they will look for that 12th member.

Obviously they will take one more run at getting Notre Dame to join. Who knows? Perhaps by that point, Domer pride will have been hit long and hard enough that they will finally give up that cherished independence and join a conference. But I doubt it.

That would leave Pitt or Syracuse as their other choices. These are the only 2 schools in the Big East that would meet the athletic and educational standards required in the Big 11. Only Pitt and Syracuse are members of the Association of American Universities — like all members of the Big 11 (Rutgers is also a member, but they offer nothing in athletics or tradition other than playing that first football game). Quite honestly, if either school received an offer, it would have to be taken. Conference stability alone would necessitate it. To say nothing about getting into a conference that is assured of always being involved in whatever college football post season format there is. The money would drive that decision. As it drives almost all decisions in big time college sports.

The Big East this season, appears to be as tough as expected, with WVU being the early surprise. A bit of a round-up piece, including how the Big East has fared against other conferences and what might of been with Alex Galindo.

A column from Bob Smizik on breaking apart the Big East. Now, I agree with his basic point of splitting, and he is actually being consistent from the past. He is, however, completely insane as to the approach and understanding why things are the way they are for now.

No one has been a bigger proponent of splitting the BE up than me. Every delay upset me. When they decided to remain together I was pissed. The problems were obvious. So why? Why did they remain together?

The answer is the BE Commissioner, Mike Tranghese. In the post-ACC raid days, there was a lot of talk about splitting the BE. Tranghese came out and said that he would not be commissioner of either conference if there was a split. Tranghese was a b-ball college only guy (Providence). His core loyalties are there. Actually understandable, if frustrating, for those of us on the football side. The BE football schools needed Tranghese. They needed his personal connections to the rest of the BCS commissioners. Tranghese knew the other commissioners well and could lobby them easier and make it more difficult for them to rip away the BE’s automatic BCS bid.

Tranghese finishing up his 2-year term as the main flak of the BCS conference. In other words, he was the guy who had to go out in front of the cameras and defend the BCS when #3 Oklahoma played #2 LSU for the BCS championship while #1 USC was in the Rose Bowl, because the BCS rankings didn’t drop OK out of contention even though they lost their Big XII championship.

And it worked. The BE is still a BCS conference with an automatic bid. Yes, there is the probation period. But Tranghese even kept that from fully kicking in this year.

That’s why the BE is going to its behemoth format for the short term (about 5 years max, would be my guess). Give the both sides time to stabilize and then split and expand.

Of both the regular season Big East title and Pitt playing some much tougher defense. Whether it is man-to-man or even some zone.

Georgetown comes calling, running its own version of the “Princeton Offense.” It’s a slow methodical half-court game that depends on crisp passing, picks, screens and back-door lay-ups. While Pitt doesn’t run the same offense, it shouldn’t look too unfamiliar either. It appears the players are saying all the right things about playing better defense. They just have to back it up.

[The Big East basketball season is about to begin, and so I finally reprint my brief history of the Big East. This was originally posted on College Basketball Blog back in mid-December. I’ll post Part 2 later in the day.]

How did it come to this? The Big East will become a 16 team lumbering behemoth in basketball next year, and a 8 team weakling in football. Both seem ill-fitting. How did it get here? Where is it going? Arguably, the seeds for the present situation were sewn in the first 5 years of the Big East’s existence. This is, disturbingly enough, Part 1 of something I’ve been thinking about for a while. It covers the time period of 1979 to 1991.

The Big East was founded on 3 basic principles: self-preservation, money and basketball. Today you can still argue that the BE is maintaining the principles of self-preservation and money. Basketball is just along for the ride.

Dave Gavitt was the main force to founding the BE. He was Providence College’s head basketball coach and athletic director. Gavitt deserves credit for forward thinking. He recognized several items: the money to be made in a new basketball conference, not to mention keeping Providence College relevant in college basketball, and the growing dominance of football conferences and the money involved. With assistance from Boston College and Syracuse, an East Coast basketball league was formed along with Georgetown, St. John’s, Seton Hall and UConn. Villanova was invited to join the following year to make it an 8 team league. With the exception of BC and Syracuse, these were all schools that did not play Division 1-A football. BC and Syracuse were football “independents” along with the majority of schools in the Northeast.

Shortly after the Big East was launched the landscape of college football changed with the lawsuit filed by the Universities of Oklahoma and Georgia against the NCAA in 1981. The NCAA had controlled all college football on TV for decades. The last attempt to avoid the control of the NCAA for airing games on TV by a school was Penn, yes the University of Pennsylvania, in the early ’50s. They were quickly put down for such rebelliousness. The NCAA rules limited teams to TV appearances (regional or national) to no more than 6 times in a 2 year period, and everyone received the same money. No matter whether it was Temple or Notre Dame being aired on TV.

In 1977, 62 college football programs formed the College Football Association (PDF).

The CFA included the universities who were members of the Southeastern Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference, Western Athletic Conference, Big Eight Conference, and the Southwest Athletic Conference, as well as many independents. The group thus included Penn State, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Miami, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A & M, Arkansas, Louisiana State, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Florida, Florida State and Clemson. Because Big Ten and Pac Ten Conferences did not join, Ohio State, Michigan, Southern California, and UCLA were not in the CFA.

The CFA hoped to increase the demand for college football and to insure that the most popular programs received a larger share of the revenues. It developed an academic eligibility standard that was later adopted as the NCAA’s Proposition 48 concerning playing eligibility of freshmen athletes and it produced annual graduation rate surveys. Although the CFA enjoyed some small victories in terms of a modest relaxation in appearance limitations, the NCAA’s democratic voting rules frustrated the group’s efforts to divert more of the exploding football broadcast revenues to the major programs.

In 1979, the CFA had begun exploring its own TV package deals, but the NCAA maintained its control by threatening CFA members with sanctions — not just in football, but in all sports programs. This kept the CFA in line, until 1981.

By 1981, the CFA reached its own deal with NBC for a TV contract while the NCAA had a deal signed with ABC and CBS. The NBC deal did not have the same limitations and a different fee sharing schedule. The NCAA once again threatened the CFA teams with sanctions. This time a couple of the CFA schools (Oklahoma and Georgia) filed a lawsuit against the NCAA for antitrust violations.

The case made it to the Supreme Court and in a 7-2 verdict in 1984 found for the CFA schools. What this did was allow the conferences to cut their own deals with networks and, of course, cable stations — ESPN and what at the time were the various local sports channels that would later become Fox Sports Net. This drove prices down at first, so a contract negotiated by the CFA for all members was negotiated. The Big 10 and PAC 10, not members of the CFA, negotiated their own deals.

That’s getting ahead of things a few years. The Big East was at 8 teams and decided it needed a 9th member. After the case was brought, the CFA member schools in the Big East (Syracuse and BC) began to realize they would need ties to other CFA programs in the Big East. Joe Paterno at Penn State was starting to make noise once more about a football-centric Eastern Conference. A definite threat to the Big East which did not want to lose Syracuse and BC. So Pitt was invited to join, and accepted. Pitt left the Atlantic 8 and became a member in 1982, and suddenly had money coming from the basketball program. Something they never had before.

The Big East had taken off because Gavitt was one of the first Conference commissioners to recognize the money to be made from a Conference Tournament — both in terms of tickets and TV rights. It also allowed the league to showcase itself across the East and garner more attention and help its member institutions increase their profile and recruiting. Gavitt also recognized the potential of ESPN and made deals to get BE games on the new cable network early in its existence. The Big East quickly battled the ACC for b-ball supremacy on the East Coast.

After the Supreme Court decision, Joe Paterno really began pushing his idea for an Eastern conference where football was the focus. He wanted Pitt, Syracuse, BC, Rutgers, Temple Virginia Tech and WVU and I think Maryland and Miami in the conference. Maryland was in the ACC, of course, and really didn’t have any interest in leaving. Syracuse was a power in the Big East and was doing fine as a football independent. BC was doing well in the BE (though not a power) and also fine as a football independent. Neither saw a reason to join a conference that would clearly lower the profile of the basketball programs while merely formalizing the football relationships already in place. Especially when the Big East was proving to be a financial bonanza.

Even a Pitt fan must give appropriate credit. Joe Paterno clearly saw where things were heading with regards to football and conferences, in light of the lawsuit filed against the NCAA. He recognized that without the NCAA controlling the TV access, that conferences would fill the void as a negotiating partner. With multiple schools, they could offer a better product line than individual schools. Independent programs would either suffer or join a conference. His timing for pushing the plan, though, could not have been worse.

The year the Supreme Court decided in favor of the CFA schools, 1984, was the same year that Paterno formally tried to create an Eastern Conference. Unfortunately for him, the 1984-85 season was the most successful season for the Big East. You had Villanova, Georgetown and St. John’s in the Final Four. Boston College made the Sweet 16. Syracuse and Pitt both made the NCAA Tournament. For Pitt, it was their first trip in almost 20 years. Paterno and Penn State wanted Pitt, Syracuse and BC to leave the Big East? The timing could not have been worse.

That plan defeated, Paterno went to Plan B and began inquiring about joining the Big East. That plan met with defeat, as Syracuse actively campaigned against it. The Basketball schools weren’t that interested in bringing Penn St. into the fold since PSU didn’t bring anything to the sport they played. Pitt did nothing one way or another. Plan C, of course was finding another conference to join, which PSU did officially in 1991 by going into the Big 11.

By the time PSU announced its plans to join the Big 10 in 1990, independent football programs were sucking wind. All the money and interest was going to the conferences. At the same time, Florida State surprised people by announcing plans to join the ACC rather than the SEC. Clearly, the money from football was too great to ignore, even for the basketball-centric ACC.

This was Mike Tranghese’s baptism by fire. Tranghese was Gavitt’s right-hand man, and his chosen successor as Big East Commissioner when Gavitt stepped down in 1990. Hastily the Big East created their own football conference where Miami, Temple, Virginia Tech, Rutgers and WVU teamed with Pitt, Syracuse and BC. Temple chose to remain in what is now the Atlantic 10 for basketball. Miami became a full member right away. WVU and Rutgers came into the basketball portion in 1995. Virginia Tech, not until 2000. Notre Dame also joined the BE in 1995 in everything but football.

It was not a perfect solution, but it seemed to work and kept the Big East intact.

Both sides have their game notes available (in PDF). Here’s Pitt. This is Georgetown. In case anyone cares:

What is a Hoya? … Many years ago, when all Georgetown students were required to study Greek and Latin, the University’s teams were nicknamed “The Stonewalls.” It is suggested that a student, using Greek and Latin terms, started the cheer “Hoya Saxa!”, which translates into “What Rocks!” The name proved popular and the term “Hoyas” was eventually adopted for all Georgetown teams.

Pitt has won the last 5 meetings, the longest streak for either team. Georgetown hasn’t been in the top-25 rankings in over 3 years.

The game will be televised on Fox Sports Pittsburgh or via ESPN Full Court. There doesn’t appear to be a Georgetown internet broadcast.