The outgoing Sports Editor of the Pitt News tries to do the right thing.

My roommate says it’s a damn shame, and I couldn’t agree with him more. Sleepless nights have plagued me ever since I heard the news: My younger brother will be getting a degree from Penn State.

Craig, a senior in high school now, has been top on my list of recruits. I made the calls and the house visits, just as Jamie Dixon and Dave Wannstedt do, yet it was all a waste. I tried so hard to steer him clear of the dark side, but I have failed.

Buck up, Jimmy! You made an honest effort. And what’s more, you’re not the only whose family has been torn asunder by such a misguided notion (My own aunt is a PSU alum, for example). What matters is that you stood up for your soon-to-be Alma Mater.

We salute you, Sir!

A few pieces to note.

The article today about the facility deficiencies at Pitt for the “other” sports. It mentions the status of facilities at other Big East schools and the problems for Pitt in finding enough land nearby to construct the new facilities envisioned. Big surprise that a Pittsburgh agency with some desired property would just let it lie fallow (though for once it isn’t the URA).

In Chicago, Coach Dave Wannstedt recalls drafts gone horribly wrong.

Dave Wannstedt can feel Lovie Smith’s joy right now. He hopes Smith does not wind up sharing his pain when it comes to selecting promising running backs in the first round of the NFL draft.

Wannstedt felt as euphoric when he drafted running backs Rashaan Salaam (1995) and Curtis Enis (1998) for the Bears as Smith must have felt after the Bears took Cedric Benson of Texas with the fourth pick of the weekend draft.

“It’s Christmas all around the NFL today,” Wannstedt said Monday during a break from his first recruiting trip as head coach of the University of Pittsburgh. “Everybody feels like they got the best players and everybody feels like they got the guys they wanted. It’s a wonderful life right now.”

This time 10 years ago, Wannstedt felt wonderful about selecting Salaam out of Colorado.

“How about getting the Heisman Trophy winner with the 21st pick of the draft that year? I mean, we liked him ahead of a couple of the other guys, so we were excited,” Wannstedt said. “It worked out for a year. He rushed for [1,074] yards his rookie year? In my mind we were off and running. But things happen.”

Salaam became involved with marijuana and then fumbled his way out of the league three years later.

In ’98, Wannstedt and the Bears believed they were taking a safe pick in Enis.

But a lengthy contract holdout, numerous injuries and a questionable work ethic hastened the running back’s downfall.

“Curtis Enis was about as sure a bet as I thought I was ever going to make,” Wannstedt said of the former Penn State star. “Between me and [former Bears player personnel boss] Mark Hatley and Greg Schiano on our staff then, who recruited Enis out of high school … you can’t do anymore homework on an individual unless the FBI and the CIA are involved. It just didn’t work out.”

He drafted a Penn State running back, that is never a safe pick.

Final note from Texas, surveying the college football landscape.

Get used to these names. It’s a good bet that next fall, we’ll be hearing them more often.
…
Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh quarterbacked the Panthers to a national championship in 1976. He believes Pitt junior quarterback Tyler Palko has the qualities necessary to do the same. Over his last six games in 2004, Palko averaged 303.5 yards passing while throwing for 17 TDs with just two interceptions.

Rising expectations.

They have been meeting for the last couple of days to figure out how to work the BCS for this upcoming season. With the AP poll out, it is still unclear what they will do. Dennis Dodd at Sportsline wonders if they are going to do anything.

Administrators gathered here for the annual BCS meetings have discussed the idea of essentially leaving the much-tweaked formula as is. After the Associated Press pulled out in January, the BCS was left with just the coaches poll and six computers.

So, it was inevitably asked here in a conference room at the Royal Palms Resort, why not leave the dang thing alone?

“It’s possible,” BCS coordinator Kevin Weiberg said. “It’s not an option we’ve taken off the table.”

The commissioners listened to presentations by the National Football Foundation and National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics on Monday. Both entities are seeking to organize and administrate a new poll to replace the AP’s.

But it’s becoming clear it’s a monumental task, especially if, as Weiberg says, everything must be in place by July 15. First, approximately 40-60 voters would have to be found who were willing to disclose their ballot each week. That could be a challenge in itself. Some AP voters were harassed by fans last season.

The American Football Coaches Association, which has never publicly released its ballots, is reluctant to take even the tiny step of releasing ballots after the completion of the bowls.

“Ya’ll will have a field day with that,” AFCA executive director Grant Teaff told reporters. “Coaches will be duckin’ and divin’ (if their ballots were released). I’ll be going on vacation right about then. The situation basically called for it because of what happened last year.”

That’s when the BCS endured its most intense scrutiny. Undefeated Auburn couldn’t get into the BCS title game. Meanwhile, voters basically decided on the last day of the season that Texas would edge out Cal for a BCS berth.

Teaff seemed to indicate that if another human poll is established, the coaches would consider releasing their final ballot. But don’t hold your breath on the coaches ever releasing ballots during the regular season; if that were a requirement, they’d be gone.

This story, though, suggests that there might not be any choice but for the coaches to start releasing their votes for the final poll.

Opposite of Dodd, Matt Hayes at the Sporting News thinks they will add another human poll.

The National Football Foundation outlined a plan at this week’s BCS meetings that would have former players, coaches and administrators vote in a poll to replace the departed Associated Press poll. And the plan, although in the early stages, appears to be the answer in yet another chapter of tweaking the controversial system.

“That looks like the way we’ve got to go,” says one BCS administrator.

Because it’s the safest way to go — a way with the least amount of complication and a way to bring back some legitimacy and integrity to the series points system. The problem: getting it set up and put in place by July 15, a deadline Big 12 commissioner and BCS czar Kevin Weiberg has set for the points system to be rolled out for all to see — and criticize.

“My personal preference is human polls,” Weiberg says. “But there are a lot of people in that room with a lot of ideas.”

Other proposals that will be discussed Tuesday include the formation of a selection committee, having the coaches poll and computer polls stand on their own or the potential for a hybrid of those ideas. Each of those, though, have serious flaws and the objective, one BCS administrator says, is to keep the point system from straying too far from previous years.

Weiberg says the new weekly poll would have to have anywhere from 40-60 voters, and the first vote likely would be released on Oct. 1 — not in the preseason like the coaches poll and the now eliminated Associated Press poll. The pollsters would be evenly chosen from all points across the nation to eliminate any potential regional bias.

I’m sure the next system will be just as effective and controversy free as the previous.