Pitt Athletic Department is moving ahead to another part of the fundraising for the “Quest for Excellence.” This part is for self-sufficiency of football scholarships by creating the Pitt Football Endowed Position and Scholarship Program.
The initiative’s goal is to endow the athletic scholarship budget for the Pitt football team. Contributors will have the unique opportunity to attach their name to one of 24 starting positions on the Panthers’ team (11 offense, 11 defense and two specialists).
“To fund the 85 football scholarships permitted by NCAA rules it will cost $2.1 million annually,” Long said. “While that may seem like an ambitious goal, the time to secure the promise of a bright future for our football program is now by focusing on building the Pitt football endowment.”
Coach Wannstedt and his wife are getting out in front on this by donating $250,000 to endow the left offensive tackle spot — his position when he played.
I’m sure plenty of schools do this. It makes sense considering the volume of scholarships the football team swallows every year. It will be interesting to see if some of Pitt’s other high profile football alum step up with their own contributions.
Today it is likely to be determined who will be the the starting left tackle. Jeff Otah was widely expected to take the job — coming in as a JUCO — and while he has not disappointed, John Bachman has shown a lot of growth from last year and fought very hard to keep the gig. Still, it is expected to go to Otah.
A brief preview of Pitt projects 6 or 7 wins.
Pittsburgh opens with Virginia and takes on Michigan State two weeks later. The squad later closes out its regular season with back-to-back games against Big East powers Louisville and West Virginia. Winning any of those games will be tough, although the Panthers figure to be competitive. Palko will put up numbers, but fans of the program are unlikely to see any more than six or seven wins in 2006.
Now here’s another classic PA college football rivalry that will capture the imagination.
Pennsylvania football fans don’t have the enjoyment of watching the Penn State-Pitt rivalry anymore.
But soon we will have Villanova vs. Temple.
Division I-A Temple and Division I-AA Villanova will meet in a four-game series starting in 2009. Temple will be the host for all four games at Lincoln Financial Field.
Villanova leads the all-time series, 15-12-2. The last game was in 2003, when Villanova won 23-20 in double overtime.
Is there any team against whom Temple can claim a winning record?
