Ever since Cinci joined the Big East, they have been trying to play catch-up in terms of facilities and bringing in money. Really, for most of their time in the Big East they have been in the red. Now, they want their cut from the extra money the Big East has to deal with their issues.

“We had some conversations about it yesterday,” said UC athletic director Whit Babcock. “Hopefully we’ll know by the end of the calendar year. Not all of those payments are in lump sums. Some of them are a five-year payment. There’s also entrance fees, which for Houston, SMU and those schools is $2.5 million to come in to the league — $500,000 for five years. So we’ve got entrance fees. We’ve got exit fees. I hate to see those schools go, but we’ve got a new successful league and I’ll be happy to take the funding.”

Babcock said the school is continuing to move forward on plans and funding for the renovation of Fifth Third Arena and Nippert Stadium.

The Big East, of course is saying, “Whoah. Slow down with all this money talk. We don’t really have that much… Or a plan.”

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A big theme for Big East Media Day was the status of Ray Graham’s ACL. There’s no specifics on it. Just that it is coming along and Graham plans to be ready.

Senior running back Ray Graham said he plans to play Sept. 1, when Pitt opens the season against Youngstown State, but he won’t push his recovery from a serious right knee injury beyond the limits of his body.

“You definitely ease your way into it,” he said. “I think I’m Superman, but at the end of the day, we aren’t really Superman.”

He and Coach Chryst are definitely planning on taking it cautiously in getting him ready. That means protecting him in training camp.

Graham says his knee feels good, but coach Paul Chryst prefers to be cautious with his star player and won’t rush him back too quickly. Graham will open camp with a non-contact jersey, and then the training staff will take it from there to see how he does.

“No matter how your workouts go in the summer, once you start doing the football over and over, we have to be smart and say let’s make sure he’s progressing and not taking steps back,” Chryst said. “I’d rather be a little bit cautious than speed it up out of the gates too fast.

“He has to get where he can trust himself first and build the pieces of contact. So I’d err on being much more cautious with him, until you know they know they’re not thinking about it and they can just go.”

Graham says he plans on wearing a knee brace initially just to be sure he has enough stability in his knee to be able to make his cuts without thinking about getting hurt again.

“I feel good, my confidence is there. At the end of the day it’s more of a mental thing,” Graham said. “I don’t want to be out there timid because I don’t want to get hurt again. I worked too hard for this. I put too much sacrifice and hard work to getting back to being healthy.”

And let’s be really honest. Graham has NFL RB potential. That’s his economic future. He’s already going to be downgraded by NFL front offices regardless of how well he comes back because of the ACL injury. Coming back slowly lessens the chance of any setbacks — and more red flags.

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