As Pitt began the season rolling through the cupcakes, there was very little national commentary other than the occasional snark at Pitt’s schedule. Then Pitt hit the difficult stretch and still went through unscathed. That got a boost. Pitt only played one game last week, against a lesser opponent than Wisconsin and barely survived a couple comeback attempts. So Pitt found itself getting a large boost from the top-20 to a couple spots shy of the top-10. The simple explanation is that the voters finally noticed or gave Pitt “respect.” Not so much.

It was that the voters were finally convinced of reality and a lot of other teams ahead of Pitt lost. The voters look at the RPI more, and see a Pitt team up near the top. They also see teams with similar numbers but not the same record higher because of early expectations and need to compensate. A nice factor, though, was Wisconsin dismantling Michigan State. That was an eye-opener. But consider that all of these teams ahead of Pitt lost — Michigan State, Boston College, Louisville, Villanova, Washington, Arizona, Maryland, Oklahoma, Ohio State, NC State, Illinois, Memphis and UConn.

Then consider that the 2 other unbeatens are now #1 and #2 and Florida has a weaker non-con than Pitt. Naturally, Pitt had to get up higher. Of course, whenever Pitt takes its first loss, be prepared for a very quick drop.