The ACC Spring meetings are wrapping up. Nothing accomplished of real note. Lots of talk. Lots of coaches expressing opinions on rule changes. The administrative and conference stuff isn’t what fans and media want anyways. On that front, this is simply a chance to talk to masses of coaches and ADs.

Nothing concrete. Just opinions. The conferences and coaches may state their preferences for certain changes, but they will not actually do anything right now. They will have the NCAA enact the rules and changes. That gives them cover over unpopular things and items that have unintended consequences later.

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Once more, there is loud talk from coaches, administrator and conferences of eliminating the Graduate Transfer as we know it.

Start with the basics. Graduate Transfer Exception (or Waiver):

The graduate exception is a version of the one-time transfer exception. It is for student-athletes who cannot use the normal one-time transfer exception because they play one of the sports that are not permitted to use the exception.

The student-athlete must have graduated with at least a bachelor’s degree;
The student-athlete meets the other requirements of the one-time transfer exception;
The student-athlete must have at least one season of competition left; and
The student-athlete’s previous school did not renew his or her athletic scholarship or offer an athletic scholarship for the following academic year.

The requirement that the scholarship be cancelled or not renewed is generally not an issue. The scholarship does not need to be cancelled before the transfer or be the reason for the transfer. Because the one-time transfer exception requires you to get a release, what will happen with your scholarship is generally just an administrative detail.

The Graduate Transfer Waiver is often conflated with the exception because they are so similar. There is one key difference.

The graduate transfer waiver is now typically used by athletes who have previous transferred once before and so cannot use the one-time transfer exception (even as a graduate student).

A letter from the previous school saying it does not object to the student-athlete being eligible;

Documentation that the student-athlete has been accepted into a specific graduate degree program;

Documentation about whether that degree program is offered by the previous school;
A student-athlete statement including the reasons for the transfer; and

A statement from the previous institution about the student-athlete’s status on the team.

[Emphasis added.]

Unlike regular transfers, there is no requirement to sit out a year after transferring. The player is eligible to play right away. That is the big bonus for both the player and the school to where he transfers.

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Prediction of unintended consequences. This new Morgantown ordinance will result in more broken doors and windows as drunken hoopies are forced to drag ratty couches from outside their houses rather than off their porches.

Sorry, took something of a surprise mental health break.

When Pitt’s basketball season came to its end, I found myself unable to do any writing. It wasn’t writer’s block, or that I didn’t have anything to say — lord knows, it is never that. I was just drained.

I figured I would start back to writing the next day.   Then it became another day. I’d be fine after the weekend. Well, not quite yet. Excuses based on the offline world activities were allowed to perpetuate other days of not writing. Next thing I knew, I hadn’t written anything of note for more than a while. (more…)

My kids get spoiled rotten this time of year. (Yes, I know, everyone’s kids get spoiled rotten this time of year. Work with me on this.) They get to do the Hanukkah and Christmas combo. I’m not saying grandparents on both sides of the religious divide aren’t trying to subtly influence the leanings whenever (if ever) they decide to make that call.  We have had to warn both sides off  about showing up with a puppy, though.

I’ve mentioned it before that when it came to team and school loyalties, I got everything but the NFL. The poor kids have to root for the Browns. Not that it has mattered much since I’m not about to go out an buy them the gear, and my wife gets sticker shock just about every time she looks at licensed gear. Frankly the kids haven’t cared to ask.

Until this year. The boy is seven and decided this year he wanted a Browns jersey. I asked my wife what brought that on, and she pointed out that his teacher is a huge Browns fan, so it probably has something to do with that. To be fair, she is quite pretty, so I just nodded my head without mentioning that aspect. I was just kind of hoping that he was going to last a little longer before doing stupid things for a girl.

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Folks, I know that there are a lot of comments flying with the football stuff. Emotions are tending to rise and fall — mostly rising at this point. I also know there are a lot of new people trying to comment.

With that in mind…

1. Don’t be an ass. You are not speaking truth to power. You are not the only one who sees things clearly and the rest are idiots and blind sheep. I have to be honest. It’s been a long season, and I’ve tried to let things go, but several people are coming up to the line where I have had enough of it and will start banning people to bring things under control.

2. If you are new and you don’t see your comments showing up in discussion it is because I missed them or haven’t approved them. New comments are held for review to make sure that they aren’t spam, from previously banned commenters trying to slip in under a different email, and just for appropriate content. Drop me an e-mail if you are concerned: pitblather-at-gmail-dot-com

3. In that vein, insulting me or any of the other writers, slash complaining in the comments that you are being banned or censored won’t help you in getting the comments approved. I’m more than happy to let you believe you are a victim.

4. Sock-puppetry will almost certainly result in being called out and immediately banned.

Hopefully that will cover it.

As long-timer readers should remember, I’m not very tolerant of sock puppetry in the comments.

Consequently the filters  toss comments into a general queue for review if the username or e-mail don’t match-up to your previously approved comments under a different username/e-mail. And given the volume in the queue I may not get to them all, since that means I have to search through old comments and confirm its the same person. And make sure they aren’t playing games.

You can drop me a line if you feel that there is a problem, but be sure to let me know what username you are/have been using. It would also help if you could explain why you felt the need to change the name.

We lost power for a near 24-hour period thanks to high winds and rain. Somehow our block had minimal tree damage. The block east of us, however, got slammed. Some 8 or 9 trees knocked over on that block. Including one that took out a transformer (and a car and part of a house). So the 3 inches of water in the basement because the sump pump wasn’t on seems relatively minor. A good part of my day will be bleach washing the basement surface and getting rid of a bunch of kids toys (not exactly the plan I had to get rid of a lot of old toys, but I’m going with it).

In the meantime I figure on sharing this e-mail that got forwarded to me from a reader. It came to me from Yardbarker’s managing editor, who received it — and was quite confused as to why it came to him. This really is an actual e-mail from an actual person.

I was given your name by Jerry Micco, Sports Editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  I wrote to him expressing concern about the Pitt Blather column which is published in the Post-Gazette.  He responded by saying that the column is a publication of FOXSports.com so I am forwarding my concern to you.

I like the content of Pitt Blather very much, but I don’t like the name “Pitt Blather”.  According to the dictionary, blather means non-sensical talk.  What kind of a name is this to assign to a serious blog about Pitt football?  The names of the blogs for Penn State (Black Shoe Diaries) and WVU (The Mountaintop), which also appear in the Post-Gazette, are dignified and pertinent, but Pitt Blather is not only off-target but also demeaning.  I am hoping that you will find a way to have the name of this column changed to something that is more appropriate.

Thank you in advance for your consideration of my request.

Sincerely,

[Name redacted]

If you ever wanted to know why corporations were wary/parnoid for so long about including hyperlinks and sidebars to outside content, meet Exhibit A.

I’m mostly amused, but for the suggestion that this is a “serious blog about Pitt football.” That kind of depresses me.

When I was trying to decide on the name of this blog the runner-up to “Pitt Sports Blather” was “The Babble Pitt.” To this day I still second-guess the decision.

No, losing to Syracuse did not break my spirit and send me into a week-long bender.

My father-in-law was hospitalized over the weekend. He’s still there, while more tests and observations are made. He’s at that age, where any trip to the hospital holds that dire potential that they find something really bad. Or worse, simply that he never leaves under his own power. My wife has been with him all week. While I handle work, the kids and everything else.

Needless to say, I have not been on the computer very frequently this week.  I’ll try to post soon.

Stress does funny things to people. This Pitt season has already added plenty of it to what has built up over the last couple of years. I’m seeing it showing up in the comments in various ways.

So, I think some reminders about how things work are in order.

There is no formal registration to comment on this blog at this point. I don’t do it, mainly because I don’t like to bother when I go to other sites. Also, because I don’t want the added responsibility of safeguarding other people’s personal information. The reality is that the site is getting bigger and more popular so eventually I probably will have to.

In the meantime, there is still something of a controlled honor system.

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Yes, even this site is not immune to the changing forces that have swirled around college athletics.

Okay, so it’s really just some new contributors on the site. Still, with the loss of Pitt Script Blog to the SBN borg outpost, Cardiac Hill. It could be viewed — with enough to drink — as the Pitt Blog Expansion Wars of 2012. Or something else.

Chris Gates is a Pittsburgh native, loves Pitt athletics, and has spent the past year working at 93.7 The Fan. Among the things he did there was blogging. He’s just moved across the country to work at Oregon State as the Web/Interactive Media Coordinator for RecSports, but he still wants to write and talk Pitt. Happily he took me up on an offer to continue doing so here. You can also follow Chris on Twitter. Oh, and he just loves to here Kent State jokes. Can’t get enough of them.

Once upon a time, there was a blogspot blog that focused on Pitt recruiting. Then it got deleted by the person who had it. So others, slightly less serious, brought the place back and opted to have some fun. For a while all was well. But then the incident. A trauma that changed things.

They were never quite the same after the horrible incident known as the 2008 Sun Bowl. Even after the rehab from the mental trauma, the strain proved too much for them. They could never quite recover and generate content with any consistency. Which was a shame since they had some good stuff. A few of them want to try again, but without the pressure of needing to do it on a regular basis. So, now they will try to bring the funny here when so motivated. You can find at least one of them skulking about on twitter as well.

Finally, the mystery* known only as Dan. He’s the new guy. He’s a student at Pitt. Lifelong fan. He’s been in contact with me over the summer and wants to give the blogging thing a go.

*”Mystery” being a relative term. I’ve vetted him to my satisfaction that this won’t be a Sarah Phillips thing. As I’m not sure how much of his actual background he wants to share, however, there’s not much more to tell you about him.

Just one more reason to make sure to glance at the byline under the post title before you angrily complain about (or even compliment) the person who wrote something.

Sorry to abruptly disappear for nearly a week. Lot of off-line activity that kept me from finding any time to give the blog some time. Family stuff — nothing bad — that just took all the significant spare time available. It’s done, so all should be back on a normal schedule.

I’m sure many of you have read the post from Paul Zeize that he is leaving the Pitt football beat for a while, as his son now holds an offer from the school and will be going through recruiting. Zeise is the only one who regularly wrote on Pitt football longer than this blog, so this is a significant change. I’ve enjoyed his work over the years. He has been fair in his coverage of Pitt.

Still he had no choice. There would be an appearance and/or perception of bias with his son holding a scholarship offer from Pitt. Heck, whether his son chooses Pitt or elsewhere there will still be someone ready to use it against him the minute he writes or comments on Pitt now and in the future.

Hoping he gets back to the Pitt beat soon, though. (No offense to the new guy, Sam Werner.)

Good Friday, Passover, Easter, the Masters. It is one active holiday weekend. Thank you everyone who made a pledge or paypal donation over the weekend. Eleven PayPal hits and six check pledges was better than I expected for this kind of weekend. Some of the checks arrived over the weekend, so thanks again.

Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. The Pennsylvania and Ohio Turnpikes were wonderfully empty yesterday. We went and retrieved our daughter from the grandparents, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen both highways that empty — of cars, trucks and cops. If the roads were like that during football season, I believe the 140 mile trip from my house to Heinz Field could be done in under 2 hours.

This should be the final day of asking for help. One more good day and posts asking for money disappear for 2 more years.

Yesterday was a great rebound. Not sure if it was guilt or the hope that this will end soon. I kid, I kid. We all know it’s the hope that the daily pledge drive posts will end soon. There were 13 paypal donations and 11 check pledges over the last 24 hours.

Sorry for the quiet most of yesterday. I had to take a quick drive to Donegal, PA yesterday. We were meeting my mom to do a prisoner drop  my daughter off so she could spend part of her spring break with her grandparents — the BP/McDonald’s off the turnpike is just lovely this time of year. Donegal happens to be halfway between us and them. Then with a rejiggered schedule I had to work in the evening.

Hopefully this will be another strong day and this can be finished by Monday for another two years. You can donate two ways. If you want to send a check, e-mail me at PittBlather-at-gmail-dot-com and I will respond with my address. The other way is to simply click the PayPal button on the right (and yes, that e-mail that comes up is correct).

Not unexpectedly, yesterday saw the pledges slow a bit. There were eleven PayPal contributions, but only two pledges for checks.

The drop-off wasn’t steep, but noticeable. It’s why there is a post each day to beg. To remind those that haven’t donated that I’m still asking for help.

You can contribute by check or PayPal. Either click the PayPal button on the right link column (yes, the Hotmail e-mail account listed is correct). For sending a check, just send an e-mail to PittBlather-at-gmail-dot-com indicating that is what you would like to do and I’ll send you my home address.

If the number of pledges can stay in the double figures through Friday, I will be able to end the annoying blegging posts after Monday (the weekend will be bleg free, regardless).

Another steady day of contributions and pledges. Eight PayPal contributions and nine check pledges. That puts the two-day total at 20 PayPal donations and 15 check pledges. Consistency like this is encouraging that the pledge drive can end in under two weeks.

You can help by donating one of two ways. One is to shoot me an e-mail at PittBlather-at-gmail-dot-com and I can give you my mailing address. I’m not going to post it on the site, because that is just plain stupid. The other is clicking PayPal on the right sidebar. Yes, the e-mail address listed on the account when you click is correct — my PayPal account predates PittBlather.

On a nuts-and-bolts issue. I will need to hire someone to help with some of the upgrades and improvements to the site. I know some people, but keeping it in the Pitt family, so to speak, would be good. So if you or someone you know has experience with website design, computer graphics and/or wordpress send me an e-mail to discuss it.