Pitt to the ACC is at least a year away. That doesn’t mean the jockeying and speculation of the division format for football hasn’t already started.

Like many, I have no real idea how the ACC divides their conference. I know that they have the Atlantic and Coastal divisions for names. I know that Miami and FSU are kept in separate divisions, because when the divisions were created everyone expected Miami and FSU to regularly battle it out in the ACC Championship game. But I have no idea which school is in which division.

So let’s start with a little basic education:

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On the eve of the Notre Dame game I thought we’d wrap up some of the great discussions we all have had on here since PITT snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against Iowa.  Chas will have his Live blog up for the noon game so those at faraway places can follow just how pissed your fellow Blather commenters are during the game.

You may find it interesting that since last week’s Iowa game this blog has had 457 comments posted to its game related articles.  I don’t have figures on any other singular blogs but that has to be right at the top for reader participation.  Thank you. (more…)

At the earliest Pitt and Syracuse join the ACC will be in time for the 2012 season. We will see how negotiations go. As Troy Nunes points out, it is in Pitt and Syracuse’s interests that the Big East move quickly on their expansion — no matter how stupid or short-term their choices may be. Of course never underestimate the stupidity and false sense of importance of the basketball schools helping Pitt and Syracuse leave before the 27 month waiting period.

This could be a negotiating tactic, or he could be serious, but in either case several member schools just want the two schools gone.

There is a feeling in the basketball programs at some member schools that the eventual departure of Pitt and Syracuse will provide some breathing room, that the league had become too great for its own good.

There was room for a record 11 teams to earn NCAA Tournament bids last season, but the presence of Hall of Fame coaches Jim Boeheim and Jim Calhoun at the top of the league and the heavy concentration of elite teams has made it difficult for many league members to gain the necessary media attention to improve their programs through recruiting.

Oh, please, please, please, please, please be true. Hell if I’m in the Big East offices, after I peel myself off the ceiling, is to let my paranoia run wild that this is a planted story from the ACC or Pitt/Syracuse.

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As disappointing as the underneath coverage for Pitt’s pass defense has been, the most surprising thing about Pitt’s defense has been the lack of turnovers. That’s the thing that Pitt’s new and aggressive defense is supposed to be producing. It flat out hasn’t happened.

The run defense has stuffed teams, but no fumbles forced or stripped. The corners — well they just aren’t being aggressive. That reduces interception chances when they aren’t trying to jump routes.

Now Pitt faces an Irish team that has simply been a turnover machine. 13 turnovers in 3 games. The simplest reason for them to be sitting at 1-2, with excruciatingly painful losses. Honestly, if Pitt can’t get at least 2 turnovers against ND — regardless of the outcome — then this could be a really painful transition season.

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I swear, some time soon I will get to the actual games. Maybe even talk about ND before Saturday. Yet I can’t turn away from Conference Expansiopocolypse stuff. I’m just too invested.

The Big East football programs had a little get together at a hotel in NYC. Henry Kissinger happened to be in the same hotel. You really can’t make this stuff up.

Speaking of stuff you can’t make up. This was the full text of the Big East Conference statement after the meeting.

Our membership met this evening and we are committed as a conference to recruit top level BCS caliber institutions with strong athletic and academic histories and traditions.  We have been approached by a number of such institutions and will pursue all of our options to make the BIG EAST Conference stronger than it has ever been in both basketball and football.

What a reaffirming and warm statement. But…

Curiously absent from the league statement is the specific wording that all of the schools were committed to the league.

Not really. (By the way, check out the story just for the punchdrunk picture of Marinatto. I want some photoshopped submissions based on that picture. Please!)

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   Last Saturday I wrote a pretty opinionated article on here about our QB play and the way I thought the HC should handle it in the future.  Well, nothing I have read so far this week dissuades me from that line of thought.  Actually, some public comments from both Sunseri and Graham reinforce what I’d like to see happen.  I don’t think Graham is listening to me though…

With what might be the best tongue-in-cheek headline ever, DiPaola over at the Trib wrote this:

PITT PASSER SUNSERI GIVES SELF HIGH MARKS

“Bloodied, but with his head held high, Pitt quarterback Tino Sunseri confidently met the media Tuesday, insisting his two-interception, two-fumble (one lost) performance against Iowa constituted his best game of the season.

 “I would say it was my greatest game I played yet,” he said. “I was very pleased with all my reads. Even the interceptions were the right reads. I just have to put more air on the ball.”

Sunseri’s passing efficiency rating is 122.0, 73^rd among the top 100 quarterbacks in the nation, with four interceptions and three touchdown passes, but he said he has a clearer understanding of the offense. “

That’s like a surgeon saying “Hey, I had the right patient; I just amputated the wrong leg.”  Folks, this is why I think that benching Sunseri as a reality check, among other reasons, is in order.  But in a weird and unnerving way I understand where he’s coming from with this.  When you’ve been coddled by two separate head coaches with zero competition for the starting spot since January of 2009, it must skew your vision as to what actually is supposed to transpire in the competitive arena of sports.

How can he have any real internal benchmark of success when he’s never had to measure any in the off season?  His success in “winning” the starter’s job was pre-ordained without even a façade of competition.  Maybe there were good reasons for that at the time, but I’ll bet a dollar that neither Wannstedt nor Graham has ever sat Sunseri down, especially during in-season, and told him in no uncertain terms that he must play to a certain standard or he’ll be on the bench.  This is why I don’t really blame Sunseri so much for what he does out on the field as I do his coaches.  Of course, as we say every week it seems, we’ll know more on Saturday evening but sooner or later a hard decision may have to be made. (more…)

Big East Commissioner John Marinatto finally staggered out of his darkened office. A paperweight was embedded in his computer, and empty bottles of wine lay strewn about the office. He spoke to the New York Times about some things.

Marinatto said in a telephone interview that he planned to hold Syracuse and Pittsburgh to their 27-month contractual exit obligations, meaning that they would not be able to leave the Big East until June 2014.

This was expected. There was no way the Big East was just going to tell Pitt and Syracuse to just go on their merry way. No hard feelings. Simply put, this was the opening of negotiations for Pitt and Syracuse to leave the Big East. You don’t concede your biggest piece of leverage in negotiations at the start. Not even John Marinatto and the Big East do that.

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Oh, Ken Starr and Baylor you make this fun.

Baylor let people know about a vital survey showing how people overwhelmingly do not want ginormous conferences.

Three-quarters (76%) of college football fans say they would be disappointed with the creation of super conferences that would eliminate historical regional conference rivalries, according to a poll released today. The poll also indicated a strong belief that decision-making regarding conference realignment should be conducted with transparency and public input.

Well that seems startling. Naturally there was a solid unbiased sampling.

The survey, conducted among college graduates within Big 12 member states over the weekend by KRC Research of Washington, D.C. and commissioned by Baylor University, found strong support for the existing college athletic conference alignment. Seventy-seven percent of respondents said schools should “fight to preserve the original intent of collegiate athletics as part of the student experience” while only 19 percent said the commercialization of college sports is inevitable and should be accepted.

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The survey included responses from 1,500 college graduates within Big 12 states – 300 each within Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas and Iowa.

Oh.

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Kind of fun being in the eye of this at the moment. It’s all swirling around Pitt, but at this point the only thing landing on Pitt is the name-calling. Here’s the thing Pitt fans: many of us decry when others — players, management, PR flacks,  others in the media have a thin-skin about things. Same rule applies for us. There has and will be crap flown towards Pitt. Not all of it particularly intelligent or well-thought out. Not much of it you will like.

Hard, though, it may be, deal with it. Don’t take it personally. You can offer the facts. You can point out the obvious evidence. Just don’t let yourself get too worked up over the silliness. Pitt is going to be painted as the bad guy. It’s the simple narrative. Some will go over the tops, others treating it like Pitt just part of the general problem.

Let me take you through the run down in case you missed some of it.

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Here is the official press release from Pitt ACC on moving to the ACC.

Is there a morning left for me to oversleep without missing something?

It is official. Pitt and Syracuse are moving to the ACC.

“The ACC has enjoyed a rich tradition by balancing academics and athletics and the addition of Pitt and Syracuse further strengthens the ACC culture in this regard,” Swofford said. “Pittsburgh and Syracuse also serve to enhance the ACC’s reach into the states of New York and Pennsylvania and geographically bridges our footprint between Maryland and Massachusetts. With the addition of Pitt and Syracuse, the ACC will cover virtually the entire Eastern Seaboard of the United States.”

The exact timeline is unclear. Big East rules call for a 27 month notice period — and the ACC stressed that they would abide the Big East bylaws. This may mean, a lot like what went down in the Big 12 last year that Pitt and Syracuse are going to have to surrender some extra money to the Big East to make it happen by next year.  We shall see on that front.

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I was significantly late to the wedding reception of one of my closest friends because of this game. He understood. And the blue streak of expletives deleted when I explained how it unfolded was impressive. That said, I have to conclude that this is his fault.

Back in 2003, another of our group got married. No big deal. An early wedding and the away game was at night. Plenty of time for the wedding and the reception. We gathered. We celebrated and later that evening we congregated at some bar in Altoona. And watched Pitt lose on the road to Toledo. He should have known better. Regardless of all the very good, logistical and logical reasons for having the wedding today — he should have known better.

Eight years later, history repeated. The wedding went quickly wedding receptions enough, and with the gap in time between the wedding and reception I went to a halfway point and to a place of nostalgia. I found myself in The Cage watching the game. Once there, with the way the game unfolded, I couldn’t leave. A good 2 hours late and I had to repeat to many what exactly happened. I felt shell-shocked after a while. And judging by the looks on their faces, they felt it just in the descriptions of the events.

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I very rarely, if ever, trash a player on the internet or in conversation.  I think because these kids are working hard and trying the best they can they deserve respect for their efforts.  So I’ll say, respectfully, that Tino Sunseri must be taught a lesson.  It has to be clear, unmistakable and administered with no hesitation.  If you cause your team to lose a football game you should expect to be replaced.  If you are any kind of team player and sportsman you’ll also realize exactly why it’s happening.

We had three turnovers today; each one was avoidable and directly caused by Sunseri.  It’s not enough to have one good play a quarter; it’s not enough to have a great completion percentage and it’s not enough, obviously, to lead your team to a big lead.  Not when you also lead your team to five three and outs… three in the second half alone.   Along with his turnovers, his inability to keep the offense on the field and extend time consuming drives killed us.

I won’t say the defense played well, they sure didn’t.  But you could see they were gassed by having to return to the field so soon after Iowa’s long drives in the third and fourth quarters.  They played damn well in the first half when they had a chance to get their butts on the bench for a while and then get their feet back under them when playing.  I’ll say this without hesitation, a major reason they played so poorly is, again, the direct result of poor play by the QB.

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I will be following with radio, twitter, hook and crook. One of my closest friends and fellow season ticket-holder is getting married today.

I know what happened. He figured this was going to be a 3:30 game. A meeting between a couple BCS teams. A better than average non-con match-up. Surely it would get some love. Evenly matched teams. A better thing to see than UNC-UVA or Washington-Neb or some of the other 3:30 games. It would be perfect. Bring in all his friends for the wedding. Get it done early and get some of the reception stuff out of the way and then we could all just be together and watch the game later in the afternoon. He didn’t count on Pitt and Iowa both being low in the expectations, and relegated to a noon start. Especially in a Central Time Zone.

Needless to say, if the ceremony doesn’t conclude by noon, I will be looking like a Secret Service reject with an earbud in place to listen to the game.

Not to worry about this liveblog. It is covered.

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Maybe. We’ll see. Wow. I don’t know.

This could be big.

Syracuse University and the University of Pittsburgh, two bedrock members of the Big East Conference, are engaged in talks about joining the Atlantic Coast Conference, according to a source with direct knowledge of the talks.

No one from Pittsburgh, Syracuse or the A.C.C. denied the conversations were taking place. Officials from all three entities declined to comment on the matter.

The person with knowledge of the talks declined to speculate on a timetable or the seriousness of the discussions. But in this delicate time for conferences and their futures, the discussions between the 12-team A.C.C. and two Big East members is significant.

The discussions show how the creeping trend toward 16-team super conferences that has concerned so many college athletics officials appears to be inching closer to reality.

As always, who knows for sure. But, wow. This would be huge. No question Pitt and Syracuse would and should go if the invite happens.

Not enough details, though, in the story to say much about it other than, “that would be swell.”