As numerous places have reported, Pitt has hired Utah State Athletic Director Scott Barnes to replace some jagoff none of us liked. Barnes has an impressive resume since he took over for the Aggies in 2008, including chairman of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee and four consecutive bowl games under two different head coaches. Most importantly, Utah State set fundraising records during his tenure that resulted in success on the field and infrastructure improvements. No word yet on his opinion regarding an on campus stadium.

Per ESPN, DHR International was the search firm who headed up the effort.

Yesterday was the ACC football coaches teleconference. Coach Pat Narduzzi was asked about the possibility of the Backyard Brawl returning. This was based on comments made by WVU’s new AD speaking on the topic.

Narduzzi gave the standard type of answer. Respecting the history. Speaking positively of such a game…

“Obviously, you love to have those rivalries, and West Virginia is a great team in a great conference,” Narduzzi said. “We want to play the best. So we’re always going to schedule some of the best opponents we can and really embrace future and past rivalries.”

…but making no commitment.

“That’s something the new AD will have to answer,” Narduzzi said Wednesday. “We will have those conversations when he gets here and with chancellor (Patrick) Gallagher, as well.

I don’t know if its related, but there have been lots of tweets and rumors that Pitt will be announcing the new AD today. Not sure one way or another, but since we are nearing the start of the dead time, why not?

Open thread on the AD stuff. Hopefully there will be real news.

And if not, there is the topic of the Backyard Brawl and the non-con. On the matter, I can’t help but think that it would be nice to have some sort of round-robin in the non-con. A way to rotate partners for the schedule. Say, Syracuse and Pitt from the ACC with PSU and  WVU. Rotate home-and-homes with each. As much as I prefer the idea of annually battling the Nits, I like the Brawl. It’s good to have hate.

*THIS POST IS SPONSORED BY SLINGBOX*

So I have had the Slingbox M1 for over a month. It’s been useful. I was especially grateful for it during the Final Four while visiting family and taking the kids around DC. All apologies to the various people I may have stumbled into while walking around the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum while trying to watch some pregame babbling.

It has been paying off on the weekends while my son has his Saturday soccer games and my daughter has softball practice Sunday evenings.

It’s been fun just to mess with the kids when I activate it on the TV they are using while I am out of the house. A little bit of a troll move on my part to switch it to SportsCenter when they are watching some god-awful Disney channel show (Phineas & Ferb, excepted), but I consider it payback for being exposed to even snippets of dialogue from KC Undercover.

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