This bit from Brian Bennett has been sitting in a browser tab for nearly three weeks.

Actually, Pittsburgh could have won the last the two Big East titles. The Panthers have arguably had the most overall talent in the league, but they couldn’t beat Cincinnati either year.

The program has steadily climbed under Dave Wannstedt, reaching the Top 10 last November, winning 10 games for the first time in more than a quarter of a century and beating North Carolina in the Meineke Car Care Bowl. But the Meineke Car Care Bowl is a long way from the BCS. And with the Bearcats going through a coaching change this season, the timing couldn’t be better for a breakthrough year.

“We’re a team that expects to win the Big East,” quarterback Tino Sunseri said. “We know what it’s like to see Cincinnati celebrating on our field. We understand how close we’ve been and what we need to do to go the extra step.”

There aren’t many excuses for Pitt this year. Lewis, the Big East’s reigning offensive MVP and rookie of the year, returns after running for 1,799 yards and 17 touchdowns as a freshman. Romeus, the Big East’s co-defensive MVP last year, decided to wait on the NFL draft and come back for his senior year. Jonathan Baldwin, a 6-foot-5 athletic freak who had 1,111 yards receiving last year, should challenge for the Biletnikoff Award this season.

“If you look all around the country, you can’t think of too many teams that last year had a receiver go over 1,000 yards and a running back go over 1,700 yards,” Baldwin said. “Teams don’t know what to expect, whether we’re going to pound the ball down your throat or throw it.”

Everyone is saying that Pitt has the most talent — not just concentrated at some skill position, but across the board. The point being, Pitt and Coach Wannstedt are the favorite to win the Big East this year.

1. Pittsburgh: The Panthers have some questions, notably on the interior offensive line. But they’ve also got Dion Lewis, Greg Romeus and Jonathan Baldwin and more answers on both sides of the ball than any other Big East squad.

There is a reason that so far in early top-25s. Pitt is the Big East team ranked the highest.

13. Pittsburgh Panthers With former Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly moving to Notre Dame, Pittsburgh might be the team to beat in the Big East. The Panthers were close to winning the last two Big East championships, but they couldn’t beat the Bearcats. With tailback Dion Lewis and receiver Jonathan Baldwin coming back on offense, and end Greg Romeus returning to harass opposing quarterbacks, Pittsburgh might be poised to clear the last hurdle. Tino Sunseri beat out Pat Bostick for the starting quarterback job during the spring, and he’ll replace departed fifth-year senior Bill Stull. The Panthers play an aggressive nonconference schedule, including a Sept. 2 opener at Utah.

Andy Staples at SI.com, has Pitt at #16. It is a safe bet to see Pitt ranked anywhere from #12 to #25 in the various preseason polls and mags.

Greg Romeus and Jason Pinkston were named to the Rotary Lombardi Award Watchlist for best lineman.

Romeus, Pinkston along with Dion Lewis and Jonathan Baldwin were named to the NationalChamps.net All-American team. More than any other program, period. Not just in the Big East.

Yes, there are questions about the secondary, the middle of the O-line and QB, but unless those spots absolutely fail, that shouldn’t be enough to derail the team.

That puts the pressure on the team to meet expectations. The pressure especially falls on Coach Wannstedt.

We’ve all seen the brain fart games. We’ve seen the games where Pitt took the foot off the gas and go conservative. We’ve seen the failure to adjust.

There was a big step towards Pitt and Coach Wannstedt starting to overcome the perception of underachiever and just not winning the big games. Yet the perceptions remain when you look at the 3 losses last season.

The NC State game showed poor game planning for the QB, the offense letting up after building a lead, and then not able to get it back.

The Backyard Brawl had a disturbing lack of intensity, focus and poor execution.

And the Cinci game. Simply not able to make the key stops.

Yes, these are oversimplifications. I am talking perception, though.

These games fit a narrative of a head coach and Pitt team — regardless of the coach — that don’t get over the hump and spit the bit when they have the chance.

Think of how most view, say Virginia Tech. A team that has talent, a very good coach, great defense and special teams. Yet, they almost inexplicably blow at least a couple games every year.

This becomes one of those seasons that can alter perceptions or confirm them.

Coach Dave Wannstedt and Joe Paterno were in the same room together with the media present. Naturally nothing was said of any consequence with relation to Pitt, PSU or Big Something expansion. It was pure Sgt. Schultz.

“There are a lot of rumors out there as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “I don’t have any comment on that. That is for the chancellor [Mark Nordenberg] and the higher ups to discuss.”

Not surprising that there was nothing said. The coaches were there out of pure self-interest to promote spring practices for high school football. Have the kids focus more on the sport that football coaches want them to play and not take notice of other sports. Not to mention put more wear, contact and abuse on their bodies earlier. Just like they do in Texas, Florida, and other states that are football first.

Curious about some of Coach Dave Wannstedt’s perceptions of his time in the NFL? Well, here’s a two-part story on Coach Wannstedt looking back on his time in the NFL. Part One:

OF COURSE, Wannstedt never anticipated being in the NFL to begin with.

He worked for Johnson at Oklahoma State and the University of Miami – interrupted by a stint as defensive line coach at Southern Cal.

He was there when the Hurricanes won a national title under Johnson and remembers a fateful weekend.

“After we won (the national championship),” Wannstedt recalled, “Jimmy called me in and said, ‘Remember that friend of mine from Arkansas, Jerry Jones? Well, what’s weird is,  he’s about to become owner of the Dallas Cowboys. And, you know what’s really weird? I’m going to be the head coach.’”

So started Wannstedt’s NFL career.

Part two is more interesting. It gets into his version of why he resigned in mid-year from the Dolphins, defends his time in Chicago and Miami (hint, it involves the lack of a QB). But things seem to be as much about his closeness with Jimmy Johnson.

The two became friends on the staff of former Pitt coach Jackie Sherrill after Johnny Majors left for Tennessee.

It didn’t take long for Johnson to be offered the head job at Oklahoma State and he asked Wannstedt to come along to Stillwater.

“The easy thing would have been to stay at Pitt,” Wannstedt admitted, :but I thought that, from a career standpoint, if I was going to make a living at this, I needed to get away from Pitt.”

The only time the two separated was when Wannstedt served a three-year stint as defensive line coach at USC.

But they rejoined at the University of Miami when Johnson had an extraordinary run.

“Our relationship was that he knew he could trust me,” Wannstedt said. “It’s very important to have two or three guys on your staff who have an understanding what your philosophy is, think the same way that you do and can put out a lot of fires for you

“We played golf and went to the islands and enjoyed our off-the-field time as much (as coaching).”

Weather turning nice, a 3-year old that shows little interest in being babysat by the TV, and trying to get to the various projects I have put off since September. Whine, whine, whine.

Okay, the NBE blog ran a series of quadrant rankings of the Big East for the offseason. They had the bottom 4 teams (no shocks unless you were high on Cinci). Third tier — surprised to see Louisville this low. Second tier doesn’t seem too stunning except maybe Marquette while losing Hayward and Acker, but seem to be given a boost in perceptions from being much better than expected last season.

Pitt was obviously picked for the First Tier, but also the #1 spot ahead of Villanova, Syracuse and Georgetown (hat tip to wbb). There has not been a question that the expectations would be high and there would be no surprising teams this year.

(more…)

In-law visited on Thursday and stayed through the weekend. Somehow, the efforts to watch the kids and give the wife and I time to do other things never quite works out.

Each week I think I’ll try and round-up some of the best and strangest conference expansion/realignment material for  a post.

There is no real Big Something news. There is the usual rumor stuff that has been baseless. Even that stuff seems to be getting more sporadic as they get embarrassed by being exposed for being so stupid and inaccurate. This is a good thing.

In the mean time, the one thing that isn’t stopping is speculation. Not just the why and general speculation of how many and which.

You get the pattern. The more the weaknesses of a potential one-school addition become obvious, the more likely the Big Ten is to see strength in numbers and pursue a 14- or 16-team scenario.

Missouri and Nebraska might be more likely to join if the other did. If those schools looked as if they were headed to the Big Ten, Texas might consider the possibility of joining rather than remaining in a weakened Big 12.

If the Big Ten looked to poach some Big East schools, a package that included some combination of, say, Notre Dame, Rutgers, Connecticut, Pittsburgh and Syracuse would remake the college landscape.

What could ensue is a game of intraconference chicken in which members are torn about leaving the Big East but afraid of not taking the plunge and being left behind in a conference that’s a shell of itself.

Yes, I know, there is no real question. Any Big East team asked will leave simply for the money.

Nor is it simply the quiet desperation where Cinci can find themselves losing out to conference roulette.

There is the realization that Georgetown may lose not just its rivalry with Syracuse but a lot more.

Whatever happens in the coming months will be driven by college sports’ seemingly insatiable quest for more revenue. Specifically, it will be driven by the demands of big-time college football.

But at Georgetown, the heart of this very unsettled and unsettling matter is men’s basketball and, by extension, the viability of the conference the Hoyas helped found in 1979 and build into the nation’s preeminent basketball league, along with Syracuse, Connecticut and Villanova.

It really doesn’t do much to explore the possibilities for the basketball schools. I think they honestly don’t understand how minimized they could become without a full football-basketball conference TV deal. It does make the point many of us who doubt Rutgers true viability.

But Rutgers? It’s a stretch to assume that adding Rutgers, simply because of its proximity to New York, would reel in New York’s coveted TV market.

The ACC, for example, hasn’t exactly converted Boston to college basketball’s Tobacco Road North just by adding Boston College. Boston remains a resolute pro town, and Boston College basketball has suffered for its flight south.

To be fair, it isn’t about actually reeling in eyeballs. So much as it is about getting the Big Ten Network on cable systems in the area.

Meanwhile, even schools safely in relatively stable BCS conferences seem worried — or at least there is speculation of concern. How about Clemson being “stuck” in the ACC?

Right where it is now. Which isn’t a good thing.

At last week’s BCS meetings, the SEC sent a veiled threat that it would be ready if the Big 10 made its move. Commissioner Mike Slive told reporters that “if there is going to be a significant shift in the conference paradigm, the SEC will be strategic and thoughtful to make sure it maintains its position as one of the nation’s preeminent conferences.”

Some Clemson fans have suggested that CU would be a natural SEC expansion target.

They’re ignoring expansion’s biggest factors: television and money, partners intertwined like peanut butter and jelly.

TV is why the SEC and Big Ten are the two most powerful leagues: Big Ten schools make $22 million per year in TV revenue and SEC schools $17 million. Why? The Big Ten has its own ultra-profitable network; the SEC just signed a 15-year, $3 billion deal with ESPN and CBS.

Future expansion is about maximizing that revenue. That’s why, as CBSSports.com suggested, the SEC could poach the Big 12 for Oklahoma, Texas, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M.

That’s new territory, just like the Eastern seaboard is for the Big Ten.

Money, money, money. No one wants to be in the conference that doesn’t bring it at least close to the same level of money to compete.

For even more absurdity. How about suggesting Kentucky explore a move to the Big Something.

That reason is football.

UK and the overwhelming majority of its fan base may see Kentucky as a basketball school, but even here in Lexington it is football that brings home the financial bacon.

For the 2009-10 fiscal year, UK Athletics projected 35.4 percent of its revenue (some $25.7 million) from football, compared to 21.4 percent of revenue ($15.56 million) from men’s hoops.

All national indicators suggest that football is becoming more and more dominant in shaping the landscape of college sports conferences.

So if Kentucky could find a spot in a conference that is a cash machine similar to the $EC but where UK football would have a far more realistic chance to sustain success, shouldn’t it at least be worth considering?

Which brings us back to the Big Ten.

Or Vandy? OK. Not really, just message board stuff that amused me.

Perhaps most disturbingly, a Toledo columnist felt the need to write a column explaining that the Big Something will never take Toledo or any MAC school.

As for Pitt, it remains, that but for the TV market issue, they are the best fit.