I’m going to blather on a little more about the non-con. Two things that really hurt Pitt in the RPI with their non-con. Playing only one road game, and losing to Bucknell. The RPI formula was tweaked this year. A road win is far more valuable than a home win. Conversely, a road loss is not so bad as a home loss. Neutral site games are in the middle.

I’m going to set out the non-con schedules of 4 teams with significantly higher RPIs than Pitt.

Boston College (RPI = 5)
Average RPI of Opponents = 139.64
Opponent —– RPI
Maine ———– 212
New Hampshire – 249
Clemson ——— 103
Long Island —— 245
@ UCLA ——— 37
Holy Cross ——- 38
Boston U ——— 41
Yale ————- 161
Duquesne ——– 287
Kent St. ———– 39
@ UMass ——— 124

Duke (RPI = 6)
Average RPI of Opponents = 121
Opponent ——– RPI
Tenn.-Martin —— 307
@ Davidson ——– 64
UNC-Greensboro — 180
Mich. St. ———– 17
@ Valpo ———– 185
Toledo ————- 84
Ill.-Chicago ——– 106
@ Oklahoma ——- 21
Princeton ———- 101
Temple ———— 91
St. John’s ———- 175 (Feb. 26)

Syracuse (RPI = 13)
Average RPI of Opponents = 158.14
Opponent ——– RPI
Northern Colo. —– 291 (Neutral Site)
Princeton ———- 101 (Neutral Site)
Miss. St. ———– 24 (Neutral Site)
Memphis ———- 109 (Neutral Site)
@ Siena ———– 292
St. Bonaventure — 323
Colgate ———— 235
Oklahoma St. —— 4 (Loss) (Neutral Site)
Binghampton —— 171
Drexel ————- 72
Cornell ————- 205
Rice —————- 94
Albany ————- 183
Hofstra ————- 110

UConn (RPI = 26)
Average RPI of Opponents = 145.50
Opponent ——– RPI
Buffalo ————- 53
Fla. Int’l ———— 210
Northeastern ——- 78
@ UMass ———– 124 (Loss)
Rice —————– 94
Cent. Conn. ———- 250
Sacred Heart ——– 322
Quinnipiac ———– 295
@ Oklahoma ——— 21 (Loss)
UNC —————– 8 (Loss)

This is what I’m talking about. Some balance. You can schedule a non-con with 1, maybe 2 games against teams in the lower 6th (271-330), but you need to counter with some teams in the top-50. If you are going to play primarily all your games at home, you need to take a reasonable risk and schedule some mid-majors.

For Pitt, this should be easy. Geographically, there are MAC teams nearby that will come to Pittsburgh for the exposure and the money. I accept playing the Duquesne, Robert Morris, even the St. Francis-PA. Everyone plays the nearby patsies. It’s another thing to import Howard, Loyola-MD and Coppin State from the Maryland-DC area.

Look at the RPI teams ahead of Pitt. There are only 7 teams who have Strength of Schedule rankings lower than Pitt’s (as of Feb. 13). All 7, by the way are from the non-power conferences and are hurt by their conference schedule. Pitt, even with the BE play has, at this point, a SOS of 137. There’s weak scheduling, and then there is pathetic scheduling.

You may have heard that the NCAA has recommended the use of instant replay in college football. You may have also heard that the ACC and Mountain West are implementing it. You may be wondering what the Big East is going to do. Well, I was. An official decision won’t come until the BE meetings in May, but it looks likely.

The BIG EAST Conference is very pleased with the announcement by the NCAA Football Rules Committee that allows conferences to utilize instant replay to assist their football officials. The head football coaches in the conference are in unanimous support of using instant replay and our athletic directors are currently discussing all available options.

“We have already done significant research and analysis into the use of instant replay for our Big East Conference football games this coming season,” stated BIG EAST Conference Commissioner Michael Tranghese. “Toward this end, we will be examining the system utilized very effectively by the Big Ten Conference this past season as well as exploring various other systems that are available.”

Staying with football for a moment longer, the BE Football section has put up the logos of the new members and taken BC’s down.

The Big East Tournament this year will not have ConAgra or AT&T or any of the other past corporate sponsors “presenting” it this year. Instead, it will be presented by Aeropostale. So we have a mall clothing store that targets 11-20 year olds as the primary sponsor of the BE Tournament. The BE’s weekly propaganda show is presented by “Nivea for Men.”

When do the games start airing on the Bravo network after “Queer Eye?”

Just a few things of varying interest and worth noting.

The turf at Heinz Field is being replaced, yet again. I know, that for a pro or college football field, the surface gets more use than most. Still, seems like they are really having trouble finding a way to work that field.

Even noted PSU/Paterno apologist, Beano Cook knows (subs. req’d) why there won’t be a Pitt-PSU football game in the near future.

Lenny (Springfield, IL): C’mon Beano answer this question! Will a change to a regular 12-game schedule mean a rebirth of the Penn State – Pitt rivalry?

Beano Cook: No. I don’t think so. It is Joe Paterno’s call and he has no intention of playing Pittsburgh. For the record, unless something affects his health, he will be at Penn State for four more years.

Sigh.

Then on the recruiting news. One of the top recruits from the WPIAL will be Woodland Hills, CB Darin Walls. Ohio State, among others, is keenly interested in him.

Scholarship offers are just now starting to trickle in for one the top prep players in Western Pennsylvania. Darrin Walls of Woodland Hills High School is already being talked about in comparable terms with some of the other great players produced by his school in recent years, including Steve Breaston, Ryan Mundy and Devon Lyons.

“I’ve received scholarship offers from Pitt and Louisville,” Walls said. “And I attended Pitt’s junior day.”
…
“I like Michigan and Virginia for the academics but I also like Pitt because it’s a home town thing,” Walls said. “I think Pitt will be a school that I’ll consider but right now I’m not sure. I want to take a look at Virginia a lot and a couple of our players went to Michigan and they’ve been telling me all about it there. I just like Michigan and Virginia more than the other schools right now.”

One of the many recruiting soap operas we can expect this year.

If you are the Boston College Athletic Department. Their move to the ACC not only has most of the Big East teams pissed. It seems that the basketball program is having some issues scheduling non-con games in the future (subs. req’d).

As Boston College makes its farewell tour of the Big East, the Eagles are inquiring about future opponents once it becomes an ACC member.

The only taker so far is Providence. The Friars supposedly are willing to start a home-and-home series with the Eagles next season, possibly in Conte Forum for the first year.

BC inquired with St. John’s and Seton Hall, but neither school seemed too interested. Connecticut has made it clear it wants nothing to do with the Eagles now that they’re leaving for the ACC. The Eagles wanted a few bus trips before they go to a league in which they will fly to every road game.

Now, I am flabbergasted that Providence College — the place where the Big East began, , where BE Commish Mike Tranghese worked, the city where the home office is based — would even consider this. I would hope that most BE schools would follow the example set by UConn’s Jim Calhoun and simply say FU to BC.

Practically all of their sports (excluding Hockey) are going to have to fly to the majority of their games. That travel budget is going to be deadly. Add in their admission fees to the ACC, and it will be several years in the red.

Good.

In Pitt basketball, a puff piece on Antonio Graves and his renewed confidence. Mainly, it just came down to meeting with the coach one-on-one.