I realize it’s a minor league team outside of Cleveland just trying to use LeBron’s free agency to get people to come to a game, but it is still really sad.

The Lake County Captains are offering all tickets tonight for $6 — in honor of LeBron James’ new uni number.

Even worse. Renamed for tonight, the team is the LeLake LeCounty LeCaptains.

Well ESPN.com and BlueRibbon are putting out their team previews. Really just overviews of stuff mixed in with quotes from Coach Wannstedt (Insider subs).

Since the Big East was first up in teams previewed, Bruce Feldman lists 10 reasons to love the Big East. Pitt players and team grab 3 of the spots (Insider subs).

3. Dion Lewis, RB, Pittsburgh Panthers:
What a revelation the unheralded 5-foot-8 back from Albany was last season, going for almost 1,800 rushing yards and 17 TDs. Lewis’ style evoked comparisons to former Rutgers great Ray Rice. The guy just kept getting better as the 2009 season wore on, rolling off eight straight 100-yard games to finish out the year. His total of 159 rushing yards in the Meineke Car Care Bowl was the most North Carolina gave up all last season and that yardage also was more than every team but one — the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets — ran for against the Tar Heels. Lewis’ speed has continued to improve as well. He was down to a 4.42 40 when the Panthers tested him.

4. Jonathan Baldwin, WR, Pitt:
Another one of our top freaks in college football, Baldwin is a matchup nightmare at 6-5, 228 with sub-4.4 speed and a 42-inch vertical. Teams loading up in hopes of slowing down Lewis subsequently cringe at the thought of what Baldwin might do to their defensive backs.

…

8. The Pitt pass rush:
Dave Wannstedt has two outstanding bookend defensive ends in Greg Romeus and Jabaal Sheard, who have 30 career sacks. The inside of the Pitt D-line has changed. Sadly, for rival offenses, the outside has not.

Over at XtraPointFootball, their preview of Pitt concludes with the Panthers as the pick to win the Big East.

The one common question that is developing, though, is can the interior of the offensive line be relied upon this season? More than Tino Sunseri starting at QB. More than replacing Dickerson and Byham at TE. More than new starters at corner. More than new starters inside the D-line.

Looks like all previews have caught up to Pitt fans for the big question on the team: offensive line.

Interesting info dump on money spent by programs on football. Not totally convinced of some of the conclusions reached, but no surprise that the Big East contains some of the thriftiest BCS programs. Pitt spends less than 25% of what it spends on football, on basketball. Pitt also has one of the smaller total overall gross revenue among BCS teams. That the Athletic Department operates so well and the glamor programs are nationally relevant is a bit more impressive in that respect.