The Citadel is getting $350,000 to come to Pittsburgh for the D1-AA patsy game that is now an annual event for Pitt.

“Why are we playing 12 games? Let’s not kid ourselves,” West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said. “It’s not for the excitement of college football. It’s to make more money.”

For West Virginia and Pitt, one home game generates between $1.5 million and $2 million for the athletic department.

With eight members, the Big East is the smallest of the BCS leagues. Some years, Pitt has just three Big East home games. That means Long must set up five nonconference games every season — and at least three of them had better be at Heinz Field, to maximize the cash flow.

But to make money, Long must spend money.

“The bidding is more intense now,” Long said. “Price-gouging is out there. I would say that $300,000 is not exorbitant. In fact, for a lot of those I-AA schools, that’s the low end. Some schools with huge stadiums are really driving the market upward. For those with 50,000- and 60,000-seat stadiums, like ourselves, it’s hard to compete just because we can’t generate the same revenue.”

This isn’t anything new, but that is definitely sour grapes from AD Jeff Long. It’s not price gouging. It’s the marketplace.

Add a 12th game to make more money, the demand for the money-maker (i.e., easy home game, without a return trip) among BCS schools goes up. Ergo the price for such opponents go up. If schools are willing to pay the asking price, and they still make money then they aren’t paying an “unfair” price. What Long is complaining about is that the amount of money the Pitt Athletic Department is making from the game isn’t as high as it used to be when there wasn’t as much demand for the games and the prices were lower.

I doubt he’d accept claims from Pitt season ticket holders that they are being price gouged for having to pay the same face value price for a game against the Citadel as they do for the Backyard Brawl.

This season, Troy State will get $750,000 to play at Nebraska. Buffalo broke its contract to play West Virginia to accept a bigger payday from Auburn. To fill the open date, WVU gave a $450,000 deal to Eastern Washington.

Last year, Youngstown State got $250,000 to play Pitt at Heinz Field. YSU squeezed every dollar it could out of the game, busing to and from Pittsburgh on the day of the game to hold the line on travel expenses.

Next month, Youngstown State will face Penn State, its first Big Ten opponent. Curley lined up YSU — the Lions’ first I-AA foe since 1984 — after Louisiana Tech backed out of its contract with Penn State due to scheduling conflicts in the realigned Western Athletic Conference.

Youngstown State will receive $350,000 for the overnight trip to Happy Valley. YSU also announced it will open its 2007 and ’08 seasons against Ohio State in Columbus, and collect $650,000 for each game.

“The 12th game for Division I, obviously, has helped us,” Youngstown State athletic director Ron Strollo said. “We going to be smart about it. We’ve got to be able to make a dollar on it. It’s got to help our recruiting. And we try to keep it close, so our fans can get there.”

In a twist, Youngstown State, a I-AA program, also pays a smaller, local school for a game. In 11 days, the Penguins will open their season against Division II Slippery Rock.

Interesting in the story how Penn State won’t be taking advantage of the scheduling relationship with the MAC that the Big 11 has established because the MAC is insisting on getting a home game out of any arrangement. Good for them.

Then there’s this almost wonkish piece on the digitial video taping of practice and breaking down film for the players.

Palko is a game-film addict who runs down a checklist of things he reviews on film, from his footwork on five-step drops to whether he opens his stance at a 45-degree angle on throws or if his shoulders and hips are aligned to his intended target and if his eyes can fool a safety.

Pitt’s DVSport digital equipment allows video coordinator Chad Bogard to load the video onto its computer system and send it to coaches’ laptops the moment practice ends. The coaches break down the video and make their assessments before each position and team meeting.

“Whatever you see on the field happens in a split-second sometimes,” Pitt offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh said. “As coaches, we’re quick to always have an answer. I may scream at somebody for doing something wrong and I look at the tape and they did it right or vice versa.

“It’s made us a lot more efficient. We’re able now as coaches to go in and, within five minutes, take a 100-play game and make cutups so we know what we want. In the old days, we literally had to splice the film, where you had canister after canister after canister of cutups.”

The All-22 shots are especially helpful to the offensive and defensive linemen, who can see how they handled their assignments and whether they are working cohesively. They can zoom in on body parts to study their foot work or hand placement, essential parts of their technique.

It’s almost buried behind the fascination of the cameras being up on 60-feet and 40-feet cranes. The stuff that can be done with digital video is just tremendous. I know I only scratch the surface when I play with it at home. The stuff Pitt is using, from the cameras to the software is so advanced.

[Editor Note: I apologize for the photos not showing up. I’m having similar problems. It’s very frustrating. Simply put, I haven’t acquainted myself well enough at the moment with all the FTP uploading stuff I should have learned. In an attempt to get the photos up and published, after spending a chunk of time editing and tweaking them, I tried to short-cut and upload them onto one of my Yahoo! accounts. From there I just attempted to directly link them. It appeared to work at first in the editor space, but on the blog itself: not so much. It probably wouldn’t take me long to learn (I’m told), but I have been very time crunched the last couple weeks. So until I make the time to learn FileZilla, the best I can offer at the moment is a direct link to where the photos are stored on Yahoo! Photos. I have them all set for public access, so you should be able to see all photos here. The problem is solved. Keith W. called me to suggest PhotoBucket.com, which allows free uploading of photos and provides a URL so you can post them to a blog. I’ve gone back to part 1 and 2 and changed the photo links. Thanks, Keith.]

Part 1 was here.

The first hour or so of Fan Fest was for autographs. Lots of deep lines. I’ve never been that big on that sort of thing, so I just wandered around snapping more pictures. The Seniors were all set up right as you came into the open end of the stadium (Gate A).

The rest of the players were in the stadium concourse. Specifically, in the “Great Hall.”

104.7 had a live show from 6-7 there. Naturally they had various interviews taking place. The first interview was with Coach Wannstedt. While he was waiting to go on the air, an impromptu autograph session broke out. Coach Wannstedt was obliging and friendly, talking with people while signing anything. All the while he is about to go on the air and do a radio interview. The band is playing right next to the radio set-up, in the enclosed concourse area. I was feeling sensory overload and I was just sitting there watching with some ear buds in place to hear the actual radio broadcast and muffle the band a little. I don’t know how you can take doing that without snapping at some point.More photos to follow below the fold (more…)

The 30th anniversery of Pitt’s ’76 national championship is this year, and the team will be honored at the season opener this Saturday. The Trib. goes full-feature in looking back at the team. They start with how new Head Coach Johnny Majors recruited the class of ’73.

Pitt’s once-proud program had sunk to unfathomable depths. It hadn’t produced a winning record in a decade, hadn’t beaten Penn State since 1965 and was coming off a 1-10 season in which it was outscored 350-193.

The first key to the renovation project was a change in the school’s scholarship policy. Previously, Pitt had been locked into the so-called “Big Four Agreement” with West Virginia, Penn State and Syracuse. It was designed to regulate the schools’ football programs and limited each to just 25 scholarships per year.

Then-Pitt chancellor Wesley Posvar and athletic director Cas Myslinski sparked the program’s revival by removing the self-imposed scholarship cap and by hiring the charismatic, 38-year-old Majors after the 1972 season.

In part because Pitt gave out such a slew of scholarships — anywhere from 65 to 100 — the NCAA set caps on scholarships per year after 1973. The numbers are a little unclear, in part, because Pitt washed out a bunch of kids in training camp. There’s a great little note about what helped Pitt be able to get Tony Dorsett to stay local and come to Pitt.

Sherrill was the lead recruiter on Dorsett, and he quickly discovered that Dorsett’s closest friend and Hopewell teammate, Ed Wilamowski, was critical to the chase. He was a pretty good player, too.

“Ed was white and Tony was black, and at every school they visited, they were separated (in the college dorms),” Sherrill recalled. “I don’t know if I was smarter than the others, but I didn’t separate them. I knew Tony was very, very close to Ed. We kept them together.”

Dorsett remembers.

“There’s a whole lot of validity to that,” he said in a recent phone interview.

The end of the article features capsule reviews of every game from the ’76 season.

There’s also a “where are they now?” piece covering 11 members of the team. Plus a full feature on another member, Jim Corbett, who at age 51 is now doing relief mission work to Nigeria. He will be at the game on Saturday then leave for another trip in less than a week.

Several little things I need to get out of the browser tabs.

H.B. Blades has been put on the Butkus Award Watchlist for the top linebacker. He’s one of 65 candidates. I’m reasonably sure he was on the list last year. CBS Sportsline also named him the 3d best pro prospect at linebacker.

3. H.B. Blades, Pitt, 6-0, 240, Sr.

Blades enters his senior season with 286 tackles, including 18.5 for loss, and 24 career starts. He also has strong football bloodlines: His father, Bennie, and his uncles Al and Brian were standouts at the University of Miami and went on to successful careers in the NFL.

They also listed Darrelle Revis as the 4th best DB pro prospect.

4. Darrelle Revis, CB, Pittsburgh, 6-0, 190, Jr.

Revis is an exciting young cornerback who established himself as a quality prospect almost immediately. He earned freshman All-American honors in 2004, starting all 11 games and finishing with 14 passes broken up. Opponents learned not to test Revis last season, instead choosing to pass against future sixth-round pick Josh Lay. Revis was the only sophomore to earn first-team Big East honors, coming through with four interceptions and nine passes broken up. He also became one of the better young return specialists, averaging 11.6 yards per punt return.

Revis not only has the size teams like, but his short-area burst, vertical speed and flair for the dramatic are noteworthy. Like Arizona’s Cason, Revis has NFL bloodlines. His uncle is former Pitt defensive tackle Sean Gilbert, who went on to play for four teams in the NFL.

Rivals.com does a sleeper team prognostication. The surprise is who tops the list.

1. Pittsburgh: Last season’s record: 5-6. Returning starters: Six offense, six defense.
Outlook: All the preseason hype in the Big East centers on West Virginia and Louisville, but the Panthers have a realistic shot at winning their first 10 games before closing with the Mountaineers and Cardinals. The Panthers started slowly in coach Dave Wannstedt’s debut season, losing four of their first five. This year, four of their first five games are at Heinz Field, and Notre Dame and Nebraska aren’t on the schedule. Until facing West Virginia and Louisville, the only Pittsburgh opponents to win as many as eight games last season are Toledo and Central Florida. Quarterback Tyler Palko and All-American caliber linebacker H.B. Blades are proven commodities and good leaders.

It is true that the first 10 games contain none that should be thought of as “sure losses,” but there are a slew of “toss-ups.”

P-G beat reporter Paul Zeise’s Q&A shows a little testiness at being asked about his prediction for the team this season.

Look, if I could predict the future I’d be on one of those Vegas handicapper shows on the radio on Saturday mornings screaming “I LOVE THIS GAME. CALL ME!” That being said, I have been at camp every day, I’ve seen every practice and I have a good idea of the team’s strengths and weaknesses.

I think the team will struggle to score a lot of points because I just don’t see enough big-play threats. I also think the kicking game is going to be an adventure, at least until one of those two kickers gets settled in. That doesn’t mean the offense can’t be productive and efficienty — there are a lot of good players and veteran players, so it will be. In college football, though, to try and grind it out every time you touch the ball is tough, and Pitt is going to have to do a lot of grinding. Those 10-play, 70-yard drives are great for controlling the ball and the clock, but to pull them off you have to be near perfect in execution. You can?t take any penalties or negative plays, and that’s asking a lot.

The defense will be better. It can’t be much worse than it has been in the past few years, particularly against the run.

He could just tell them to pick up the Sporting News or Lindy’s preview guide since he made his predictions then. He sticks with his 7-5 call.

Q: With so much inconsistency at wide receiver, do you see coaches using other skill position players, such as Darrelle Revis, to help the cause?

Zeise: Last year they had some packages to use Revis as a wide receiver in the game plan for West Virginia but didn’t use them. I don’t know that they would go that route simply because the biggest problem the receivers have is inexperience, not talent. And thus, the only way to get them better is to let them get out there and play. When you take an honest look at this team, it will be much better in week eight than it is right now. There are just so many young players being counted on that they can’t help but get better with more experience.

That also means a lot of mistakes to be expected in the first few weeks.