I admit it. I’m a bit of a freak in that I don’t play video games. I blame my parents for refusing to buy me the Atari 2600, then the 5200 nor Colecovision and everything afterwards. So I’ve never really bothered with them. Considering how I waste my time in so many other ways, I think it only counts as a minor character flaw.

Still, reading others drool over NCAA Football 2007, causes tinges of regret.

Tyler Palko ranks as the #10 QB in the game this year. A hat tip to Keith W. who notes the disturbing accuracy of the screen shot, “TWO Pitt lineman are laying flat on their backs. That is realism!”

Indeed.

Pitt missed out on landing a prep center project Hamady N’Diaye this year. Instead he chose to go to Rutgers. Turns out that may have worked out for Pitt in a way. N’Diaye plays at Stoneridge Prep and, as Shirts and Skins sadly notes, is one of the prep schools that has been exposed as at the very least having the appearance of a diploma mill. The school claims it’s just that they missed a deadline.

Stoneridge Preparatory School in Simi Valley, Calif., which was the subject of another report by The Post, also was listed as “inactivated” by the Clearinghouse. Lennon refused to comment on Stoneridge’s status.

The Post reported that Stoneridge players attended classes for a few hours each day and were so loosely associated with the school that most students had never seen the team play.

Jeannette Noble, an administrator at Stoneridge, said two NCAA officials visited Stoneridge last week and asked questions about the school’s classes, graduation rates and whether many of the school’s students attended college. Noble said the NCAA contacted the school after she failed to submit a questionnaire by the deadline.

“They just wanted to make sure it was a real school,” Noble said. “They took a tour of the school, and we showed them our textbooks, which are college prep. I’d hate to be lumped into that category of schools that need to be audited because I was late turning in the questionnaire.”

Under the plan from the NCAA, that means N’Diaye will not be eligible this fall.

As an amusing sidenote, since both the Washington Post and the New York Times have run stories this year on diploma mill prep schools, both are not shy of basically implying in the story that their sole coverage has been the reason the NCAA is cracking down.

A series of stories in The Washington Post has raised questions about the academic integrity of some prep schools with successful basketball programs and the NCAA Clearinghouse’s certification of transcripts from those schools.

and

The N.C.A.A.’s actions come in the wake of a series of articles in The New York Times illustrating how high schools and prep schools gave students fast and easy grades so they could qualify for athletic scholarships.

Let’s be fair and suggest that two national newspapers covering the same issue definitely pushed the issue, but suggesting exclusivity is more than a little deceptive. Someone alert the ombudsmen.

There are so many ways to go with this story on Johnny Majors. And a lot of them would end up going in a mean direction. Hell, the whole article is crying for subtext and reading between the lines. Part of that has to do with how I think of Majors.

The coming football season will mark 10 years since Majors coached his final game, 30 since he coached Pitt to a national championship and 50 since he finished second in the Heisman Trophy race and led Tennessee to a national title.

Both championships will be celebrated in style. Majors is helping organize the reunion for his Pitt team, which will be commemorated at the season opener against Virginia. A few weeks later, he’ll enjoy a bash with his boys from Tennessee.

Just don’t mistake him for a man living in the past. He refused to let retirement erode his spirit, although he admits it initially crushed him.

How could it not have? He’d practically become addicted to the structured, authoritative existence of a coach. Kids obeyed his instructions. Subordinates carried out his orders. Games fueled his competitive fire.

Then, one day, it stopped, like a 28-year roller-coaster ride pulling into the station. Majors knows many coaches — such as friend and former foe Joe Paterno – who are flat-out afraid to stop, and he can see why. They don’t want to wind up like Paul “Bear” Bryant, who died a few months after he retired.

“There really was an emptiness there for me,” Majors says. “I think I was on a practice field from 1943 to 1996. I was lost for about a year. I mean, I can’t remember my first spoken word or my first thought, but I certainly can’t remember when I didn’t love football. I saw a football before I could walk.”

Even after Pitt fired/resigned, Majors stayed associated with the school, but it was an uncomfortable time for Pitt fans to see him. He’d come into the stands during the first couple of seasons after his time ended. He’d shake some hands, exchange pleasantries and talk to people.

And he would also sit down in one of the many available spaces in the bleachers taking slugs from a flask as he was going. It was very painful to see, and unfortunately I did during that ’98 season (granted anyone who cared about Pitt probably needed to drink heavily to get through that season). Awkward doesn’t begin to describe it. People would quietly gesture, maybe whisper. Head shakes and sad, pitying looks his way. You would see security and ushers position themselves nearby to help him if he showed any signs of getting too wobbly.

Honestly, I wish these weren’t the things I think of with Johnny Majors. Unfortunately I was 7 in 1976 being raised in Central PA by Penn State alum, so there isn’t much I can tell you about that time regarding Pitt. I left Pittsburgh as Johnny Majors II began and so I didn’t see much of that period.

The optimist reading the story wants to believe that sort of thing is in the past and that he has found balance and happiness.

Before long, old interests awakened, and his schedule filled up. He hired one of his former Pitt secretaries to help him stay organized.

Travel is a top priority. Majors and his wife have seen “every state in the union.” They’ve been to Hawaii seven times, Scotland four times, Ireland and the Far East. Majors recently spent two weeks planning their next trip to Scotland. It’ll happen in the summer of 2007 with the families of coaching buddies Dick MacPherson, LaVell Edwards and Ted Tollner. The men will play four previous British Open venues.

“My next objectives are Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania,” Majors says.

What else? Well, he has walked the beaches of Normandy more than once, has a place on the board of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, plays tons of golf, buys more books than he could read in three lifetimes, fly-fishes in Montana every year, tags along with his wife on some of her botanical adventures (she’s president of the Garden Club of Allegheny County) and enjoyed a whale of a party at Paul Hornung’s house the night before the Kentucky Derby. (Alas, Hornung won again. He beat Majors for the 1956 Heisman and had Barbaro in the Derby).

Majors also retains office space at The Pete so he can fulfill his duty as “special assistant to the chancellor and athletic director.” He is heavily involved in charity work, most prominently in the form of John Majors Charities, which targets youths from disadvantaged families and involves them in sports and other activities. Some of those take place on Pitt’s campus.

Here’s hoping the stories of the hard drinking Majors are more things of the past, that make for simply some amusing anecdotes, and that he has can enjoy with some moderation.

It isn’t a matter of need. It’s a matter of want (via Dave Barry).

Yes, this is rampant consumerism. So what’s your point?

So the NCAA has finally decided on its approach with regards to the unaccredited schools that seem like diploma mills for kids — especially regarding basketball. The approach is, some of you are under the gun.

Early next week, the National Collegiate Athletic Association is expected to release its first list of high schools lacking proper academic rigor, which means those schools’ transcripts will no longer be accepted by the N.C.A.A. The Southeastern Conference is expected to pass legislation today that will give the commissioner’s office final authority on questionable transcripts, Vanderbilt Chancellor Gordon Gee said.

The N.C.A.A. vice president Kevin Lennon said in a telephone interview yesterday that the N.C.A.A. had been making unannounced visits to schools to research their legitimacy.

Lennon said that the N.C.A.A. sent out a questionnaire to about 50 schools requesting more information on their academics. He said that the schools that did not respond would be removed from the N.C.A.A.’s list of approved schools, which would essentially mean that students who attend those schools could not qualify for athletic scholarships.

…

“We’ve identified those schools that we need to make contact with immediately,” Lennon said. “We know that kids are waiting for decisions, and schools are waiting for decisions. We’re trying to put some priority and order to this.”

The list of high schools lacking proper academic rigor is expected to affect college basketball the most, as many of the questionable schools were set up around basketball teams.

This is arguably fair and unfair. It’s fair since there are private prep schools and high schools that are completely legit and have never had questions about them even if they lack accreditation from a state, while other states accreditation procedures are so meaningless that they are of practically no value. So you can’t simply go by accreditation, and given the large volume of schools in the country, you need to start somewhere. The NCAA and the member institutions are ostensibly about education first (try not to laugh). Let’s face it, there aren’t going to be many people able to articulate a good reason to oppose the NCAA at least asking some of these places to simply provide some documentation and proof that they are more than diploma mills.

It’s unfair since they are picking and choosing which schools to prove they are legit without explaining why they were targeted. It could be because certain coaches whining about a player going to a conference foe or losing out on the player, and looking for a way to make things more difficult. It could be from evaluating academic results in the NCAA schools and picking out the students from certain schools on the list that seem to struggle. Maybe simply because they received negative press *cough* Philadelphia Lutheran Academy *cough*.

Some of the targeted or potentially targeted schools are looking into options.

Don Jackson, a lawyer based in Montgomery, Ala., who said he had handled more than 20 N.C.A.A. cases the past four years, said that he had already been contacted by 10 high schools to seek his legal advice.

“I fully expect a wave of lawsuits,” Jackson said. “The N.C.A.A. is not an accrediting agency and not the state department of education. They have no legal authority to make value judgments on the quality of education in a school.”

But will anyone actually sue? A lawsuit would still cause an examination of their academics and operations.

What is a big potential danger for a lot of programs is that this policy will affect kids coming in this season. So if, say Lutheran Christian Academy gets tagged, that is going to matter to kids who will be going to George Washington and Texas A&M among others. Suddenly, they are not academically eligible and therefore there goes that scholarship. The basketball program just wasted a scholarship and the kid is back to trying to get to legit standards for admission.

At least they caught the problem.

Pitt kicker David Abdul will have open-heart surgery June 12 to correct a congenital and potentially life-threatening abnormality.

Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic diagnosed Abdul with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy on Tuesday. The wall in Abdul’s heart is three times larger than normal, which can cause the valve to malfunction and restrict the flow of blood to his body.

“Most of the time, the doctors don’t find it,” Abdul said from his home in Hartville, Ohio. “You just drop dead.”

Three weeks ago, Abdul’s twin brother, Jonathan, underwent emergency surgery after collapsing on a golf course. When doctors determined that hypertrophic cardiomyopathy caused Jonathan Abdul’s blackout, the entire family was tested for the condition.

“My brother is back home, and he’s fine,” David Abdul said. “As of right now, I’m thinking I’ll be playing this season.”

…

However, doctors at the Cleveland Clinic discovered that David Abdul has a leaky valve and an unusually thick heart wall. Pitt team doctors did not run tests on Abdul, but they were sent a copy of his test results.

“My surgery is on the 12th, but they’re going to try to get me in sooner if they can,” Abdul said.

Surgeons will shave some of the thickened muscle from Abdul’s septum to widen the outflow tract. After being hospitalized for four or five days, he will begin a rehabilitation that should last two or three months.

Abdul, who hopes to take a class this summer, is enrolled for the fall semester.

“I want to be back playing football this fall,” Abdul said. “I’m planning on it, but we’ll have to see how it goes.”

Seriously, what did David Abdul do in a past life to deserve all that has been happening to him in the last couple of years? Did he torture puppies? What?

Good luck David. Things have to start going right sooner or later.

Ah, the offseason of a college basketball coach. Today Coach Dixon goes to the Laurel Valley Golf Club in Ligonier to play in a Coaches vs. Cancer Golf Invitational.

Penn State men’s basketball coach Ed DeChellis has been named the Coaches vs. Cancer Man of the Year by the national organization.
…
“It is tremendous honor for Ed and great for Penn State to have our basketball coach recognized and represent the University in this way,” Penn State Director of Athletics Tim Curley said. “Ed has made a terrific impact not only on our basketball program but in the community and this is a testament to his perseverance and hard work.” DeChellis will be honored on Sunday evening, June 3 at the Seventh Annual Coaches vs. Cancer Golf Invitational hosted by the Laurel Valley Golf Club in Ligonier, Pa. The tournament will be played June 4-5. Among the other coaches expected to attend the event are: Jim Boeheim (Syracuse), Jim Calhoun (Connecticut), Fran Dunphy (Temple), Phil Martelli (St. Joseph’s), Jay Wright (Villanova), Kelvin Sampson (Indiana), Jeff Capel (Oklahoma), Mark Gottfried (Alabama), Jamie Dixon (Pittsburgh) and Gary Williams (Maryland).

DeChellis has survived a bout of cancer himself. Still, someone should heckle him for cowardly backing away from playing Pitt any longer. Maybe Dixon can start talking to one or two of the coaches listed about setting up and home-and-home.

Does it ever get awkward for coaches after one coach poaches another member of their staff? Do you think Martelli and Dixon will end up in the same foursome?

After that, I think this could, maybe be stretched to be considered a “working” vacation for tax purposes.

Former University of Hawaii and current Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Carter and former assistant and current University of Pittsburgh head coach Jaime Dixon will serve as guest speakers at this summer’s Rainbow Boys and Girls Basketball Camp.
…
Dixon completed his third season at Pitt, where he guided the Panthers to a 25-8 record and second round appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Dixon spent five seasons as an assistant to head coach Riley Wallace in two separate stints (1992-94; ’98-99) at UH.

The camp features two three-day sessions. The first session runs June 9-11 while session two is June 12-14.

Spend a week in Hawaii, give a couple speeches at the session. Spend the rest of the time on the beach and hitting the links. Nice. Almost like being a member of Congress.

Then, he has to get back to Pitt for the first of his summer basketball camps.

Busy June.

Looks like Mike Rice, Jr. has all but officially taken the assistant coaching job with Pitt.

New Kensington native Mike Rice, Jr. is coming home to be on Jamie Dixon’s staff at Pitt. A source close to the men’s basketball program confirmed yesterday that Rice has accepted Dixon’s offer to be the top assistant. An official announcement is expected from Pitt Monday.
…
Rice’s hiring almost completes Dixon’s staff. Dixon had to replace Barry Rohrssen and Joe Lombardi, who left for head coaching positions in April. Orlando Antigua was promoted from director of basketball operations to an assistant coach last month. The only vacancy remaining is the director of operations. Former Pitt star Brandin Knight is expected to get that job.

Wonder if they’ll make it one big press release or just the Rice hiring.

UPDATE: It was pointed out to me that once Knight gets officially named to the staff, he is heavily restricted/regulated with regards to his contacts with high schoolers. So if Knight is helping out with say the AAU Pittsburgh JOTS or just visiting some games back in NJ, he can actually have contact with them. Makes sense then, to wait to make the hiring official.

Coach Wannstedt has an interestingly frank talk in this AP article looking back on his first year.

The former Pitt lineman and NFL coach talked openly of winning another national championship at his alma mater, of building upon the five consecutive bowl appearances by predecessor Walt Harris. As he talked, the optimism and expectations grew beyond realistic proportions, to the point Pitt was being called a possible Top 10 team if it could beat Notre Dame in its opener.

Maybe, Wannstedt says in retrospect, he should have spent more time in the film room and less in the greeting line.

If he had, he might have seen one of the most disappointing seasons in Pitt history coming, one in which the Panthers went 5-6 with blowout defeats by Notre Dame (42-21) and West Virginia (45-13) and an inexplicable loss to Ohio University (16-10).

“The biggest mistake – and it starts with me – is not assuming anything from the standpoint of how good a player might be, where our mental state is. Are we hungry enough? Are we a bunch of fat cats feeling good about the success we had?” Wannstedt said. “I probably spent so much time out in the streets with the PR and recruiting and the alumni and everything else that comes with that, I probably didn’t do a good enough job knowing our players and what we were capable of.”

He hedges a little when he says it was in part driven by his love of the school and a little too much wishful thinking on his part that thigs would be fine. Still, he concedes that he has to not only know what the players can do, but use them correctly.

The article points out that while Wannstedt has had one of the best recruiting classes at Pitt in years (I think it a slight exaggeration and premature to call it “among the best in school history”) he still has to do something with it. Former Coach Walt Harris, did at least get a lot out of the talent he recruited. That’s also something that WVU Coach Rodriguez does so well. He maximizes the talent he gets and gets talent that fits what he does.

Wannstedt’s hope is that a bad season ultimately turns out good because it brings in better players.

“I don’t think it’s any secret why we’re struggling, the biggest thing we’ve got to do is build a program where we have the depth and talent at every position where every game and every season is not a roller coaster,” he said. “That’s how I would describe it, last year as well as in the past a little bit. You can have a great year, but a great year does not mean a great program. A great program is when you win consistently.”

Roller coaster is a good way to describe the last 5-6 years for Pitt in terms of both expectations and results. Part of the problem has been that the 2 have yet to coincide in any year.

I was getting ready to write about Rich Rodriguez and WVU’s contract stalemate yesterday, but then seeing that Orson at EDSBS had tackled it intimidated me. Not in the way PSB friend, Mac attempted to uh, sexually intimidate a couple obnoxious ND fans late into the night a few years back on Carson Street (and I’ve already said way too much — going to need to drink double tonight to get that imagery out of my head). More in the way of having to follow a master crafstman.

Looking at the article a couple times over it seems the key issues are about money — the buyout amount and raising the assistant’s salaries — not for a present salary for Rodriguez.

The two sides have hit a wall in discussions the past two weeks, said a source familiar with the situation, because the fifth-year coach seeks additions to his contract such as a formal university commitment to higher pay for his assistants, facility improvements and standards equal to other comparable coaches — for instance, West Virginia’s $2 million buyout clause is the conference and Division I-A exception rather than the norm.

A $3 million buyout clause in his contract prohibited Mountaineers basketball coach John Beilein from accepting the North Carolina State job in April.

Rodriguez, a Mountaineers player under predecessor Don Nehlen and a native of coal-mining Grant Town, W.Va., has maintained publicly and privately that he wants to remain at West Virginia for the duration of his coaching career. He talks about staying at his alma mater and maintaining a top-tier program for decades, much like Joe Paterno at Penn State and Bobby Bowden at Florida State.

The buyout clause, which started with the seven-year contract extension he signed after a 9-4 season in 2002 that relieved pressure from a criticized athletic department, is merely another facet from which Rodriguez cannot get university officials to budge, the source said, adding that one sticking point remains a $50,000 difference in across-the-board raises he’s requesting for his assistants. It seems to those around Rodriguez that the coach’s loyalty is being used against him as leverage in negotiations.

Pitt fans may recall that one of the big issues at the end of the Walt Harris era going into Dave Wannstedt was the fact that Pitt was more than a little stingy on paying for the assistants. They would pay for the head guy, but try to nickle-dime on assistants. Looks like WVU follows the same approach (maybe that’s why ex-PSU coach Jerry Dunn is part of Beilein’s staff on the b-ball side). Rodriguez is smart enough to know that good assistants are needed for recruiting and gameplanning, and they cost money. Not to mention that if your assistants are sub-par, after a while it catches up to the on-field performance and talent and the head coach’s job security.

As for the buyout, that’s about future raises. Rodriguez can get a nice raise for now, but in a couple years he might be due for another bump based on other schools having an interest. With a high buyout, though, he is not as attractive to another school and it decreases his open market value — and future raises.

I can’t believe WVU’s administration would be that stupid. Not, now that things are starting to go their way and they have stability with their coaches. Well, maybe…

Today’s Craig “Ironhead” Heyward’s funeral. I wish I had some story to share or remembering him on the field, but I got to Pitt the year after he turned pro.

Assistant Athletic Director E.J. Borghetti writes about some of the memories of Ironhead including his appearance at the final game at Pitt Stadium.

One final Ironhead memory: The year following his initial tumor diagnosis, Heyward made his way back to Pittsburgh for the final game at Pitt Stadium on November 13, 1999.

He visited the locker room before kickoff and was moving from player to player, banging their shoulder pads, yelling “Come on! Let’s go!”

Some three-plus hours later, as the Panthers were putting the final touches on their 37-27 victory over Notre Dame, there was Ironhead again, this time revving up the student section with high fives.

For a very good rememberance of Ironhead, read all of this piece from Len Pasquarelli of ESPN (hat tip to Allen). Pasquarelli is a Pittsburgh native and covered Ironhead in the 90s as a beat reporter for the Falcons.

On his final visit to his old friend, [Bobby] Hebert and Heyward were talking about their oldest sons, both of whom are exceptional football players and are being recruited by big-time college programs. Heyward told Hebert of a call he had received from University of Pittsburgh coach Dave Wannstedt, attempting to recruit his son Cameron, who just completed his junior season at suburban Peachtree Ridge High School.

Wannstedt had helped direct Heyward to Pitt, his alma mater, and in 1993 was his head coach with the Chicago Bears. That year, Wannstedt fined Heyward a total of nearly $200,000, because the fullback’s weight had ballooned to an all-time worst 328 pounds. So when Wannstedt phoned recently to see if he might engage Heyward in helping convince Cameron that Pitt was the place for him, Craig Heyward recalled the hefty fines from 1993.

“He said, ‘Coach, remember all that money you find me back in ’93? Well, you return that $200,000 and I’ll send Cameron up there to play for you.’ Can you imagine?” said Hebert. “Even as bad off as he was at the time, and this was just a few weeks ago, he was still sharp enough and funny enough to come up with that comeback to Wannstedt. I mean, that was vintage Ironhead, right?”

Rest in peace.

Just a little nugget to stay on top of the Pitt assistant coach hiring watch. From Andy Katz:

Pitt has offered the top assistant job to Saint Joseph’s assistant Mike Rice. Hawks coach Phil Martelli expects Rice to accept the job. The Pitt assistant job has been one of the most coveted this spring.

[Emphasis added.]

Reads like St. Joseph’s didn’t come up with much of a raise or promotion.

New Manhattan Head Coach Barry Rohrssen hired a couple new assistants.

Continuing to assemble his staff, head men’s basketball coach Barry Rohrssen has added two more assistants with strong New York ties. Rohrssen recently announced the hiring of Edgar De La Rosa and John Alesi who both come to Manhattan after serving on Big East coaching staffs this past season.
…
Alesi spent last season working with Rohrssen at the University of Pittsburgh. Alesi, a New York native, served as Pitt’s basketball video coordinator. Alesi assisted the Panthers’ staff in opponent and self scouting, helped with some areas of recruitment, and oversaw the program’s film exchange.

Prior to his stint at Pittsburgh, Alesi served as an assistant coach at Baruch College of the CUNY Conference during the 2004-05 campaign and a graduate assistant coach for Hofstra University of the Colonial Athletic Association during the 2003-04 season.

“I am impressed with John’s love for the game of basketball,” commented Rohrssen. “He is a young energetic coach with a strong work ethic, which will be beneficial to our program.”

It was speculated that Alesi might get promoted to Pitt’s Director of Basketball Operations with Antigua moving up to Assistant Coach, but reports that it will be Brandin Knight instead now receive greater credence.

For whatever reason, I’m feeling like being fair. So let me say, I don’t think the fact that WVU B-ball head coach John Beilein got cited for disorderly conduct by a police officer at the Pittsburgh Airport is that big a deal. Nor do I think that WVU should even think about taking any steps to ‘punish’ Beilein. There’s nothing to punish, it’s a traffic citation that looks bad.

West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong said Wednesday no immediate disciplinary action would be taken against basketball coach John Beilein after he was cited for disorderly conduct at Pittsburgh International Airport.
…
[Allegheny County police Superintendent Charles] Moffatt said the coach was cited for refusing to move his car, after telling the officer he didn’t have to move the vehicle because he was the West Virginia basketball coach.

Beilein’s attorney, Bob Fitzsimmons of Wheeling, W.Va., called it a misunderstanding.

“We don’t think it was disorderly conduct,” Fitzsimmons said. “It’s a misunderstanding between two individuals at a very busy Pittsburgh airport at the end of the Memorial Day weekend.

“It’s a very routine thing, but because he’s a coach, it gets escalated to something more, when it really isn’t. It isn’t a criminal matter.”

If you’ve dropped off or picked anyone up at an airport in the last couple of years you probably have your own annoyed stories of how petty, uncaring, and frustrating the cops are at airports.
They enjoy flexing their increased power to order people to move with greater zeal.

What amuses me was the reported playing of the “do you know who I am?” card by Beilein as he lost his cool. Apparently it had served him well in Morgantown, and he forgot he was no longer in West Virginia.

Okay, I’ve been trying to get this post written for almost a week, but a mixture of things (including losing an entire completed draft to the ether) has prevented the completion. I have been a long-time believer that the Bloated Big East would break-up following the 2009-10 basketball season. I felt (and still feel largely) that the football schools would have to split if ESPN kept shunting more of their games to fill weekday slots, which is why I keep bringing up the activities of the Mountain West Conference. Then there is the 12 game schedule creating difficulties in lining up enough opponents with only 7 conference games.

The Big East football teams need another team (at least), but it seems unlikely and unwise that the BE would further expand the conference to 17 or 18 at this time. Nor would many teams that could be potential partners be that interested in being football only affiliates. No one wants to be Temple.

So, for example, the argument that the Big East should consider Central Florida for membership

If I’m Big East commish Mike Tranghese, I’m placing a call to Central Florida’s new AD Keith Tribble and floating the idea of the Knights joining the Big East.

When I spoke with Tranghese a couple of months ago, he said the league wasn’t looking into expanding from eight teams. His argument against expansion — it dilutes bowl revenue by adding another share, among other reasons — is fair. But UCF is a natural fit, geography notwithstanding. UCF is the largest public university in the state of Florida, and Orlando is among the top 20 television markets in the nation.

The Knights just locked in high-profile coach George O’Leary for the next 10 years with a fat contract, and are 16 months from completing a new, 40,000-seat on-campus facility.
…
There logistics to adding UCF, most notably, scheduling for what would become a 17-team Big East basketball league. But it’s really not about hoops. Football drives the engine in college sports. By adding UCF, the Big East adds a big television market (see: advertising revenue) and further strengthens recruiting in the state. And gets to pick the brain of one of the game’s brightest administrators on a daily basis.

While on the football side UCF is probably the most attractive of very limited options, there just wouldn’t be the support in the Big East for adding that school unless Notre Dame was jettisoned.

That’s really the only scenario where I see adding a school like UCF occurs. The Big East issues ND an ultimatum to go all the way in or leave the conference. Presumably, ND would say no, and have a go at becoming a full independent again. Or — more likely — join the Atlantic 10 or see if Conference USA would take them in all but football.

I don’t actually see that happening, but that is about the only b-ball program I could see being driven out of the camp. For all the others, there is just too much money on the table to leave without a major fight.

Only recently have I started to backtrack as the new TV contract has loomed and looked to be a big winner. Apparently the Big East meeting in Florida last week went really well (belated hat tip to Reed).

Tranghese said he can’t talk about the next television contract, slated to begin in 2007-08, but it is anticipated to be the richest ever for the conference and will grant it a record number of exposures. There could be multiple national nights on ESPN as well as the weekend games on CBS. The conference tournament is exclusive to ESPN, with every game being televised. A number of coaches have discussed how impressed they were with the deal.

Collectively, the number of appearances on CBS and ESPN is supposed to be equal or better than what any other conference is receiving.

“This deal will stun a lot of people,” Tranghese said.

The conference didn’t officially vote on raising the number of conference games from 16 to 18 in 2007-08, but it is expected to be voted on by the athletic directors and presidents this summer and be in place in time for the new TV contract.

The magnitude of the new deal was hammered home at the meeting. The underlying message: If the league ever split and tried to make deals with the same TV partners, they wouldn’t collectively add up to the one the 16-team Big East is receiving.

“When we started this, it was all about basic survival and to protect the current institutions,” Tranghese said. “People assumed it wouldn’t last. But after going through one year, the publicity and exposure everyone has received, no one wants to split.”

This is why the Big East is something of an anomaly. There is no question how big the football money is. But in the Big East, the b-ball money appears to be where the growth is really happening.

At the very least the Big East will probably stay like this until 2013.

So do the specifics on the hoops contract being hammered out. The first year of the deal will be 2007-08. And, according to a Big East source, it will be “for more than two years.”

Which zaps even the possibility of a split until, what, 2011?

“We had an agreement that in the future that would be specifically addressed,” Pastilong said. “In my opinion it will be done so quickly — to continue as is. We have congeniality between members, success and a plan for the future that is progressive and imaginative.”

When the current Big East lineup bonded, the schools agreed to give the setup a commitment of five years. This past school year apparently went so well, though, there are few thoughts of even revisiting that commitment.

What happened? Well, the Big East’s basketball teams flourished. Connecticut and Villanova were No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament. The league had a record eight teams in the event.

Of more impact, though, is the fact that the “basketball” schools proved to be of worth. (And is there anything that bonds more effectively than money?)

That’s a big point. Going into the season, the only basketball school of note appeared to be Villanova. Georgetown and Marquette, though, both took big steps forward for long term stability. That means those schools are not acting as a drag on the conference and making it more difficult for the football schools to walk away.

The numbers of the new deal haven’t been leaked yet, but the deal as a whole is expected to be very good for all members.

While the deals aren’t completed, sources said the Big East will break all records for money and appearances with its ESPN basketball pact. The equally good news is that the TV deal for Big East football will increase over the present contract.

The Big East football schools shared approximately $15 million annually, while the basketball schools received $10 in the previous deal.

The new agreement will be the direct opposite of what was predicted by many naysayers when Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech left for the ACC. The word then was that Big East football was all but dead and that a split of the football/basketball factions within the conference was inevitable.

“The spirit was very upbeat,” Welsh said. “The last few years we had teams leaving and others coming in, and we didn’t really know where we were heading but now everyone’s excited. I don’t think there’s any more talk about splitting up after five years or anything like that.”

Last year, Providence was the lone Big East school not to play a basketball game on either ESPN or ESPN2. The new contract would guarantee multiple appearances for all 16 schools.

“The (TV) deal will be great for all of us, both in exposure and financially,” said Welsh. “As someone said, it will separate us from everyone else and give us more coverage than anyone except Duke. They seem to have their own network.”

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said the TV deals could be announced in the next month. He’s consistently told football schools like Pittsburgh and Syracuse that they’re better off staying with Catholic school brothers Georgetown and Villanova and the TV money is backing up those claims.

Okay, if the money for the football TV deal actually increases along with the reports that all the games will be televised somewhere — meaning they can be seen on ESPN GamePlan — that is huge.

I still have big concerns about how much the Big East will get used by ESPN as weekday football filler, but things aren’t as bad as I thought they would be.