It looks like the Big East is closing in on a deal to play in the Liberty Bowl on New Years Eve starting next year. The Liberty Bowl is played in Memphis, Tennessee. This becomes more likely as the ACC appears close to nailing down the Music City Bowl deal. The foe for the Liberty Bowl would be either a SEC or Mountain West opponent. The Liberty Bowl, not surprisingly favors an SEC team.

A sticking point is that the Liberty Bowl wants the Big East’s #3 team. The Meineke Car Care Bowl (previously the Continental Tire) in Charlotte, North Carolina wants to move up from BE #4 to BE #3 in its deal. Presently the Liberty Bowl has the higher payout — $1.5 million per team vs. $1.27 — but the Charlotte group says it is willing to go higher. It also says that it will open negotiations with other conferences if it doesn’t get the BE #3.

Of course, if the BE places a team in the Liberty Bowl, it means that once again, C-USA gets squeezed by the BE. C-USA used to send its top team to the Liberty Bowl. Food chains are brutal.

With all of the bowls out there, and yet another expected in Toronto, it was never really in doubt that the BE would find enough bowls. The issues really were about payouts and prestige.

Another travel day. Back home, finally.

I’m going to keep the commentary short.

CSTV.com has a long piece on Big East Media Day. Here’s what they said about Pitt, or specifically, Coach Wannstedt, at Media day.

One of the most seen faces in Newport was that of Dave Wannstedt, whose picture adorns the cover of the Panthers’ 2005 media guide. Wannstedt, who grew up in Pittsburgh and returns to both his hometown and his alma mater this fall, following 16 years in the NFL, most recently as the Miami Dolphins’ head coach.

“I’m real comfortable there,” Wannstedt said of his new/old home. “I can relate to what people think and do, and how they react to things there. That’s been fun. I’ve kind of enjoyed it. You’ve got to be able to walk both sides of the street in Pittsburgh. You’ve got to be able to go downtown in the kind of position I’m in and sit down with the top CEOs and then the next day, you need to be able to go down to the South Side where all the mills are at, and walk in and have a beer and a fish sandwich. That’s a balancing act, and I’m comfortable doing both.”

The only reason I want to hear that story repeated for the umpteenth time during the season is that it will mean Pitt is winning and there will be lots more interviews with Wannstedt talking about the transition and going home.

So the media guide is finished? It’s not yet on the Pitt site.

Of course, Wannstedt will see a couple of familiar faces as he guides the Panthers through their 2005 schedule, which may or may not add to his comfort level. New Syracuse coach Greg Robinson spent over a decade in the NFL before returning to the college ranks with Texas last year, and new Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis, who will bring his Fighting Irish to Pittsburgh on September 3, is all too familiar to Wannstedt.

“I’m sure that Charlie’s dealing with the same things we are,” Wannstedt said of his once and future rival. “From a philosophy standpoint, he knows what we want to do here, and I get a good feel of what he’s going to do up there, but it still comes down to players. Am I going to be able to get a guy on defense to make plays like Jason Taylor? And is he going to be able to get his quarterback to make throws like Tom Brady?”

While those questions will remain unanswered until Sept. 3, the Pitt players are certainly impressed with their new coach’s conduct toward the team. “He really treats us like men,” said quarterback Tyler Palko. “That’s the biggest thing. In college, sometimes, coaches try to be too much like your parents. He’s really like, ‘Hey, we need to get A, B and C done, and I expect you to do A, B and C by this time period.’ If you don’t do it, you’re either not going to be around very long, or you reap what you sow. You’re going to have to suffer the consequences.”

If Palko and the rest of Wannstedt’s new charges have anything to say about it, it’ll be the rest of the Big East that suffers the consequences in 2005.

And hopefully beyond.

At least one reporter found that the most common response to questions about the new Big East and what will happen when the new teams meet the old is “I don’t know.” Why this should be surprising, is a mystery to me. No one actually knows right now.

Meanwhile, there is more worrying about what Wannstedt and Pitt will mean for the Hoopies.

There’s a potentially chilling story writing its early chapters in Big East Conference football.

Pitt, and the pendulum.
…
It’s potentially bad news for the neighborhood, and West Virginia needs to understand that the Backyard Brawl will be played out with more verve and charisma in recruiting. It’s not just about a cold, November sellout anymore.

Wannstedt’s homecoming has arrived at a crucial time for Pitt, too, with Keystone State football god Joe Paterno about finished pacing the Penn State sideline. Wither WVU?

“You particularly want to beat your rivals, and Pitt is our biggest rival,” Mountaineer Coach Rich Rodriguez said at the Big East Summer Kickoff media session. “Dave coming in and Pitt working the way they have is a concern for us, because western Pennsylvania is a big area for us.

“We’re such a small state that in recruiting, we have to go into western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia. Pitt is making a move to put more emphasis there. I think we’ll still get our share, and compete like we have been, but there’s no doubt it will be tougher.”
…
“He’s ignited a fan base that had been a bit hesitant about whether they wanted to be aboard, one that kind of always had these doubts in the background,” Pitt Athletic Director Jeff Long said.

As a coach and administrator, Long worked at eight schools before becoming Pitt’s AD in 2003. He’s got plenty of reference points on roots.

“Everyone thinks they love their own, and they do, but there’s no way I’ve seen them do it like in Pittsburgh,” he said. “They’re very proud of their own; they have a way of talking to one another that’s different.

“Dave’s part of that. Western Pennsylvania never left his blood. He embraces it, the blue-collar, steel-mill, melting pot. Pittsburgh, as a city, looks to the East, but it’s really a town of Midwestern values.”

Read all of it. And grin.

Just a couple other things. From Bruce Feldman’s ESPN.com blog (Insider subs.):

In the process of working on ESPN The Magazine’s college preview, I talked to some coaches for some scouting stuff and came up with some extra that I thought was pretty intriguing. The following was compiled with the help of four different coaches:

Most underrated QB?

* “[Tyler] Palko from Pitt. He’s a gamer. Much better athlete than we thought. I think he’s a guy I’d hate to be facing on fourth-and-4 late in the game because he’s finding a way to win the game right there. [New Pitt QB coach Matt] Cavanaugh’s gonna help him get to that next level. Watch how much sharper he’ll be this year.”

Given all the credit and he keeps making lists as one of the top-10 QBs in the country, how can he still be called underrated?

I don’t have time to go into the piece right now, but ESPN.com/Blue Ribbon Yearbook has their Pitt profile available (again Insider Subs.)

Final, but probably the most important piece for college sports in general, and a rare smart move from the NCAA. They are going to actually start paying closer attention to betting lines.

One response from an NCAA task force on gambling would have the organization start checking in regularly with a longtime antagonist — the Las Vegas sports books.

Rachel Newman-Baker, the NCAA’s director of gambling activities, said Tuesday the group hoped to re-establish contact with the oddsmakers to watch for instances where heavy wagering has caused significant changes in point spreads or for the casinos to pull games off the board.

This is generally how betting scandals have been discovered. Not by investigations, but by such heavy shifts in the line that someone would finally point it out. It’s such a no-brainer that it defies belief that they haven’t before.

I don’t bet, but the anti-gambling on sports legislation stuff always struck me as moronic. It would still happen, and having the info as public knowledge is a way to keep things more honest.

Final installment. The subject, Coach Dave Wannstedt.

Some actual notes of interest. It looks like College GameDay is almost assuredly going to happen.

A Pitt spokesman said the deal is not yet finalized, but yesterday coach Dave Wannstedt made a reference to “Gameday” when talking about the 8 p.m. game against the Fighting Irish.

Also, there is still no answer regarding the status of back-up QB Joe Flacco as to whether he will be coming back to Pitt.

At Big East Media Day, Wannstedt was the celebrity coach given his NFL past, and having won national championships as a player and coach and has a superbowl ring.

“I talked to Pete Carroll (Southern California), Chan Gailey (Georgia Tech) and Mike Shula (Alabama) before I took the job,” Wannstedt said. “I got a little something from each of them. Pete talked about recruiting, Chan talked about building a staff and Mike talked about going back to his alma mater. It was very helpful.”

Wannstedt said the biggest changes from the NFL are the year-around commitment to recruiting, which he was prepared for, and the importance of time management, which he’s still getting used to.

“In the NFL, if I wanted to keep the players from 7 a.m., to 7 p.m., it was fine,” said Wannstedt, who’s taking over for Walt Harris, now the head coach at Stanford. “But now, you get an hour and a half here and an hour and a half there, and you have to maximize that time. You can’t waste time in your meetings, and you can’t waste time in practice.”

Wannstedt also emphasized that while he expects to win and wants to win, that he appreciates that winning isn’t everything at the college level, an attitude after being let go by the Dolphins despite averaging 10 wins per season.

He also knows that he’ll be able to make a mark on his new community.

“You’re going to have a chance to do things in the community outside of football, you get to give back,” Wannstedt said. “To me, that’s exciting.”

Well, you definitely don’t want to talk to Chan Gailey about recruiting.

A West Virginia columnist tries to put cold water on Wannstedt erecting a fence around Western Pennsylvania.

“Now we’ve got it turned to the point where we’re going to dominate Western Pennsylvania. We’re going to be competing with Penn State and West Virginia because they’re there, but we’re going to eliminate most teams from even coming in here. We’re going to put a fence up around it and we’re going to dominate that area. And I don’t care who it is.”

That, of course, is easier said than done. Harris couldn’t do it. Johnny Majors couldn’t do it again. Certainly Paul Hackett and Mike Gottfried and Foge Fazio couldn’t do it. Jackie Sherill and Majors the first time pulled it off, but that’s really the only time in modern history — we won’t go back to the Jock Sutherland days, thank you — that Pitt was able to recruit Western Pennsylvania with anything resembling a fence around the place.

But then he has to concede that it could actually happen.

Somehow, though, you tend to think that if anyone can pull it off again, it might be Wannstedt. He has the charisma, the NFL background kids love, the Pitt connections to the glory years. He’s got a network of Dorsett and Mark May and Dan Marino and Bill Fralic and, yes, even Johnny Majors, to make it happen.

But it won’t happen overnight.
…
All in all, it makes for a pretty perfect situation for Pitt’s new coach. With all of that, maybe he can build that fence.

We shall see.

It was apparently a very foggy morning in Newport, Rhode Island. Many of the stories led with that. It was also well attended by various others.

The upbeat mood at the well-attended Big East functions, which included visits by officials from ABC, CBS, ESPN, the National Football Foundation and numerous bowls, was a drastic contrast from the last two years when the conference seemed to be falling apart due to defections.

“There was a lot of animosity and not much optimism,” said Connecticut coach Randy Edsall.

Depending on where this AP wire story was published the headline was either positive or negative about the state of the BE. Keep in mind the actual content is no different — just the headline.

Louisville seems aware they are going to be a target in the league this year, but are going to stay aggressive.

It is noted that the hoped for favorite has spit the bit, the last couple of years.

Pitt had the chance two years ago under Walt Harris and fell short. West Virginia followed suit last year. This year, it appears that newcomer Louisville will carry the mantle, increasing the burden of being a new player in the league.

Other than that, no pressure.

West Virginia Coach Rich Rodriguez is fine with being picked middle of the pack.

Cincinnati, picked last this season, seems a bit awed by the whole process. Or at least the beat writer is a little unnerved in the step up in class.

For the University of Cincinnati, it was the first tangible evidence of the new company it’s keeping and the benefits it will reap from membership in the revamped league, one of six members of the Bowl Championship Series that determines the national football champion.

More than 130 representatives from 60 media outlets gathered Tuesday for the Big East Football Media Day, the first for the league since the addition of UC, Louisville and South Florida to the football mix after the defection of Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech.

Actually, it would appear that all 3 of the newbies are a little taken aback by what it means to get out of C-USA.

On a foggy Monday night at a Rhode Island state park, coaches, players, administrators and media covering the new Big East Conference gathered around a smoking pit and watched while cooks unveiled … clams.

Lots and lots of clams.

For the University of Louisville athletic program, which has been salivating at the opportunity to join a big-time conference, the chance to join the Big East represents a chance not only to make considerably more clams but to gain considerably more exposure doing it.
…
Signs of a new day dawning were everywhere. When the prizes were handed out for winners of Monday’s golf outings and many participants were awarded sets of Nike irons, U of L sports information director Kenny Klein looked over at football SID Rocco Gasparro and said, “We’re not in Conference USA anymore.”

Jim Leavitt, coach of new member South Florida, left Monday night’s clambake with a big tray of lobster.

“It was either this,” Leavitt said, “or I was going to put some lobsters into my pockets.”

You always judge meetings, conferences, conventions and groups by the kind of free schwag given away.

There’s a lot, and I haven’t even really looked too far or deep yet. Judging from the quotes and photos, Pitt’s contingent to the Big East Football Media Day consisted of Athletic Director Jeff Long, Head Coach Dave Wannstedt, Linebacker H.B. Blades, Wide Receiver Greg Lee and Quarterback Tyler Palko. All apologies if I missed anyone.

The BE Coaches pre-season poll has Pitt firmly in 2nd behind Louisville. These are about expectations and what the coaches see in the returning teams.

Louisville received 23 of a possible 24 first-place votes. The Cardinals are coming off an 11-1 season which included a 44-40 victory over Boise State in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl. The U of L’s final rankings of sixth in the Associated Press poll and seventh in the ESPN/USA Today poll were the highest in school history. This season, the Cardinals, under coach Bobby Petrino, return 14 starters.

Pittsburgh was picked for second place and received the only other first-place vote. The Panthers, under new head coach Dave Wannstedt, welcome back 16 starters, including nine on offense. Last year, the Panthers were part of a four-way tie for the conference crown and were the BIG EAST’s BCS representative in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. Pitt finished 8-4 overall and 4-2 in league play.

You have nearly a wash in returning starters, recruiting classes not too far apart, and the only difference is coaching stability/questions. It really is not that outrageous for Louisville to be picked to win the BE over Pitt. Louisville Coach Petrino, of course poor-mouthed it, saying they were chasing Pitt since Pitt won the BE last year. The Pitt players aren’t bothered.

“They deserve it, so it doesn’t bother me,” Palko said. “But all this preseason stuff really means nothing. We were picked fifth or sixth (in the league) last year, and look what happened.”

Said Pitt linebacker H.B. Blades, “It’s a great motivation for us.”

There are of course stories on the overall state of the BE, and the sense of optimism that the worst has passed.

People said the Big East was falling apart. They said it would be stripped of its Bowl Championship Series bid. They said it was going to lose its basketball-only members and cease to be relevant.

“I stand here two years later and none of that is true,” Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said Tuesday at the league’s football preseason media day.

Tranghese welcomed three new teams — Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida — into the conference’s football fold. He also said the league will have a new postseason destination in 2006, if the NCAA approves a proposed bowl game in Toronto.

“It’s a pretty historic day — probably the most exciting day in the 26-year history of our league,” Tranghese said. “We’ve got eight programs, all on the upswing. We just need time to stabilize (the league) and play.”
…
“What it was before was, people were playing for second place,” Tranghese said. “Now, there are a lot of people who think they can win in this league. I see it in the eyes of our coaches. There are a lot of coaches here who think that down the road they can be the dominant program in this league.”

Tranghese indicated that the Big East’s main issue for now will be finding enough games for each team to play with the 12th game situation, but only 7 conference games.

Half the schools will get four home conference games a year, while the other half will have three. While the league is not opposed to adding a ninth football member, Tranghese said it is more likely the conference will enter into some sort of a scheduling alignment with another conference or several teams. The conference’s top targets for such a deal are Army and Navy.

“Your seeing a lot of creativity in scheduling out there,” Pitt athletic director Jeff Long said. “The Big Ten and the Mid-American Conference are on the verge of entering a scheduling agreement, and you are going to start to see more of that kind of thing as we move forward. And that is something we need to look at in the Big East in order to satisfy our lack of an even home-and-home conference schedule.”

Tranghese said: “I don’t think we’re interested in taking on a ninth school. In order to take on a ninth school they have to make you better, it can’t just be adding a ninth team to add a ninth team. We need to give our schools a balance of four home and four away games so this is the next big agenda item for us.”

This is going to be tough because I think a lot of conferences are leaning towards adding a 9th game. Boost the overall strength of schedule and get more match-ups in 12 team conferences.

As far as bowls for the Big East are going, it looks like there is a good chance over half the tie-ins could involve cars:

The Big East has two slots tied up with a BCS Bowl and the Gator/Sun agreement. Other possibilities are the Auto Zone Liberty Bowl in Memphis, the Music City Bowl in Nashville, the Champs Bowl, the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, the Motor City Bowl in Detroit or a new bowl proposed for Toronto.

[Emphasis added.]

Just one of those quirky things, I guess.

I think this could be my favorite quote from media day:

“We treat one another like family and we are very close,” South Florida’s star running back Andre Hall said. “We listen to the same music and like the same kind of girls.”

The odds for fireworks and a locker room brawl at some point just went to even money.

As I mentioned, I’m in Pittsburgh for a few days. I actually have a small list of things to get — booze from the liquor store since it is significantly cheaper than the state licensed stores in Ohio, some Pitt gear, and a case of Yuengling. Sadly, it looks like the Yuengling will not be acquired due to space considerations (or lack thereof) in the car.

So I went to the Pitt Store to get stuff for my daughter and me. Yeah, I know putting her in Pitt gear is no guarantee. If it were, Lee and I would both be Penn State fools. Still, effort must be made and at the very least they will be embarrassing photos when she is older.

They have cheap, simple t-shirts with the new Pitt logo for only $6, but I was more interested in getting a new hat. Get it now and have time to really break it in before the season starts. Pathetic. They didn’t have any hats with the new logo. They didn’t even have any of the retro hats.

WTF? They just don’t get it, do they?

Down at the corner street vendor — Pitt Stop — they had one. They also had at the bottom of the rack some really old hats that they must have found in a bin. I mean, these were hats they sold when I was in school. And no, they weren’t “retro” hats. They were just old hats. Still dusty, and a couple were sun-bleached out.

Right now we seem be right there for this kid.

Youngstown (Ohio) Liberty defensive tackle Chris Harrison is looking to play D-1 college football. Liberty head coach Jeff Whitaker says Harrison has a huge upside and his best football is definitely ahead of him. The 6-foo-5, 265-pound, Harrison says several schools have already offered a scholarship.
…
“I like Ohio State a lot because of the tradition but I wouldn’t say there’s an absolute leader.” Harrison said.

“Ohio State is such a prestigious program that its hard not to look at them, especially living in the state of Ohio. I also like Pittsburgh a lot right now. Pitt and Ohio State would be my top two.[“]

He also leaves out that in Y-town, OSU head coach Tressel is a god. Columbus doesn’t even compare in the worship of Tressel.

He’s planning to wait on his commit, though, until it is much closer to signing day. The article says he is rising in profile and expected to be in their mid-west top-100. According to the recruiting info on Harrison, neither Pitt or OSU have actually offered yet.

Today is the Big East football Media Day. The coaches and certain key players from each team will be on hand doing quickie interviews and press conferences. On such a day, optimism will be the theme.

What a difference a year makes.

For the first time in three seasons, every member of the Big East wants to be in the Big East. Miami and Virginia Tech are gone. So is Boston College. In their place are Cincinnati, Louisville and South Florida, three schools that will be vitally important to the future success of the conference.

“We feel good about it,” said commissioner Mike Tranghese. “It’s nice to have people here who are excited about being here. Last year was a hard year.”

The BE coaches pre-season poll will be released today.

The Big East also has a football preview. The actual preview is in PDF, and this borrowed laptop won’t let me download the latest Adobe Reader to take a looks, so I can’t tell you what the propaganda press released info on Pitt says.

At least I know there will be stories tomorrow.

Matt at Blue Gray Sky has the final post in his series of new coaches ND will face this year. It is Dave Wannstedt’s turn. It’s an interesting read, but I concede there were some points that made me defensive.

They really question whether Matt Cavanaugh is the guy to be running the offense, given his history. I can’t totally disagree, and I think many Pitt fans are a little concerned what will happen with Palko’s development. If Palko doesn’t develop further this year, the blame will be coming firmly and fully on Cavanaugh. Concurrently, it will be interesting to see what Kyle Boller of the Baltimore Ravens does this year. If there is no real growth for him without Cavanaugh to blame, then it would be fair to say that part of the problem was the talent not the coaching.

By the way Michael, you can’t really bring up the Rick Mirer trade on a ND site without acknowledging that this NFL flop was one of your guys (who knew he was still technically in the league). Yes, it was a hideous deal, at the time there was still a belief that he could be salvaged — but not at that pricetag. As you have noted even Charlie Weis couldn’t do anything with him.

It also seems a little strange to mock the positive descriptions of Wanny in his bio and from the local media. I mean from Dylan analogizing the Weis hire to Outback when he’d prefer to go to Ruth Chris in December, to Mark’s post in July arguing that Weis has fully absorbed the lessons of Lord Belichick (and can I add that this is just scary). Just remember that Belichick flopped in his first head coaching gig.

Looks like we are hitting the dry patch for news. Nothing out there this morning. Time to go to a fall back position: college football preview magazines.

Over the past month, the full preview issues have been making appearances, and I’ve been taking some notes. Not merely some specific conference preview issues.

I’m going to do a couple of them now — depending on how long the kid lets me — and try to get more summaries out during the week. Posting may be a little light this week, ironically because I am actually in Pittsburgh. Right now I’m in the Oakland Holiday Inn while the wife is attending a conference. A pilgrimage to a couple watering holes with some friends is hoped for tonight.

Keep in mind, that previews are not expected to be terribly accurate. What they are about are expectations. Based on what talent teams have, the coaching, schedule and everything. They are not gospel.

First up, The Sporting News 2005 College Preview. They don’t have Pitt in the top-25.

In their section on coaching changes, they had the following to say about Dave Wannstedt: “A new challenge will invigorate one of football’s finest teachers.”

They rank Pitt’s secondary as #10th in the country.

Individual players from Pitt were ranked as follows:
QB — Tyler Palko, #9
WR — Greg Lee, #3
ILB — H.B. Blades, #8
CB — Josh Lay, #16
K — Josh Cummings, #3
P — Adam Graessle

The Big East section is credited to “freelancer,” Mike Cherry. Cherry’s current regular working gig is unknown, but he is familiar with the Big East. He had been a sportswriter at the Charleston Daily Mail.

He picks Pitt to finish 2nd in the BE, which everyone is doing, behind Louisville. Greg Lee is his pick for “Offensive Player of the Year.”

On the 1st Team All-Big East he has Palko, Lee, Charles Spencer (OT), Blades, Lay, Cummings and Graessle.

For the 2nd Team All-Big East he puts Thomas Smith (DT), Darrelle Revis (CB) and Tez Morris (S).

The Pitt preview itself is bland. Basically talks about Palko and Wannstedt. Nothing too interesting.

Kevin Collier, a top running back recruit from Rochester, NY gets a piece in his local paper. He has offers from Pitt, Maryland, Southern Cal, Syracuse, Wisconsin and others. He is not giving away who his actual front-runner is in the piece. Instead he is insisting that he will take his time, take hihs official visits during the fall and then make up his mind. His high school coach has a cabin down in West Virginia. What, there aren’t enough rural and deserted places in upstate NY? But I digress. This did allow for an unofficial visit to Pitt.

Pittsburgh is putting on the biggest push. First-year coach Dave Wannestedt, the former NFL head coach, spent a good amount of time with Collier on campus during the Panthers’ Blue-Chip recruit day April 2 and also came to Churchville during the visitation period.

During an unofficial visit on their way back from their West Virginia getaway, Collier and Dick also toured Heinz Field, home to Pitt and the Steelers. Leading the tour was Irondequoit native David Walker, the longtime Syracuse running backs coach in his first year at Pitt.

As per NCAA rules, coaches can’t comment on players.

Collier was wowed by the facilities. Of course, when SU coaches found out about Collier’s brief visit to Pitt, they quickly countered with a phone call to Dick.

“Tell Kevin that Syracuse University will have a scholarship waiting for him until Feb. 2 (signing day),” Dick recalls the SU assistant coach saying.

I was very excited when Wannstedt hired Walker, just for the kind of coaching he did with Syracuse RBs. He should be a huge factor in this recruiting. He’s the guy behind many of the RBs at Syracuse that Collier has been seeing on TV growing up. That has to be a huge selling point.

We’ll see if they stay this united in another year.

A package deal exists, O.J. Mayo says, that could change the face of Big East basketball.

One team will win a three-player jackpot whose drawing is less than 18 months away, and that team will immediately become a contender.

Mayo, the No. 1-rated sophomore prospect in the nation, and teammates Bill Walker (No. 5) and Keenan Ellis (No. 11) are a package deal. The three juniors-to-be at North College Hill High (Cincinnati) changed their entire recruitment with a Three Musketeers mindset.

It’s all for one, and one for all. And that’s the Catch-22: A coach can have all of them or none. There is no middle ground.

Mayo has already been touted as the next big star. He’s the recruit to pursue. Obviously he’d e the focal point. Still, it’s not like the others are slouches. The issues are need, ego and control. Many coaches are wary of offering 2 guys just to get 1, it should narrow the field a bit on who will take 3-for-1.

I give the kids credit for gaming the system. If they really want to keep playing together and remain teammates this is a way to do it. Still, they are only going to be high school juniors. There is still plenty of time for their own egos and interests to split this.

On a slow day like this, I hope some of you are taking time to check some of the other blogs on the side. Especially take a look at the Big East team blogs. Always important to know what is happening elsewhere.

It almost pains me to do it, but I highly recommend the ND Blog, Blue Gray Sky. Sure they have drunk fully and perhaps irrationally from the Charlie Weis kool-aid, but, uh, we aren’t exactly in any position to cast aspersions on such views with the Panther Nation’s collective slurping of Dave Wannstedt.

It is also time to welcome the newest BE blog, and one that will make my wife happy, the Cincinnati Bearcat blog. The operator is also behind RenewHuggins.com. I know how my fellow PSBer, Lee likes to bash THuggins for getting players of questionable academics and backgrounds.. Afterall, he prefers his coaches in Ohio to either blatantly pay for players (O’Brien) or preach responsibility and morality while his charges do the opposite (Tressel).

The odds of a team winning the BCS championship game according to Caesar’s Palace on July 6.

OPEN    CURRENT
                                        ----    -------
                   U-S-C                 2-1      -150
                   MIAMI-FLORIDA        10-1      10-1
                   TEXAS                12-1       8-1
                   MICHIGAN             12-1       9-1
                   IOWA                 15-1      15-1
                   FLORIDA STATE        15-1      25-1
                   OKLAHOMA             18-1      12-1
                   TENNESSEE            18-1      18-1
                   FLORIDA              20-1      10-1
                   VIRGINIA TECH        20-1      15-1
                   L-S-U                25-1      25-1
                   TEXAS A&M            25-1      45-1
                   OHIO STATE           30-1       7-1
                   LOUISVILLE           30-1      35-1
                   ALABAMA              35-1      30-1
                   MINNESOTA            35-1      50-1
                   FRESNO STATE         40-1      60-1
                   GEORGIA              40-1      45-1
...
                        BOWLING GREEN       150-1     350-1
                   TEXAS TECH          175-1     300-1
                   PENN STATE          175-1      80-1
                   UTAH                175-1     400-1
                   CALIFORNIA          200-1      65-1
                   NORTH CAROLINA      200-1     500-1
                   TEXAS-EL PASO       250-1     500-1
                   WEST VIRGINIA       300-1     300-1
                   COLORADO            400-1     250-1
                   NOTRE DAME          500-1      75-1
                   PITTSBURGH          600-1     500-1
                   SYRACUSE            700-1     700-1
                   BOISE STATE          50-1     200-1

I find it interesting to see which alumni have really moved the betting lines up and down. Gives you a better sense of their perspective on reality.