Chris Dokish who writes for Pittsburgh Sports Report has his own blog now. Definitely looks good. This post, especially, is an interesting take on who Pitt should consider hiring as a new assistant coach for the basketball team. As a counter-thought, even though he is likely to join Sendek at Arizona State, I would have to mention Larry Harris as meriting strong consideration.

You may have missed it, but Pitt is hard at work lining up its 1-AA patsy home game for 2007.

Pitt is close to a deal that would bring Grambling State to Heinz Field for a game against the Panthers in 2007.

Only if their band is coming as well. I’d say it’s part of the problem with only 7 other conference foes, but so many other schools are just looking for the home patsy and going with the 1-AA route that it is something more.

That brings me to this article on football scheduling in college.

Welcome to the always opportunistic and ethically opaque world of nonconference college football scheduling. A world in which the sanctity of a contract means little — less if the contract does not contain a “liquidated damage” (i.e., buyout) clause. In which an incoming coach or athletic director (or major television network) can erase an existing game off the “future schedules” page with relative impunity. You’ve heard of the Outback Bowl? Welcome to the Backout Bowl.

Why is it that the only thing “binding” in college atletics seems to be a kid’s letter of intent? Coaching and AD contracts, nonconference scheduling, TV deals. All negotiable and easily changed.

Like records, nonconference football contracts were made to be broken. In the 1990s, Nevada and Oregon entered into an agreement to play three games. The Wolf Pack would visit Eugene in 2000 and ’03. The Ducks would play in Reno in ’04. Nevada honored both visits to Autzen Stadium, losing both times.

Then, in the spring of ’04, Wolf Pack associate assistant athletic director Rory Hickok received a disturbing phone call. “It was Oregon,” Hickok recalls. “They told us that they had an opportunity to play a home-and-home with Oklahoma but that they could only do it on our date [Sept. 18, 2004]. They asked not to cancel the game, but to postpone it.”

As one Oregon athletic official says now, “I suspect Nevada wasn’t overly thrilled.”

Nevada had neglected to include a fiscal penalty clause in the contract. The Wolf Pack had little leverage in compelling Oregon to honor the deal. The Ducks held the cards, and Nevada knew it. The NCAA was not about to step in and force Oregon to play the game, nor was the Pac-10 or the Western Athletic Conference.

“We provide for a fair amount of institutional autonomy,” says NCAA spokesperson Erik Christianson. “We don’t get involved in contractual issues between our member institutions.”

Of course, if a student-athlete signs a letter of intent to play at Oregon or Nevada and then reneges on that agreement, the NCAA does get involved.

Back to Nevada. If you are Hickok, what can you do? You know that ABC engineered the Oklahoma-Oregon matchup as a nationally televised game. You do not want to alienate ABC’s sister network, ESPN (“We’re very much interested in whatever exposure we can get,” says Hickok), and you do not want to alienate the mighty Ducks, either.

If you are Hickok, you swallow your pride. You allow ABC/ESPN and Oregon to find you a replacement opponent. You play Buffalo, a program that would win two games that season. You wonder how many of your fans headed to Lake Tahoe that day instead of to Mackay Stadium because of the switch. How much revenue you lost.

“Tentatively,” says Hickok, “we are scheduled to play Oregon here in 2010.”

Currently, that is a (cough, cough) gentleman’s agreement between the two schools. Nothing is in writing. And if Oregon can see fit to renege on a contract, how strong is that handshake agreement for the 2010 game?

“We don’t even have that game penciled in yet,” says an Oregon official.

I’m unaware of Pitt pulling stunts like this (witness the trips to Toledo and Ohio the last couple of years), but let’s not kid ourselves. Pitt would do the same thing with the opportunity. Read the whole article.

The problem has just gotten more accute with the addition of the 12th game. Schools are not looking for good games. They are looking for good money. Whether it is setting up the patsy home game even with a 1-AA team rather than risk playing a good 1-A opponent. Or bailing on a game for the increased TV opportunity.

Even the patsies are doing it. Buffalo bailed on an older deal with WVU this season to take a bigger payout to go play Auburn. This happened in February, leaving the Hoopies scrambling to find anyone. They got 1-AA Eastern Washington.

That’s the other reason so many schools are going the 1-AA route. The price for a patsy 1-A opponent is higher than ever with the increased demand. Buffalo was offered so much more money to play Auburn that even after they payed the penalty to WVU for skipping out, they were still making more off the deal.

Capsulized reviews of the activity at all the Big East spring football practices from ESPN.com.

Sophomore Tommie Campbell proved to be one of the spring surprises after switching from safety to weakside linebacker. Campbell might be the fastest player on the team, but the question is whether he can hold up physically. He weighs 202 pounds and has a slight upper body, although defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads likes the way Campbell explodes into blockers. … Senior linebacker H.B. Blades created a buzz at Heinz Field during the team’s Blue-Gold Game when he crushed tailback LaRod Stephens on a pass over the middle. … Conor Lee, battling David Abdul for the kicker spot, drilled a 49-yard field goal in the spring game. That battle will not be decided until the summer. … The coaching staff feels good about backup quarterback Bill Stull, who completed 11 of 16 passes for 183 yards and two touchdowns at the Blue-Gold Game. … The running game still has a “long ways to go,” according to coach Dave Wannstedt, although fullback Conredge Collins busted a 39-yard run in the scrimmage and Stephens had an excellent spring.

Noting that the Hoopies had their spring game televised on ESPNU. Meaning, perhaps 5 people not in the stadium saw the scrimmage. UConn had around 9000 show up for their spring game — hey when the basketball ends that suddenly, they needed to do something. Cinci has a new weight room, but the same players. It’s still wide open at starting QB for South Florida — that’s not a good thing for USF since that means Pat Julmiste isn’t being beaten out for the job. Syracuse has a walk-on WR who is 5′ 4″ — that’s shorter than Joe DelSardo. Rutgers has raised expectations on campus and one of the best names for a player — redshirt freshman QB Jabu Lovelace.

Jamie Dixon has to hire a new assistant.

Joe Lombardi, an assistant coach at Pitt the past three seasons, will be named the new head coach at IUP today.

A news conference is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.

Lombardi, 46, replaces Gary Edwards, who was not retained after this past season. Lombardi has many connections to the school and the town of Indiana. He was an assistant coach there from 1984-87 and his wife, Janet, was born and raised there.

This is the first head coaching job for Lombardi, who previously worked as an assistant at La Salle, St. Bonaventure and St. Francis, Pa., before coming to Pitt.

Even though Lombardi only spent three years at Pitt, he made an impact in recruiting circles.

Lombardi was the lead recruiter for Sam Young, one of the top freshmen in the Big East last season, and Gilbert Brown, a top-rated shooting guard who will play for the Panthers next season.

Associate Head Coach Barry Rohrssen gets lots of credit for his recruiting work, but Joe Lombardi has done an excellent job in recruiting. He was also instrumental in getting Trevor Ferguson to commit to Pitt last spring. (Okay, the kid didn’t stay once he saw the competition but that’s pretty good consider Ferguson never visited prior to making a written commitment.)
Lombardi was also the lead recruiter on Hamady N’diaye, the Center prospect who plans to make his commitment next week.