A few links/stories not directly related to Pitt but putting out there.
Northwestern has been Under Armour-ized. It’s not good. It’s not Maryland bad, but in the Big 10 it is radical.
Want to see how a lot of teams will probably (or should) schedule in the ACC when they go to a 9 game schedule? Virginia Tech is a good example.
The 2015 Akron game that was listed on Tech’s website under future schedules has been canceled.
The Hokies’ nonconference schedule in the next few years looks like this:
2013: vs. Alabama in Atlanta, vs. Marshall, vs. Western Carolina
2014: vs. William and Mary, at Ohio State, vs. Western Michigan
2015: vs. Furman, vs. Ohio State, vs. East Carolina
2016: vs. Wisconsin, vs. Liberty, at East Carolina
By being pushed back, the East Carolina series would have one more home-and-home cycle in 2017 and ’18.
The Hokies also are scheduled for a trip to Wisconsin in 2017 to satisfy that home-and-home agreement…
Every year has one marquee non-con. VT relies a little heavy on local 1-AA foes for an extreme patsy for my tastes. The third game isn’t bad. Especially with the always dangerous ECU team out there.
The North Carolina academic scandal continues to be a huge stain. Probably too late to be a big deal, but it appears the basketball team spent a good deal of time in the questionable area before abruptly getting away from it in what appears to be the nick of time. The faculty at UNC is adding to the fire by insisting on the need for an independent audit of the intersection of academics and athletics.
The three professors who wrote the report called for an independent commission of outside experts in higher education to review athletics and academics at the university.
“It is our hope that such a panel of distinguished experts will both highlight what we are doing right and identify areas of deficiencies in organization and procedure,” the report said.
The report comes after a university probe found 54 courses within the Department of African and Afro-American Studies that had little or no instruction, and dozens of independent study classes that had little evidence of academic rigor. The classes were largely filled with athletes, and some had nothing but football or basketball players enrolled.
University officials have said the fraud does not merit an NCAA investigation because nonathletes also were enrolled in the no-show classes, though they represent a minority of the students and the class enrollments. But the report is almost entirely focused on what it called an atmosphere of distrust on a “campus with two cultures,” one academic and one athletic.
Increasingly embattled UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp is supporting yet another investigation, “It will complement the other activities and inquiries in progress.” While quietly whispering that he really, really wants to keep his job.
And finally, Pitt Blather gets listed among the better college football blogs by… someone.
For one more season anyway, Pitt is part of the Big East. And while this blog leaves something to be desired in the aesthetics department, the staff (Chas and Reed) does a great job of keeping Pittsburgh fans in the know about football and basketball developments.
Fine. Fine. The appearance is getting a bit dated. It’s on the list of things to do.
I’m just pissed off that I didn’t get to take any of those “independent studies with little or no instruction and little evidence of academic rigor.” I’m sure taking Basket Weaving 101 could have helped boost my GPA.
The funny part is that North Carolina makes such a big deal about their academic reputation. I know that stuff goes on in the Big 12 and the SEC, but I would have expected more out of North Carolina.
It would make me feel better if you did.
Hail to Pitt!
Two less schools involved in the Coastal Division race, and some more possible recruits with two less schools to choose from.
I grew up in Somerset county and the Pitt/PSU week was the best week of the year half in Pitt jerseys and them in there jerseys. I was excited to see them play again but now that they have shown there @sses to the rest of the country I say get them off the schedule and get the hoopies back on. People now see WVU as our main rival and them being in the Big 12 and our move to the ACC could only make it bigger and better. Screw PSU and Hail to Pitt!
Guess NCAA doesn’t look at classes if they have regualar non-athlete students in the classes.
So, North Carolina, has former athletes registered in these classes, that now show up as non-athletes, so, even if they do get caught, they hope the NCAA will say, “can’t touch it, they have non-athletes in this class.”
UNC in big, big trouble!!
Six members of Temple’s incoming recruiting class could end up at prep school rather than the Owls football team this fall because of academics, according to multiple sources.
Running back Brandon Peoples (Archbishop Wood), safety Nate Smith (Wood), defensive end Kiser Terry (Neshaminy), linebacker Alkwan Williams (Johnstown), and wideouts Shakur Nesmith (Imhotep Charter) and Romond Deloatch (Phoebus) have yet to fully clear the NCAA Clearinghouse for freshman eligibility at Temple.
“The topic lit up the airwaves, where the overwhelming sentiment was to renew at least for the two games. The blog PittBlather.com received more than 600 replies to a poll asking whether fans still want to see Pitt-Penn State.”
Congrats Chas and Reed.
But what really galls me is that he uses a poll from this blog as a basis for this article. We do not represent the opinion of the Pitt admin and have little impact on what Pitt officials or coaches do …. as evidenced by the fact that Voytik or Myers are very unlikely to be the starting QB.
Starkey is getting as bad as Cook when it comes to finding a tempest in a teapot. Neither seem to be creative enough to actually write a substantive stories anymore but instead have turned into gossip columnists.
And he uses data as well. If someone has a problem with that then find better data.
Sheesh, it’s Sunday morning too.
I’m soon off to welcome 30 or so Jersey kids to Pitt at our annual Alumni Freshmen Send-off. Any inside info I can pass on? And, please, no bomb threat jokes.
Now concerning the games themselves come 2016 & 17. I feel strongly that we should just worry about our own selves. Lets get our act together, step up to the improved competition that the ACC will present and be ready to play then again when the time arises.
And when it’s game time we should take no prisoners. Kick their asses up and down the field. Make them remember the last game that we played against them in 2000 when we blanked them at Three Rivers. Make sure that we impress on all the upcoming HS football recruits in PA just who is the best college football team in the state so as to solidify our recruiting advantage at that important juncture when penn state will be gearing up again for full scholarship numbers.
We take care of business like that, then we can thumb our noses at them there after and get on with our future schedules in the ACC all the while chanting penn state sucks!!!! or maybe expound on the clever SI cover and initiate a new updated Pitt chant of “YOU WERE PENN STATE”!!!! HTP.
You are correct sir! Pitt needs to kick it up a notch or two and everything falls into place. Just win.
Starkey’s articles are horrible. My 9 year old has better insight.
That being said, IMO Pitt should sign a long term deal to play PSU. It was an awesome series and still would be one.
Of course, valence/direction is what we typically think of as attitude. How can you say we’re biased when the sentiments are all over the place?
The fact is that I’ll guarantee that they don’t have a clue what they are going to do right now or probably even care about these games right now. The sanctions on PSU now have significant impact how PSU schedules it non-conf games between now and 2015, and neither school can predict what will happen between now and 2016.
As I’ve been saying, the time is now gentleman. Pitt is in an excellent position to takeover the state power reigns once more. It’s now or never. Time to ascend to the elite once more. It has to start with this year. We need 9 wins this season to begin our ascent. Chryst has the talent to do it. The time is now. Great times to be excited for Pitt Football.
Compliment that with a great run in the Big Dance and hello Pitt becoming a real big time school.
Sustained success.
H2P.
Sorry, I am really excited for this year to start lol.
But why exactly would the survey be relevant on the Pitt site and not on this one? Neither survey involves random sampling. It’s completed by anyone interested enough to take the time to weigh in.
And bright, because when asked to choose among the following
Pitt is
-a football school
-a basketball school
-a wrestling school
-an ultimate frisbee school
they chose basketball
At least one current Penn State player is interested in Pitt.
“Hearing that Penn State’s Mike Hull is on campus at Pitt,” Dale Lolley of the Washington Observer-Reporter tweeted.
Hull would have the opportunity to compete and possibly start if he transferred to Pitt. Hull is currently listed as a backup for Penn State, but Coach Bill O’Brien could make room for him to start.
“…the Nittany Lions also have toyed with a 3-4 defense, and Hull would be with the first unit if the coaching staff made that switch,” Lolley wrote.
Fellow Penn State linebacker Mike Yancich may have traveled to Pitt with Hull Saturday — although that has yet to be confirmed.
– Brent Sobleski
But I’ll have you know that I’m a sports fan in the truest sense… A sports fan who at 9:15PM EST, happened to flip the channel to NBC, home to the London Olympics games, of course.
These games — olympic sports — are not my cup-of-tea; they hold little interest.
Yet TOTAL COINCIDENCE it happens to be WOMENS GYMNASTICS happening real-time. And, yep, I watched this event IN FULL. Which makes me want to take a shower, also (esp. in wake of PedoU).
But P’LEASE, do not even tell me you haven’t watched this event IN TOTAL from age 13 onward.
OK. Okay now. Rinsed my hands of this one.
Isn’t that what our mothers told us, when they want us to take out a girl they wanted us to date?