Per the intricacies of the ACC deal with the Mouse Monopoly, game times are supposed to be announced no later than 12 days before the day of the game. Not just the time, but the channel. So a game on Saturday, November 9 should be announced by Monday, October 28. But… out of the more than 100 ACC games that ABC/ESPN has the right to air, they can designate up to three of them for a decision only six days before the game.

ABC/ESPN chose November 9 as the day to play random flux. VT-Miami, FSU-WF and ND-Pitt are in the blender. All three will be shown by ABC or ESPN. But the when and which channel is a mystery until early Sunday afternoon. Which also happens to be when Daylight Savings Time ends, so you can add another hour to it.

So the sold out ND-Pitt game could be at noon. It could be at 3:30. It could be at 7 or 8 at night.

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Pitt was picked to finish sixth in the ACC this year. Seems about the right range. Upper-half, NCAA bid. Safely within two spots of where they might finish come the end of the season.

1. Duke (50)        805
2. Syracuse (3)   753
3. North Carolina (1)       668
4. Virginia            612
5. Notre Dame  608
6. Pitt    477
7. Maryland        473
8. Boston College             457
9. Florida State  334
10. NC State       332
11. Georgia Tech              311
12. Miami            224
13. Wake Forest               220
14. Clemson       141
15. Virginia Tech               65

Something that will take getting used to is that the ACC’s preseason All-ACC team is limited to just five players. No 6th man. No 2d and 3d and honorable mention. Just the projected best five players. No surprise that Pitt had no player on the list.

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Because of course someone would ask.

Talib Zanna of Pitt on whether Pitt, Cuse, LVille can hang with big boys of ACC (Carolina and Duke): "We're big boys, too." #ACCMediaDay

— Brian Neal (@BrianNealNews) October 16, 2013

Pure shades of SEC media asking Kevin Sumlin about his concerns about playing football in the SEC in 2012. Only, this is perhaps more absurd.

Pitt had been hanging with the “big boys” of the old (that doesn’t seem right for a conference that only existed that way for less than a decade) prior incarnation of the Big East for almost the entire run. Only one year not finishing in the top-5 of a 16 team conference. Of a conference that was the best basketball conference for much of the time.

Some one also asked Lamar Patterson to name all 15 other members of the ACC. That’s either a set up for a stupid compilation video of various players around the ACC trying to name all the teams or just weak trolling. (For the record, I usually end up forgetting either Wake Forest or Georgia Tech when I try to rattle them off quickly.)

Pitt will host Old Dominion at night on a Saturday, because… well I’m not really sure.

Initial guess, was that it to do with the possibilities of the Pirates being in the NLCS, but that didn’t makes sense as it would suggest a noon game for the NLCS. Sure enough it doesn’t. It would be a Game 7 at LA. No way that would be anything but a night game.

So that’s kind of weird for a 1-AA opponent that will be a RSN televised game to get a 7pm slot. The downside meaning missing most, if not all, of the FSU-Clemson game at 8pm that night. I’m not complaining, though, since it guarantees to be an overnighter for me in the ‘Burgh.

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Tyrone Ezell, he of the earlier suspension, just got arrested for punching a woman in a ‘family brawl’.   This is like one of those math questions that are so confusing there is no real answer:

“Police responding to a report of a fight went to the East 16th Avenue home of Michelle Butler. Butler told police Heaven Franklin-Pitts and her relatives, Tyrone and Albert Ezell, came to her home and accused her daughter of jumping Franklin-Pitts earlier that day. Butler told police she had her daughter, Rayon Williams, 14, step outside and Franklin-Pitts attacked her. When Butler tried to help, she said Albert Ezell punched her. When another daughter, Fendi Taylor, 21, stepped in, Tyrone Ezell punched her in the mouth, according to the criminal complaint filed against Tyrone Ezell.”

Here is a bit more on it:

http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/4818891-74/ezell-police-butler#axzz2gNC4putm

As many of you know, Savage was awarded the Walter Camp Offensive Player of the Week for his performance against Duke. It’s a pretty impressive achievement and his stat line certainly warrants it. 23/33 (69.6%) for 424 yards and 6 touchdowns is video game-like and the best QB stat line we’ve seen in a long time. There’s another opportunity to make sure he earns more praise.

That’s the ESPN Capital One Cup which is awarded to the best impact performance of the week. He’s currently second behind a PR from Iowa who had 2 returns for touchdowns in a blowout. If he trips and falls on his face on both returns, his team still wins easily, so I fail to see his impact.  So vote early and vote often (I don’t know if you can vote multiple times, but I’m sure Iowa’s fans are) and get our players some more praise! (more…)

I had a chance to drive up and watch the PITT practice this morning. The practice session lasted from 10:15 until 12:30 with a one hour scrimmage to start off. Here are some observations:

1.  If you were keeping score the offense bettered the defense this morning. Neither side was that great or that bad but the offense moved the ball in the air (Savage) and on the ground (Conner).  A word about our true FR RB James Conner -damned impressive in every way.

If you look at him out there he looks almost slender given the stories about him being a bruising back. But he’s tall at a legit 6’2″ and he carries that 235 lbs well.  He was ripping off positive yardage regularly with some big 15-20 yarders thrown in.  The thing with Conner is that he can get inside and move the pile but also get through the interior LOS because he hits the holes so quickly.  Then when you don’t expect it he cuts outside and out runs the linebackers, drops his shoulder and levels the DB.  He did this time and again today.

Actually that ‘dropping the shoulder’ backfired a bit today as after one hit he lay on the ground with what looked at first like a separated shoulder.  The coaching staff went into severe shock at the sight of it.  Not to panic as he was up with an ice pack taped on and stayed on the sidelines for the rest of practice.  I’m starting to think that PITT fans will forget about Shell in a hurry if this kid plays anywhere near the level in games as he has in practice – he’s the real deal  and might be RB1 before the season ends.

Jaymar Parrish opens eyes with his play at FB also.  He’s built like one and blocks like one.  That will be an interesting position to watch with a starting FB returning.

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PITT is having it’s annual Kickoff luncheon with the usual coach speak talks by the staff.  It is in the Westin Convention Center at 11:30 on Friday the 23rd.   So if you need a kick start to the afternoon nap you always take, go and listen to Chryst speak.

I’m driving up for Thursday’s practice and staying over for the luncheon. Any other Blatherites attending? At the very least we can drink and argue about an on-campus stadium, Sunseri’s 2012 production and Trey Anderson’s arm.

I’ll be the tall guy with long brown hair and the DW style mustachio. Feel free to buy me many beers.

Reed

If it wasn’t for live sports, I’d probably be a cord cutter. It isn’t that I dislike stuff on TV. Far from it. I watch plenty. It’s just that it is all time-shifted and when I get around to it. I’m not overly concerned about being at the water-cooler discussing last night’s Archer.There’s stuff over 2 years old on my DVR that I still haven’t gotten around to watching (no spoilers for the season/series finale of Awake, please). So between on-demand subscription services and the ever-dropping prices of series on DVDs, the wife and I could easily save money and drop DirecTV. But for sports.

People like me are the reason those rights fees keep rising. It is mostly immune to time-shifting which means sitting through ads, promos and everything else. In light of the recent spate of new rights deals for college sports programming. Along with the new FoxSports1 and their negotiations for carriage. Well it means cable/satellite TV rates keep going up.

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I won’t kid you. Chryst didn’t exactly reveal much. If you watched his public appearances, he is still maintaining that the QB position is still wide open and that both Savage and Voytik will get equal opportunities. He said that in the spring as well, but it was readily apparent who was getting most of the first team snaps. During smaller interviews there was still nothing. He was quoted as saying: “I’m pretty comfortable with anyone between 5’9″ and 6’6″”

On the ESPNU interview he was asked about the Rushel Shell departure and then the attempt to return to the program late. To no one’s surprise Chryst completely avoided answering that question. About the most he said is that people make decisions and everyone needs to move on.

During his ACC presser, as Chryst drained the energy from the reporters the moderator tried to keep it going for the allotted 15 minutes by asking him to talk about the running back depth chart. His exact words were, “talk about what’s left.” There’s your motivation, Isaac Bennett. You are what’s left.

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The Pitt football beat writers all swear that Coach Paul Chryst is a nice, engaging guy. Very smart. That he has a dry, wry sense of humor. And that he is friendly enough individually. They also acknowledge that he absolutely does not show any of that in press conferences.

And man, did that show up in his ACC and then ESPNU interviews.

At 2pm the ACC streamed his press conference, after which Chryst moved to the ESPN truck for his interview on ESPNU.

Paul Chryst’s ESPNU interview 7/22

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ACC Media Days are closing fast. Oops, sorry. It’s actually called the 2013 Atlantic Coast Conference Football Kickoff. In just ten days. (Man, do I need to finish with all the old links and stuff.)

The ACC released the list of players who will be in attendance. Two per team is the rule. No surprise that for Pitt it will be Aaron Donald and Devin Street. These are the two best players on each side of the ball. Both are seniors. Both are needed/expected to be team leaders.

The ACC also announced that they have a deal in place to have YES in the NYC market to carry football and basketball for the upcoming season.

The YES Network, the most-watched regional sports network in the country the past 10 years, has reached an agreement with FOX Sports Media Group by which YES will televise live Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) basketball and football games and Big East basketball games beginning this fall.

As part of the deal, YES will televise up to 10 ACC football games and up to 23 men’s ACC basketball games, as well as select women’s basketball and Olympic sports.

I like the chances of more Pitt games showing up in this package.

Locally, Pitt football games will be on WTAE (ABC) as well as some of the basketball games. Root Sports also has a deal in place to show Pitt/ACC games.

It’s looking like it won’t be too difficult to find Pitt on TV even with the Raycom factor.

Since Chas and Justin are doing such a great job with the day to day recruiting news coming out of the Southside I thought I’d chip in a bit with some background info I have picked up over the last two years…

Now that recruiting has heated up a bit and there have things to discuss here’s some info that pertains to Chryst and his 2013 & 2014 recruiting.  First off, if you didn’t already know, this staff doesn’t formally offer and/or accept a commitment unless;

1) They have seen the recruit in person in a game or in a PITT camp (preferably both) and visited with him personally;

2) They have visited the recruit’s HS and talked with his family, teachers and football staff there and;

3) Have had done a detailed and complete academic and personal background review on the recruit by coaches and members of the PITT Athletic Support Staff.

Let’s be honest here – they are looking at arrest records and asking about previous legal problems for any over 18 also.  How far they can legally go into that depends on the privacy laws of the state the recruit lives in.  All that takes some time especially with kids who might rise up on the recruiting big board after the camps.  

So this is also what Chryst said he would do right after he was hired. This is what fans who complain about “slow play” recruiting don’t understand. It is once they have seen and visited with the kid, determine they actually want him, then feel comfortable about him actually wanting to be at PITT with the standards listed above and do they start the pressure.

That “him actually wanting to be here” is a key component now and one that seems to drive fans crazy because it entails having the recruit take visits elsewhere and then making a solid decision.  The last thing Chryst wants is a disgruntled player on the roster who has second thoughts about his choice and thus will transfer later.  That screws everyone in the long run.  

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Last week the ACC put out its match-ups for the next twelve years. Predictably there was some teeth-gnashing by fans of programs in the ACC over the infrequency of many of the opponents from the other division. It’s one thing to know that it would be like that with an 8-game schedule and 14 teams. It’s something else to see it laid out in an official release.

The Virginia Tech blog, The Key Play has a proposal on the scheduling that does away with fixed cross-over games in favor of priority partner scheduling.

A priority partner would be chosen for each team every two years, and result in a home-and-home series. Priority partners would be determined by closely matching teams according to total number of regular season ACC wins in the previous two years, while avoiding permanent crossover pairings. The following example uses 2011 and 2012 ACC wins to set the schedule in 2014-2015 (because 2013 games haven’t happened yet).

It’s an interesting idea because it is a bit like the approach taken in the Big East with basketball scheduling. Unbalanced schedules in Big East basketball set to maximize competition and make TV partners happy with marquee games.

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In case you weren’t already aware of this, there won’t be an ACC Network for at least 3 or 4 years. There are some issues to overcome. There is a whole infrastructure to set up. Even the SEC Network that has been announced was more than two years in the works.

For the ACC, there are some added layers that complicate thing. Such as their deal with Raycom.

The Sports Business Daily did a fine — if somewhat pessimistic piece — detailing the hurdles to a ACC Network.

The main roadblock is rights. When it signed its ACC deal in 2010, ESPN and Charlotte-based Raycom Sports cut a deal that grants Raycom the ACC’s digital and corporate sponsorship rights, plus a heavy dose of live football and basketball games. Through a sublicensing agreement, Raycom owns the rights to 31 live football games and 60 live men’s basketball games.

Even if the conference is able to buy back those rights from Raycom, a second roadblock remains. Raycom sublicensed 17 of those football games and 25 of those basketball games to Fox, which carries the games on its regional sports networks throughout the ACC footprint. Live local sports programming is important to Fox’s RSNs, and they are not likely to give up those games cheaply.

The games that stay with Raycom make up the ACC’s long-running syndicated package that is distributed to more than 50 million households on over-the-air networks, and reaches 25 of the top 50 U.S. TV markets.

Those deals extend through 2027.

It’s unlikely that ESPN will try to launch a channel without those rights. ESPN brought all of those rights — TV, digital, sponsorship — together as it formed the SEC Network, which launches in August 2014.

That’s because a syndicated model that the ACC follows (and the SEC had been operating) really doesn’t work when you want your own channel.

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