It’s the 50th Anniversary of the Big 33 game, and I think it’s safe to say that most college football fans just hope that the kids coming to their school don’t get hurt. The offline world kept me from doing this yesterday, but judging by the comments at the end of this thread, the general view to knowing Pitt commits are playing is fear of injury.

Now, the story on Linebacker Travis Wolff from Shaler is nice. I like very much that he wants to come play for Pitt. That said, I don’t know if or when that would happen.

After that, he will head to Milford Academy, a prep school in New Berlin, N.Y., where he intends to play in the fall.

Wolff hopes Milford is just a stop on his way to bigger things. A lifelong Pitt fan, his dream is one day to play collegiately with the Panthers, but he must get his academic resume in order first.

“I’m trying to look at this as a three-step process,” Wolff said. “The Big 33 is the first step and Milford is the second step. Hopefully, Pitt will be the third step.”

See, the NCAA has put new rules into effect with prep schools. Effectively funneling most kids who don’t have their academics in order to junior colleges.

But the NCAA changed the rules this year after thorough reporting by the Washington Post and New York Times exposed so-called diploma mill prep schools. So starting in 2008, to be eligible, a student will need 16 core classes and only one can come from a postgraduate year.

The article on Wolff doesn’t say what he needs to do academically at Milford. It seems though, that he needs more than one core class. If he’s serious, he may find himself in summer school instead trying to get as many core classes improved as he can.