I actually try to be fair to the Big East. Really, I do.

Earlier after Pitt got left out of the SEC/Big East Challenge, I went on record saying that Pitt really shouldn’t have been counting on the game for a couple reasons. The most obvious being the fact that Pitt is leaving the Big East for the ACC coupled with the lawsuit recently filed. It’s not like the Big East is (or even should) be going out of their way to help Pitt.

The other reason being that if Pitt was counting on the SEC game to be a marquee game that was foolish as well. The way the Challenge works, any SEC team that had a home game last year, would go on the road this year. That meant the opponents could have been (in order of desirability): Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi St., South Carolina or Tennessee.

Kentucky was never going to happen. No way the Big East would let the biggest name go to the departing Pitt and have that be talked about during the game. Tennessee has been Pitt’s opponent in this the last two years. Safe to say they would be out.

That means — at best — Pitt could have gotten a 50-50 shot at a good (Alabama) to potentially good (Georgia) opponent or crapped out.

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ESPN has announced the match-ups for the SEC/Big East Challenge. Prepare to be awed.

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I hope you are not surprised by this predictable outcome. New PSU Head Coach Bill O’Brien generated plenty of pixels of media coverage and cheers from the Penn State base at saying he wants to restart the tradition and play Pitt annually. As I wrote a little over a week ago, I didn’t see it likely to occur. And that was even without taking into account the Pac-12-Big 10 deal to have annual games between the conferences that will be home-and-away. Effectively giving every Big 10 a quality non-con game every year to to with 8 conference games.

That leaves only 3 non-con games left. And we know from past Paterno deflections, Penn State needs to have 2 guarantee home games every year. Soooo… Gentlemen. Start. Your. Hedging.

Penn State has four non-conference games, and O’Brien says he’d like to play a neutral site game (The Meadowlands and Washington, D.C., are possibilities) to begin the season against a traditional or new rival (such as Alabama or Notre Dame). Moreover, in 2017, the Big Ten and Pac-12 are expected to begin an annual non-conference game between the conferences, further crowding the schedule.

That leaves two non-conference games remaining, and both of those must be moneymakers for the health of the program. In other words, they must be guarantee games against teams that can’t expect a return game.

“We’ll see what happens,” O’Brien said Monday. “I’d like to find a way to make it all work out.”

O’Brien has spoken at length since arriving at Penn State about the desire to play Pitt annually, but admitted Monday it may not happen because of logistics.

O’Brien is overpromising on the schedule, because PSU fans are tired of a non-con schedule that might have one good team every other year at home and at least two patsies. That’s not changing too radically.

The teams may play periodically, but it won’t be on an annual basis. Now if the basketball teams want to start back up with things that would be a good start.

I’m sure many of you have seen the stories. That Penn State’s new coach expressed a desire to reestablish the Pitt-Penn State series.

Penn State and Pitt last played Sept. 16, 2000, when the Panthers beat the Nittany Lions, 12-0, at Three Rivers Stadium.

“I would love to see that game played on an annual basis,” O’Brien told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in a story published Saturday. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for (Pitt coach) Paul Chryst and their program, and that’s a great rivalry.

“For the fans of Pennsylvania to be able to see that game every year, I think that’s pretty neat.”

From the earliest days of this blog, I have maintained that Pitt-Penn State would resume some time after Paterno not only retired, but had passed away.

Now we have the home-and-home coming up in 2016, and it seemed obvious that there would be some discussions as it got closer to extending it. Especially since by then no one expected Paterno would still be coaching.

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Never too early to start planning ahead. Especially when it comes to the delicate issue of balancing your team with your family.

Thanksgiving this year is Thursday November 22.

Pitt has its final home football game on Saturday, November 24 against Rutgers.

Bookending Thanksgiving, Pitt basketball has the Preseason NIT at MSG (21st and 23d). The slate of other teams participating include Michigan (likely preseason top-10), Virginia, K-State and Fordham.

In a four-day stretch: 2 basketball games, 1 football game and traditional family dysfunction on display.

All things considered, I’m rather pleased with this set-up. No overlapping games.

Good planning suggests stocking up on your alcoholic beverage of choice for that stretch early.

You know what’s really depressing? This may be the least depressing topic related to Pitt on which I write today.

The Big East was finally able to put out their schedule for 2012. That means we have dates for all of Pitt’s home and away games. Not to mention times and broadcast info for a chunk of them.

The good news: despite 3 weeknight games, none are at Heinz Field. Other good news. Aside from the Buffalo game, all of Pitt’s road games will be broadcast on either NBC, ABC, ESPN or ESPN2.

The bad news, aside from the home game with VT, the rest of the home games will at best be on the Big East syndicated broadcast. At worst, ESPN3.com. Other bad news, every home game looks like it will be (or should be) a nooner.

I guess the plus side for Pitt ticket sales, is that the lack of guaranteed TV coverage might be an extra incentive for people to buy ticket. Yeah, I’m grasping.

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It was something of a given anyways. Pitt had to cancel a home game with UCF — at the behest of the Big East — with the expectation of having TCU coming in 2012. Then they got a better offer to go straight to the Big 12. That was followed by losing the Backyard Brawl after WVU fled to the Big 12, and the Big East caved as expected. That left Pitt two holes to fill on the home slate at a very late point.

We knew Pitt wasn’t going to get a good team to go on the road that late. There just weren’t any other 1-A teams that had an open date — especially at the price Pitt could/would pay. And even if the Big East had somehow managed to get Boise St. to join this year — instead of the desperate Temple — you know part of the deal would have sent Pitt to the Smurf Turf.

So, now Pitt has a full schedule. Such as it is.

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The ACC today, announced the future set up for divisions and  scheduling.

As expected Pitt was placed in one of the present divisions and Syracuse was placed in the other. The idea of a North-South divisional set-up was never going to fly. First because putting Miami and FSU in the same division seems silly, but more importantly it would be bad for teams in the north to not have regular trips to Florida for recruiting.

Here’s how the divisions will look:

Coastal

Pitt

Virginia Tech

Duke

Virginia

Georgia Tech

North Carolina

Miami

Atlantic

Syracuse

Boston College

NC State

Wake Forest

Clemson

Florida St.

Maryland

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Take this one with some incredibly huge grains of salt. After all, it comes from a high school recruit being told something by a coach.

Mountain Ridge’s Jarrod Harper, who inked his letter-of-intent to join the Mountaineers on Wednesday afternoon, said that WVU head coach Dana Holgorsen told him during the recruiting process that the Backyard Brawl would continue.

“It’s going to happen every other year, I’m pretty sure. Coach Holgorsen said that we’re going to switch, playing Maryland and Pitt,” said Harper. “I come from Maryland, so a lot of my friends are Terps fans. They always talk about West Virginia playing Maryland, whenever I’d get up there [to join the team]. Now we’re going to be playing them, I guess, every other year, I’m not sure yet.”

“At this time, we don’t have any information on future schedules,” said West Virginia football sports information director Mike Montoro via e-mail.

Not surprisingly neither did the SIDs at Maryland or Pitt. Maryland and WVU have a deal to meet every year through 2017.

Considering the unknown conference status of WVU for 2012 and Pitt for 2013, I have a hard time believing this is anything more than a coach blowing smoke up a recruit. Something that at worst Holgorsen can claim he merely speculated was a possibility, while talking to a recruit who asked about the Backyard Brawl.

Maybe it’s the overall “meh” situation of the Big East this year. Maybe it’s the fact that both Pitt and WVU fanbases already have headed for the Big East exits. Maybe it’s just the disappointment both fanbases have had from the expectations heading into the season. But it’s a little bit of a slow start. I expect by Friday, the hate and vitriol will be free-flowing.

Right now, however, it seems the biggest issue is will the Backyard Brawl take place once Pitt and WVU are out of the Big East? So the media bent is starting with some resignation, demands to continue and questions.

Joe Starkey pleads for the Backyard Brawl not to end.

Athletic directors Steve Pederson (Pitt) and Oliver Luck (WVU) owe it to the fans to play every year. I just wonder if the will is there. I’ve spoken with both men. Neither sounded as if he were ready to move the Blue Ridge Mountains to make this happen.

Not that either nixed the idea. They could have gone Kansas-crazy, but did not. Kansas officials tweeted the following after Missouri announced it was bolting the Big 12:

“Missouri forfeits a century-old rivalry. We win.”

That’s the spirit!

No. Both sides are hedging at the moment.

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The Backyard Brawl is set for 7pm on Friday, November 25 on ESPN.

I’m sure it will be a sedate and relaxed crowd for the game.

Did you realize that if you lived outside of the Pittsburgh area and your internet provider does not give you ESPN3.com, there was a very real chance of not seeing a Pitt basketball game until the the beginning of December? Terrifying.

Well, the cancelled games from the NBA lockout offer Pitt fans the first tangible benefit. The November 16 game against Long Beach State has been bumped from ESPN3.com to ESPNU. It has also been bumped from a 7pm start time to 9pm.

Here’s something I did not expect — for the rest of the season. A Pitt game that isn’t a Saturday nooner.

The storied River City Trophy game will be a 7pm game at Heinz Field. That’s right. An evening home game. Extended tailgating. Probably cold and wet. If you will be home, the game is on ESPNU.

Can’t wait.

I’m not going to spend much time banging on how bad the non-con is this year. I think everyone already knows it. Some of it was out of Pitt’s hands with the non-con tournament squeeze, deal falling through at MSG, and a team dropping out of the Philly Classic. Still the next 3 years of tournaments are already set.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said today Pitt will play in the 2014 Maui Invitational. It’s Pitt’s first trip to Maui since Dixon became head coach.

Pitt will play in the Philly Classic in November. In 2012, the Panthers will play in the preseason NIT in New York. In 2013, they will play in the Legends Classic In Brooklyn.

The preseason NIT is always a big deal, and the Maui Invitational is fantastic because of the ESPN backing and promotion. The Brooklyn game is obviously a new one, but considering that will be in the new NBA arena there, so I expect the promoters to get some really good teams to try and get some attention from MSG.

Add in the fact that Dixon and his wife have a history with Hawaii — where they met and Dixon was an assistant. Not that I think Dixon is going anywhere, but getting to coach his team in Hawaii in a few years has to be another enticing carrot.

Pitt has officially finalized and released its basketball schedule. That is to say, the TV stuff is established. Hope you have ESPN3.com and Pitt Panther Television if you want to watch much of this year’s non-con.

Four non-con games (not even including the exhibition games) are on Pitt Panthers TV and four are on ESPN3.com out of 13 non-cons. The other five are on various other places like Comcast-Philadelphia (Penn), CBS College Sports (Duquesne), ESPN2 (Oklahoma St.), ESPN (Tenn) and ESPNU (Wagner).

I’ve already stated that this year’s non-con is on the weak side. ESPN breaks down the individual Big East teams’ non-con schedules, and see the same thing.

Toughness scale (1-10): 1 — The Panthers won the Big East last season and return a core that could challenge for yet another title. So why not a better nonconference slate? The Panthers were expecting an ACC team to play in the Philly HoopGroup Classic but that fell through, leaving them to play host Penn. Winning at Tennessee in the SEC/Big East Challenge won’t be a walk, but the Vols will be picked in the bottom-third of the SEC. Oklahoma State is a decent opponent at the Garden, and neighboring Duquesne always play the Panthers tough. Long Beach presents a decent mid-major challenge. But as a whole, this nonconference schedule is about as bad as it gets for a top-10 program.

Pitt has done a very, very good job of non-con scheduling the last few years. A clunker happens, but this is worse because the schedule is completely devoid of any decent games at home. The few decent ones are neutral sites or away.

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