Well said, Chas. When does football season start? And we’re playing whom, New Hampshire?

Hooray for Beebe and the Big Twelve!!! Wait. Are there not two Big Twelves Now? Am I miscounting? Which Big 12 is the counterfeit? The problem with those money=hungry conferences is the same problem with the oil industry. It is called GREED! George from Columbus where all is serene in the Buckeye counting house,

Note to any future ncaa conferences: Do not put a number in your conference name!

Glad to see greed in college athletics is still alive and well. Texas I’m sure now wants to feel like the hero for coming in and saving the day for the Big 12 when in reality they were willing to ditch the whole conference to the first person waving a few extra bucks their way….way to go Longhorns!

You are right Rev – so the old Big 12 is the new Big 10 and the old Big 10, err I mean 11, is the new Big 12?! I’m dizzy. Swap logos and lets be done. Bring on the Utes!

Visons of road trips to Ann Arbor and Madison or Charlottesville or Tallahasee are dwarfed with the excitement of winning the River City Rivalry Trophy back!!!

This changes nothing. Pitt still needs to get out of the Big [L]East ASAP and by whatever means neccessary. There are way too many dead weight programs in the Big East and the basketball only teams have way too much power. Pitt is an elite school both academically and athletically and belongs in a legit conference.

Pitt does not have to worry about being called greedy. Weak conference (FOOTBALL). Miserable attendance at Heinz Field. Terrible TV revenue stream. Low Bowl payoffs from 2nd and third rate
outings prior to New Year’s Day.
I know that I have been negative this past week, however, I believe that we are in real trouble in our football program. The Big East stinks when compared to the other BCS conferences. STOP TALKING ABOUT BASKETBALL…the conference restructuring is 100% football….$$$$$$$$$. Adding ECU, UCF, Memphis, etc. further compounds the problem!! At some point in the not too distant future Wanny and Co. will run in to a stone wall come recruiting time. Forget about the **** Star kids….we are going to be chasing * and ** star talent because we could easily lose our automatic BCS bid. This is about GREED and Pitt had better start thinking like Wall Street if it wants to continue fielding big time football teams.

The Big East has the potential to become a glorified MAC in football….bring on Temple!!

The only way I can see the Big XII getting the kind of money they are claiming is if the contract is at LEAST 18 years and entirely fixed. The fact that everyone will fall for it (they did with the SEC deal, which was “big” in the sense that they were getting overpaid on the front end and will give it back via time-value of money) is kind of sad to me. Getting $20M a year for the next 18 years is not a win, it’s a PR stunt.

i don’t really care how much money the athletic department of Pitt or any other university gets. the players play for scholarships. college athletics isn’t supposed to be about money. this is disgusting. if this whole thing is about money, then these kids should be getting paid their fair share. i don’t give a crap how much money pitt’s athletic department makes. they are simply going to waste it any way. how is more money going to help us as fans? pitt football already has great facilities and so does the basketball program. the money is going to be wasted on sports that we don’t watch or participate in.

the university actually educates young adults and that is what matters. i would much rather send my donations to the university rather than the athletic department. this conference realignment garbage has soured me on college athletics.

furthermore, if college football had a true postseason this would not matter. the farce that is the BCS necessitates all of this confusion. college football is a joke. i don’t care if college basketball isn’t “important”. the NCAA tournament is still the best sporting event in the USA. i’d rather have that over some stupid BCS bowl and conference realignment drama.

The help as fans wouldn’t be the money, it would have been having Michigan, Ohio St. Penn ST. Illinois and Iowa, or Virginia, Clemson, Fla. State, Maryland on our schedule, instead of South Florida and Louisville. The help would have been being part of a real conference, not a “league”, a sense of belonging, commradery, instead of having some loose organization of helter skelter universities across the Eastern U.S., coming and going every few years!! Big East football is the absolute worst, bottom of the barrel, I’m very disappointed, I’m not afraid to admit it, and Pitt deserves better. It’s a shame something didn’t shake out!!

I could care less about having OSU, PSU, UM, Illinois or Iowa on the schedule. Each one of these states is experiencing massive demographic shifts. This will be a long-term problem. Less population results in less players to recruit and, eventually, less fans. In the long-run, UCONN, Rutgers, South Florida, and Syracuse will be better opponents than Iowa, Minnesota, and even OSU or Michigan.

If anything, the ACC would be a better fit for Pitt. Realistically it doesn’t matter to me. Like I said, I don’t care about the finances of the athletic department. Especially if they aren’t experiencing substantial capital expenditures. I don’t know where the money is going and I don’t really care.

The population shift has been going on for 40 years, Mich, OSU, PSU, still get tons of players from Florida, Texas, California, that will never change!! I don’t know what to say to a college football fan that would rather watch Rutgers and South Florida play Pitt than Ohio State or Wisconsin. Also, as for the kids getting paid, a $200,000 education, books, lodging, top of the line medical experts, and buffett tables open from 6a.m. to midnight, with items that would make the Grand Concourse look like Winkys, they don’t need paid. Also, if the kids don’t like it, no one is forcing them to play football, no one is forcing them to go to college for that matter. They can always get a job at 7/11 if they want. Seriously, with the most due respect, you are certainly able to post your opinions on here, but, I’m not sure why you are on here. This is about sports. We all know college football is about money, after that fact, we all still love Pitt, and Piit football and basketball. Believe me, the academics are doing quite well also, you’ve said you don’t care many times, not quite sure why you’re even looking on here?????

I will also say, without naming names, a top starting offensive lineman is my neighbor in the South Hills. He does not want a dime. He is having the time of his life playing ball and going to school!!!

Money is important. The revenue the athletic department gets (mainly from football) pays for all of the other sports and scholarships. All of the other sports lose a signficant amount of money as equipment, travel, scholarships and salaires of coaches don’t grow on tress. And without maximizing income from television and conference affiliation the atheltic department will have to eliminate sports.

Dan:

I don’t think anyone on this site would question my motivation for being on the site. If a university is making $20-25 million per annum from the football program, then there is no question that it should be shared with the players. Of course a 18-24 year old living and competing with his friends is going to be having fun. I guarantee 10 years from now that he wishes he would have shared in the wealth.

I don’t care about Michigan, PSU, OSU, etc. al. These schools have very little in common with Pitt. The college experience at these universities is much different than the majority of the schools in the Big East and ACC. They are large land grant universities in the mid-west. Pitt is an urban campus with tons of kids from the east coast.

Finally, you cannot consistently lose population for an additional 20 years and remain competitive. Eventually, the trend will become a problem. Book it.

I love Pitt and appreciate the conference and opponents they compete with now. I am not pining for the Big Ten. Maybe you should root for OSU or Michigan etc. al. Everyone knows most of the fans of those schools didn’t attend the universities. Pitt is just fine in the Big East. If they leave for the Big Ten, then count me as disappointed.

The other main reason, that the Big 10 or ACC would have been a godsend for Pitt, is, by staying in the weak and feeble Big East, we are going to have to deal with expansion rumors every year. I mean, we allready have had to, but, now, even more. Next spring, is Rugers going or staying??? Next summer, someone saw Syracuse talking to someone at the ACC, UCONN would go together nicely with BC in the ACC. South Florida wouldn’t mind being in the ACC, and on and on, year after year, ad nauseum!!

The kids are getting paid, in tuition, food, lodging and medical. The med school gets hundreds of millions, should the med students get paid??? They’re up at 6am, going to class till night time, contributing many times, through research?? Should they get paid?? How bout the law student, busting his/her but, perhaps we should pay them too?? Let’s raise taxes more too, so the professors can get another 20,000 a year. In 10 years from now, the student should be happy he or she got the training to play a professional sport, coach in the NCAA, get an adminstrative job at a university, or be putting his/her free education to use bettering themselves. Also, I would be interested, does the star running back get the same money as the defensive tackles that never play a down??? As for population, these are national schools, the same thing was said in the 70’s when the mills closed. Believe me, 20 years from now Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State will still have excellent football programs as well as overall excellent athletic programs, as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow. Pitt is just fine in the Big East??? If there is a Big East next year, and ya, if you want to be looked at as a half-decent team from a scrub conference, ya, ok. And if you want to play in scrub bowl games?? And if you want to make about 60% less, or more, in revenue for your athletic dept, hey, you win, rah rah Big East!!

With all due respect, I sincerely mean that, most Athletic Departments barely break even, if not run at a loss. If Pitt athletics is making 20-25 million a year, ya, go ahead and pay the athletes.

Law students = bad example. They neither risk limb nor perform for a gazillion fans on Saturday. Plus, someday they will become lawyers.

What happens when you downsize proofreaders:

“Baylor football coach Art Briles, a Texas native who has spent his entire career in the Long Star state, put it this way: “I got resuscitated. You can take your hands off my chest. … I’m extremely excited, it’s like being given new life.””

link to sports.espn.go.com

Don’t give me this BS about the scholarship. The med school student, or the law school student isn’t expected to go out and play a sport for a scholarship when the university is making millions off of their efforts. Assume a scholarship is worth $30,000 per annum. There are 85 scholarship players on the football team. After the University grosses $2.55 million every scholarship is paid. Any additional revenue the university gets to keep. If the unversity is grossing $15-25 million per annum from a TV contract(not including concession, tickets, and donations) from football, do you really think it is fair that the player gets just $30k in scholarship money. That is completely illogical.

Most athletic departments barely break even because they waste money. They don’t care about the bottom line. Do we really benefit from scholarship table tennis, archery, or darts? No, we don’t. Not as a university or as a society. If money is the goal, then the athletic department should think more like a capitalist. That means thinking about not just revenue, but the bottom line. These departments don’t think about the bottom line at all. That is why all this talk about money is fruitless. It is wasted and not economically productive.

Point taken, Steve!

B.S. about the scholarship???? Ya, tell that to the 95% of the kids and families that have to pay to go to college. And, last time I checked, “expected to play”, I could be wrong, but, is someone holding a gun to these players heads for a free education and an oppurtunity they want in the worst way, to play football??? Let me know, didn’t know they were being forced to play, that’s another story.

While you’re at it, you might as well go talk to the guys and gals playing womens softball, womens basketball, lacrosse, baseball, swimming and diving, softball, track and field, the other sports, I’m sure they’d love to talk to you. Those must be the other sports you are referring too, as there is no table tennis, archery or darts. I’d be interested in how that meeting goes.

If we don’t benefit as a society from those sports, then, we must not benefit as a society form basketball and football either, right??? Might as well drop all athletics. Economically not productive, you may want to go talk to all the vendors at Heinz Field and the Pete about their jobs. I think the athletic dept. has a few employees. Maybe talk to the companies that manufacture all of the souveigners, they’re not wanted anymore. Tell the broadcasters and the hundreds of employee it takes to televise football and basketball to hit the road too, your jobs are no longer needed. How the parking people, see ya. Plant that makes the hot dogs, bye now. If you pray to Che Guevara, this is probaly the wrong forum for you. Gotta go, you win!!! This is a moot discussion, you got your wish, we’re staying in the Big Least, enjoy!!!

You miss the point. Basketball and Football produce a PROFIT. The other sports do not. If we are talking about capitalism, then let’s talk about capitalism. If athletic departments are motivated by the almighty dollar, then they should be run as a real buesiness. Profit losing enterprises are shut down in the real world. That is the cold hard truth. I am a capitalist. Universities are supposed to be NON-PROFIT. They shouldn’t be motivated by capitalist endeavors.

Dan,

If the whole mess with the “Big Texas Conference” (really don’t know what to call the former Big 12 anymore) had not taken place, I would agree strongly with your point about how the Big East now has to worry every year about being picked apart. The fact is we just watched the Big 12, anchored by Texas, Oaklahoma, and Nebraska, come to the brink of extinction. Chas is right, the exapansion train has been brought to a crawl and will likely stop all together after the PAC 10 goes to a 12th team, but that train will leave the station again someday. When the super conferences are formed, there is nothting the BE could do to fight off the expansion raids. We chould have ND, PSU, and Mia in our conference and would still be vulnerable to a Big 10 raid. So really, every conference is at risk for losing members in the future, not just the Big East. As for the perception of the BE as a FB conference, I will agree with you that we are easily at the bottom of the BCS conferences. However, the results on the field do not support the perception. The fact is, the BE holds its own quite nicely against other BCS teams. I’ve seen the nubmers posted here before. As for playing OSU, MICH, and WISC vice WVU, Cincy and Lville, again its not quite what you are making it out to be. The only way we get to the Big 10 is if they go to 16 teams. I seen several talking heads on TV say that the only way to schedule a 16 team conference is with two 8 team divisions. You play every team in your own divsion and two teams from the other divsion once each year. Therefore, It is very likely that Pitt would only see Mich or OSU at Heinz Field once every eight years! No thanks, I’m not trading a yearly game against WVU so I can have the distinct honor of hosting the great Michigan Wolverines at my stadium once every eight years! Since the BE likely will be plucked apart when the super conferences arrive (and they will because that is the only way to bust the NCAA and the BCS and get to a true playoff for a NC), we really should add Memphis as a 9th team to even out scheduling. They are OK in FB, have a great BB tradition, and are locate in a very nice place to visit. One last thing, I know this is all about FB, but I am just a fan, I hope we can hold on to BE BB as long as possible, becuase for my money nothing beats the BE BB season, culminated with the BE BB Tournament in MSG. One day it will be gone, and that will be a very sad day that no number of FB games against The Ohio State University with its 33% graduation rate will make up for.

The bad thing about the Big East expanding right now is that it could have even more basketball teams. No reason to fix what isn’t broken and adding Memphis would definitely hurt our football conference. That’s why we didn’t add them in the first place instead of Marquette or DePaul. We figured that we need 8 solid programs which we have and no reason to dilute the quality of the conference with Memphis.

Well said, HbgFrank.

I will add one thing about BE football. IF the Big East does stay together I am excited about the future. Clearly the perception is low as a Big East football conference, but over time perception can change by winning big games. The possibilities are exciting. Look at the last few years… Cincy was a few secs away (in the BIG 12 champ game) of having a shot in the National Championship game (forget the fact that they got smoked against FL). WVU wouldve been in the National Championship game had Pitt not won the 13-9 game. Louisville a few years back had a chance but had that one loss to Rutgers. I dont know about you guys but isnt the primary goal to Win a National Title? If Pitt is ever going to win another Nat Champion, their best shot is in the Big East Conference.

I personally enjoy being the underdog as a conference and being able to root for Big East teams out of conference (I do not enjoy the possibility of being left out in the cold). But IF the Big East survives, Pitt is in a position to own a BCS conference. They have the best resources and history in the Big East and have shown improvement every year. They need to have that breakthrough year where they win their conference in a BCS bowl. And the best chance at that happening is in the Big East.

I completely agree with Dan, Omar you are out of your mind regarding paying players!

Hbg Frank, excellent points. I’m just frustrated having to defend the Big East anytime someone around me talks about college football. We’ve had our moments, but until we get 2 or 3 teams in the top 15 consistenly, we’re still gonna look like an also ran. I respect your WVU comment, however, I was thinking if it was ACC, WVU, along with UCONN, and Syracuse would go with us. As for the Big Ten, I personally, just me, would rather have the PSU rivalry, that’s the one that makes my blood boil. I also feel the bottom of the Big 10 is better, I like all those teams Purdue, Wisconsin, Illinois, heck even Northwestern. I’m just a fan, I would enjoy those teams more than Cincy, Louisville and S.Florida. Just a personal preference, seems like more commradery and belonging to something bigger in the Big Ten or ACC. Hail to Pitt, beat Utah!!

Yes, athletic depts. are motivated by the allmighty dollar. They have to be, and should be to provide and pay for the 20 some mens and womens NCAA sports.
Yes, football and basketball are usually the only two that turn a profit. That money is used, for the whole athletic dept.
They are non-profit, most athletic departments in the country are in the red. (No, not USC, Alabama, Michigan and Notre Dame,) but there are over 300 universities, just in Div. 1 basketball, I don’t how many universities there are that have competive sports. Most of these are scraping by, and why they hit so hard for donations. I’m missing your point, does Pitt have 10’s of millions laying around for the athletic dept that we don’t know about, or, do you want to dissolve all other sports other than FB and BB???? I really don’t understand your point. They are not a business, they are an education system that provides sports to their students. In order to do this, they have to try and make as much money as possible, because the expenses of running an athletic dept are enormous. Not sure what you want, do want sports to go away?? That’s cool, that’s your opinion. You only want FB and BB, that’s cool, again, your opinion, not sure what you want athletic depts to do??

Dan:

So you believe this super conference realignment is altruistic to provide more scholarships for non-revenue producing sports?

Marco:

I’m not saying we should pay the players. I’m saying that if everything is motivated by money, then the players should benefit as well.

This is all about ego and money. That should not be the case when we are discussing college athletics. This is certainly not for the good of the sport, the student, or the fan. This is a big money grab by a few conference commissioners and greedy athletic directors/university presidents who could care less about non-revenue producing sports. Get a clue.

It does not make sense for Pitt to be in a conference like the Big Ten. Pitt has little in common with the schools in the Big Ten.

“It does not make sense for Pitt to be in a conference like the Big Ten. Pitt has little in common with the schools in the Big Ten.”

uhh, you mean besides history, traditional rivalries, geography, AAU membership/academic mission, facilities, major football and basketball programs…??

pitt has no traditional rivals in the big ten besides PSU. wvu, notre dame, navy, and syracuse are all more tradition rich rivalries than any other big ten school (other than psu). not to mention the basketball rivalries.

pitt is already in the aau and the academics have thrived.

pitt does not have the facilities, nor could they because of geography, of the schools in the big ten.

pitt has had more basketball success in the last 10 years than all of the big ten teams besides michigan state.

anything else?

Never said anything about altruism. As a matter of fact, a couple times above, I mentioned we all know it’s about money, and we still like Pitt football and basketball. Get a clue, you get a clue, college sports has been all about money since the late 80’s, where have you been??? Just finding this out??? Actually, there is a bit in common. Did you know Pitt has been to 4 Rose Bowls? Did you know that Pitt was almost invited to the Big Ten in the late 40’s early 50’s??? Did you know in the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, Pitt’s schedule was pretty much, Notre Dame, Penn St. WVU and filled out with mostly Big Ten teams? What exactly do we have in common with Villanova, Georgetown, DePaul, Marquette and St.Johns???? Didn’t know Pitt was a catholic school?? Syracuse is a private research university??? South Florida?????? Also, Pitt is in the AAU, which is the top 63 research universities in the country, which the Big Ten has all it’s schools in, and I could be wrong, but, the Big East has two??? Syracuse and Rutgers, along with Pitt. We would be rock solid, along with Syracuse and Rutgers in the Big Ten. Academically, we fit much better with the Big Ten schools. Large research institutions. Also, Pittsburgh has much more of a midwestern feel too it, along the lines of Chicago, Indianapolis and Columbus, much more so than NYC, Boston and Washington or Philly. Anytime you hear anyone speak of cities in the Northeast, those are the ones that are mentioned. I can see the relationship with the Eastern schools, as we are one, but to say Pitt has nothing in common with the Big Ten, you do not have an understanding of the situation.

nova, georgetown, uconn? these are some of the best basketball games pitt has played, ever. the nova-pitt ncaa game was one of the best in the history of the ncaa tourney. the pitt-cincy football game was epic last season. georgetown, nova, st. johns, all city schools.
i don’t think pittsburgh is all that midwest. then again, i don’t live in the southills.

pitt doesn’t have nearly the enrollment as the schools in the big ten. the campus is in a city. big ten basketball sucks. the locations suck. other than psu, there are no rivals. you lose the big east tournament, which is awesome. and the football is boring as hell.

pine away.

Not good for the sport, the student or the fans. How is it going to hurt the student, exactly?? As for the sport, and the fans, ya, 5 mega conferences with the top 80 football and basketball teamsn in them, playing each other, with conference championship games, and eventually moving to a 4 or 8 team playoff system. No, I’ve never hear of any fan ever wanting something like that……..The sport and fans would really be hurtin’!!! The student, how does he/she get effected??? No more traveling than there is now, no more missed classes, number of games stay the same. Or, are you talking about the non-student athelete will get hurt, and how so. You win dude, I’m done.

omar, you’re out of your league.

link to post-gazette.com

out of my league. one minute you guys are talking about 300 division 1 programs and the poor athletic departments. now we are talking about 5 mega-conferences with 80 teams. which one is it? do you care about the non-revenue producing sports, or not? if there was already a football playoff this debate wouldn’t be happening. and no, i certainly do not want to replace the NCAA tournament. it is perfect the way it is. 80 teams in super conferences, how many of the non-revenue producing sports at the smaller colleges get axed.

Jesus the state of college football is what is. A discussion on the morals of cfb becoming fatter with greed is beside the point. In fact it is irrelevant to the specific discussion of expansion.

exactly. college football is a joke.

i hardly think it is besides the point. college football greed is ruining the other sports and dismantling great traditions, rivalries, and, perhaps in the future, the greatest sporting event in America (NCAA tournament).

Chas, for what it’s worth, I want to reiterate some feedback I gave you earlier: one of the reasons and I read your site is because it typically does not detiorate into a spam contest of who can make the most persuasive argument about an opinion one has versus another and it does not usually include name calling and invective. It appears my viewpoint is being proven permature.

A grasshopper sits down at the bar.

Bartender, ectatic, says “first time I’ve ever had a patron here that a drink was named after.”

Grasshopper asks, “Jim?”

Wally, you’re a little holier than thou, and I know this is below you, however, I do want to apologize. Looking over the posts, I believe you can clearly see the invective has been from Omar. However, when I got home, I was laughing and showed my wife. She said, “you know, you are arguing with a teenager, right?” I guess she could tell by the writing style as she is an English teacher. So, my apologies to all, especially you Omar, I can tell you bleed blue and gold, and love Pitt basketbally, keep on keeping your opinion out there. Again, Wally, one time, a couple people have some banter, sorry to intrude on your time.

Dan:

It wasn’t personal. I appreciate your argument as well. Your writing style wasn’t exactly Shakespeare. Apparently your wife didn’t read your posts, considering many of them were one paragraph. Your wife must teach english at a school where the primary language is Arabic.

Big East football is not as bad as so many people make it out to be. They have been equal to or better than the ACC since the ACC raided the Big East.

The problem remains – it is the perception of the Big East. There hasn’t been that one big, powerful football program that gets to the BCS each and every year. Louisville was good, the WVU, then Cincy. UL and WVU won some big bowl games, too.

We all hope Pitt will be the one BE program be that one powerful program to do it and while Pitt has come agonizingly close, they haven’t climbed over the hump.

There isn’t going to be a BE FB – ACC merger until the conference expansion starts again in 1-3 years. The ACC will not be shocked into reality until the SEC raids their schools in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina – or Maryland gets an invite to Jim Delaney’s Kingdom and accepts. When the ACC can no longer have a conference championship game then, and only then, will Stupid Swofford realize what is going on and act – or the remaining ACC schools will throw him out.

We can all speculate what will happen over the next several years. Texas may yet try to go to the Pac 11 with their own TV network in place and take OU, OSU and Texas Tech with them. Texas A&M may yet go to the SEC and be joined by Florida State, Clemson and Georgia Tech. Jim Delaney’s Kingdom will certainly continue to woo Notre Dame, who will turn down the Kingdom until they get an offer palatable to them – which would mean some combination of Eastern schools and the ability to continue to play USC and Navy when they want to.

I wish the BE FB schools would separate from the BB schools and add some more FB programs, even if it’s some combination of East Carolina, Central Florida, Temple, Army and Navy, Memphis and/or the University of Houston. The season lasts twelve games and an eight team conference just doesn’t have enough conference opponents. People will go to Pitt football games as long as the Panthers are winning.

I agree with you Omar. I wanted Pitt in the big ten when I assumed the big east was done but now that expansion has come to a halt I’m glad to still have the big east. The fact is that we will never be able to prove our conference anyway until we have an NCAA playoff with at least every conference champion automatically in the field

Not particularly in favor of adding “Memphis” to the BE. However, I would like to see FB add a team so that we could have 8 oconference games (4 home + 4 away) each season. If Memphis were added it would do that and hops might be more even because with 17 teams every team could play each other 1X for a a 16 gane season (no unbalanced schedules except for whomgets to play whom at home vs away). IMO that makes hoops scheduling better as well as football. As far as the hoops post-season tourney goes either #17 gets left out or has to play #16 in a play in game–not a big deal either way, IMO.

I think the frustration on both sides of this argument is due to Pitt’s powerlessness and/or passivity.

So how does the Big Ten feel now about its proud academic tradition? Maybe it has a little egg on its face. Nebraska ranked #96 in US News & World Report rankings of American colleges, lowest by far of any team in the Big Ten. Pitt came in at #56 pretty much the midrange of Big Ten schools. Also Nebraska awarded some 200-something PhD’s in 2008 about half the number of the lowest rank school in the current Big Ten. The other major candidate for expansion, Missouri, was even significantly worse than Nebraska. Be assured the Big Ten presidents will keep academics first and foremost when considering expansion..what a joke!!

link to post-gazette.com

Dan:

Reading over your posts, I find it very difficult to comprehend your criticism of my writing. Please do yourself a favor. Provide my posts to your wife along with your posts. Let her grade each for grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, content, etc. I am curious about the results. If I am a teenager, then you must be a toddler.

Omar, we’ve all had enough. You guys both had some good points, but, I’m afraid you are in fact showing your childishness, by trying to provoke that guy this morning. Leave it alone, and move on.

rick-

sounds good.

Sounds good Omar. Steve had an excellent point about this being a frustrating time for Pitt fans, because of the powerlessness and/or passivity, and, I might add, not knowing the future. I have no problem with either of you, you both exude passion for Pitt, and that is a good thing to see. Talk to ya later.

If the Big Can’t Count offer a bid to Pitt, then Pitt has to accept, regardless of what anyone thinks of the Big Can’t Count member schools. It is a stable conference and the Big East is not. It’s that simple.

I grew up in Northeast Ohio. In the 1970s the Big Ten was a lousy football conference. Michigan-OSU was the Boring Bowl and the Pitt-Penn State game was far better. Bean Cook called the Big Ten a bunch of snobs long ago and it’s true. Nevertheless, if the Big Can’t Count comes calling, Pitt must answer.

I’ve said it before. Pitt’s best hope is the SEC raids the ACC and the rest of the ACC schools meet with whoever is left in the Big East FB conference to form a new conference.