Let’s face it, until Pitt gets consistently better. Until the team starts the season strong, the Mouse Monopoly is not going to be interested in airing Pitt games in the late afternoon or at night. Utah isn’t too good this year, and may not even have its starting QB for the game.

About the only reason for the Utah-Pitt game not to air at noon would be a concession to the Pac-12 and Utah to not have a team playing at 10 am by their internal clocks. But, this is not to be. The Big East Tweeted that the Utah-Pitt game on October 15 will be a Noon game on ESPNU. I will be curious how lethargic Utah will be with that starting time.

Pitt to the ACC is at least a year away. That doesn’t mean the jockeying and speculation of the division format for football hasn’t already started.

Like many, I have no real idea how the ACC divides their conference. I know that they have the Atlantic and Coastal divisions for names. I know that Miami and FSU are kept in separate divisions, because when the divisions were created everyone expected Miami and FSU to regularly battle it out in the ACC Championship game. But I have no idea which school is in which division.

So let’s start with a little basic education:

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I suppose it is typical of the Big East. Only a couple days before the start of college football season… and it is time to release the Big East schedule for basketball.

The full schedule from Pitt will be released after 1pm.

The Big East and ESPN, though, have their TV schedule out.

Pitt has two Big Monday appearances this year. Bad news, both on the road. At Syracuse on January 16 and at WVU on January 30.

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The Oakland Zoo has the new design for the Zoo t-shirt this year. It’s a clean look and apparently already on sale.

Pitt also announced the non-con schedule for 2011-12. I’m not saying that the Pitt athletic department was purposefully downplaying this news, but I get suspicious whenever information like this is released on a Friday.

Looking it over. Yeah, it’s not exactly one that screams out “daunting.”

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Probably not the best news for Anthony Gonzalez. His arraignment date is not until September 1.

Gonzalez, 20, waived his right for a preliminary hearing Monday in front of District Justice Nancy Matos Gonzalez in Bethlehem.

The marijuana charge is a misdemeanor and the others are summary violations, according to court papers. Gonzalez was cited May 20 while he was a passenger in a car that was stopped by police in South Bethlehem.

Pitt coach Todd Graham suspended Gonzalez, one of only three quarterbacks on the roster, at the time of the incident. His status with the team hasn’t changed, a spokesman said.

That means Gonzalez very likely won’t have this settled until after training camp. The season opener is September 3. While I have stated that I do not feel these charges do not merit a dismissal from the team or even much more than a game suspension, there is no way Pitt will reinstate Gonzalez to the team until after the case has been settled — if it takes until then.

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Seems that Zach Brown may not be the only thing Wisconsin sends Pitt’s way. How about the possibility of a home-and-home with the Badgers? (Hattip to Brad)

University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez said this week that attempts are being made to add Pittsburgh and Kansas State to future non-conference schedules.

Alvarez declined to offer specifics, but confirmed that talks are taking place with those two Bowl Championship Series schools. Kansas State is out of the Big 12 Conference, while Pitt is a member of the Big East Conference.

Alvarez said no contracts have been signed with either school. The same goes for Brigham Young, an independent which has reportedly agreed to a non-conference series in 2014 and ’15.

Alvarez grew up in Pennsylvania and is known to have an affinity for Pitt, which has played the Badgers in football only three times, the last in 1967.

Needless to say, a really quality non-con opponent is always great to see on the schedule.

Not sure how far out this would be. Pitt appears to have openings in 2014-15, but if Wisconsin is slated to play BYU then, I doubt they would do both series. Expect this one to be a good 5 years or so away.

The Big East schedule is sort of known — at least home and away part. The non-con is mostly complete with the Philly challenge the usual City Game, the Big East/SEC game at Tennessee.

Heck, now we even know that one of the exhibition games will be with Kentucky… Wesleyan College.

In addition, Pittsburgh Coach Jamie Dixon (a California Native) and KWC Coach Todd Lee (a former assistant at UC-Irvine) have worked out a deal to have the Pitt Panthers square off against the KWC Panthers.

It will be Panther on Panther action. KWC is a D-2 school and apparently thinking about dropping to D-3.

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With the exception of a few non-cons that are already set, the Pitt basketball schedule is still an amorphous blob. We know a lot of the teams Pitt will play. We just don’t know when — and up until yesterday: where.

That is no longer the case with the Big East announcing the match-ups for all the teams.

Thanks to the NCAA-record 11 BIG EAST teams that played in the 2011 NCAA Championship, this year’s schedule includes an unprecedented 131 games — or 91 percent of the conference ledger — that will feature at least one NCAA tournament team from last year. Sixty-seven games — 47 percent of the schedule – will be between two of the conference’ s NCAA tournament teams.

Each of the 16 BIG EAST teams will play either 12 or 13 conference games against NCAA tournament teams.

The conference schedule will once again include 144 regular-season games as each of the BIG EAST’s 16 teams plays 18 conference games. Each team will face 12 opponents once and three opponents twice. All 144 regular-season conference games will again be televised, either by CBS Sports, the ESPN family of networks or ESPN Regional Television.

The decisions regarding repeat opponents are based on natural interest, geography, rivalries, television contractual obligations and competitive balance.

And here’s what Pitt has to look forward to in 2011-12:

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First off, I want to thank Chas for the opportunity to lower the credibility of his blog by allowing us to post here. My name’s Pat, I’m one of the writers over at The Incline, a relatively new blog covering all the teams in the Burgh, even the Pirates! Stop on over and say hi. It truly is an honor to post here on Pitt Blather, especially since we only started our blog about two months ago.

But enough with the infomercial and ass kissing, lets get back to Pitt and PSU renewing their series. A few days have passed since the announcement, and I don’t know about you guys, but I’m still pretty pumped. The media has been all over the story, and new Pitt head coach Tom Bradley shared a few thoughts on the rivalry. Wait, what? He isn’t our coach? Has someone told WTAE? Anyway, his thoughts:

“People want us in Philadelphia and New York and over here and over there, and it’s a push-pull for (athletic director Tim Curley), and that’s obviously a tough job.”

Easy there, Tommy boy. Those Nitters think pretty highly of themselves, don’t they? Why would they schedule Pitt, a longtime rival in the same state, when they could play Temple in Philly? It must be really hard being so popular.

And this is what drives me nuts about Penn State fans. They love constantly reminding you of their great team, school, and coach. Unfortunately, their team loses big games and can’t beat Iowa, the school is in a cow pasture, and the coach, well he’s old. Most fans and writers assumed that Paterno was hands-off during the negotiations, considering the games are 5 years away, and he’s like really old. But that hasn’t stopped some Penn State fans/bloggers from grasping at straws to protect their coach and question the media’s coverage:

“By all accounts, Paterno has been as active in the last few months as he’s been in a long time. He’s been walking up to miles per day, and he’s been Skyping with high school recruits. There’s little reason to believe he holds any more or less power than he has at any point in the last decade while the series has been on hold.”

Miles a day. Miles!

“That leaves the Pittsburgh media in a no-win situation. They can’t argue, at least logically, that Tim Curley and Penn State the athletic department overpowered Paterno to make the series happen, nor can they argue Paterno has been standing in the way now that the series has been announced under his watch. Of course, that won’t stop them from trying, but their credibility is gone.”

Ok, I’ll try and logically argue that Curley overpowered Paterno (although I don’t know how many people are saying the AD “overpowered” him). The conversation goes like this:

Tim: Joe do you plan on coaching until 2016?

Joe: Probably not.

Tim: Ok, we’re going to play Pitt then.

Joe: Have you seen my glasses?

I’d say that’s both logical and probable.

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Well, I think we all knew this was going to be the major post topic of the day.

I want to thank Pitt and Penn State for making this announcement now. It was getting down to minimum content time here at PittBlather. I’m talking bottom of the barrel, tangentially related, minimal stuff.

I mean, sure the actual game is some 1914 days away or so, but it is still exciting news. All over the Pennsylvania papers and picked up nationally on the wires.

There are and will be plenty of people to try and minimize this. To say it is not the same as it once was. It no longer has the national significance from the 70s and 80s. Fine. They are right. Both teams are in different conferences. It’s a non-con game that will be played in mid-September. We have no idea what either team will look like in 5 years. All of that is true. But it still matters. It is still a big deal. It still has a lot of people excited.

If Pitt announced season tickets were available for the 2016 season right now, I’d be putting my money down. My parents are both Penn State grads. Shortly after the news broke my dad called to ask whether I’m getting an extra ticket for the game so he can go.

On to the link round-up.

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Had to work at 4 am today. Then deal with my kids on summer vacation. So, I go and take a nap and wake up to this?

On hiatus since 2000, the Pitt-Penn State series will again resume after the two universities signed a home-and-home agreement for the 2016 and 2017 seasons.

Pitt will host the initial game at Heinz Field on September 10, 2016. The Panthers will play at Penn State on September 16, 2017.

“This is an exciting day for college football fans,” Pitt athletic director Steve Pederson said. “The tremendous history of this rivalry is well documented and the passion that fans have for this game is enormous. We are very pleased that this two-game series is now in place and a new generation of fans can experience the excitement of a Pitt-Penn State football game beginning in 2016.”

“As a young football fan in Texas, I used to love watching Pitt and Penn State play every November,” first-year Pitt head coach Todd Graham said. “The games were intense and featured some of the greatest players in the history of college football. The resumption of this series is great for the two schools and football fans everywhere.”

Just how long was I really asleep?

And from the Penn State side:

One of the nation’s fiercest football rivalries is set to be renewed, as old rivals Penn State and Pittsburgh will meet again on the gridiron in 2016 and 2017.

Tim Curley, Penn State Director of Athletics, and Steve Pederson, Pitt Director of Athletics, made the announcement today that the long-time rivals are scheduled to meet September 10, 2016 in Pittsburgh and September 16, 2017 in Beaver Stadium.

“We are very excited about renewing our rivalry with Pitt,” Curley stated. “We have worked our schedules to play some of our neighboring rivalries like Syracuse, Rutgers and Temple and are glad to have identified dates that worked for our schedules to play Pitt. The Penn State-Pitt game was one that football fans across the Commonwealth have been passionate about. There have been many memorable Penn State-Pitt games, featuring outstanding players and coaches, and we look forward to playing the Panthers again. “

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Okay, so maybe you are heading to Morgantown on Friday after Thanksgiving this year for the Backyard Brawl.

There is another option. Pitt basketball will be playing in Philly that same weekend. Pitt takes part in the Philly Hoop Group Classic.

On Friday night, Pitt will play Penn at the Palestra. Yep. A football-basketball doubleheader on the day after Thanksgiving.

No, this is not a marquee tournament. Pitt was kind of due, unfortunately, for a less than high-profile early season tournament after the past couple of years. This one fits that description with other participants (of which two will come to the Pete to play) include: James Madison, Rider, LaSalle and Robert Morris.

The only upside is that Philly area Pitt fans get to see Pitt play in the historic Palestra.

In other non-con basketball scheduling news, tomorrow ESPN will announce the pairings (and the four Big East teams excluded) in the all-new, revamped Big East/SEC Challenge — courtesy of ESPN PR guy and Pitt grad Mike Humes.

It’s finally out. The Big East got their marching orders from the Mouse Monopoly. The Big East released all the schedules. So why waste time? Here’s the Pitt football schedule.

Well, I think some things obviously jump out on that schedule.

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Pitt has announced its football schedule for 2011. Well, sort of. No start times are set. The Big East game dates aren’t set. But the dates for the non-con games have been announced.

The Big East dates will be announced next month. We do know that Pitt will be on the road to West Virginia, Louisville, and Rutgers. While there will be four home games with Cinci, Syracuse, USF and UConn.

That’s eight home games with the new coaching staff and offensive style.

PantherLair has the schedule for the next few years right here. With TCU coming aboard in 2012, it looks like Pitt is going to need to move a non-con game slated for 2013.

It’s actually been a few years since Pitt truly asserted any domination in MSG. It sure wasn’t last year losing to Indiana and then ND in the opening round of the Big East Tournament. The way the 2K Sports Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer is set, Pitt is one of the two veteran teams facing young/rebuilding teams.

“Pittsburgh is ranked where they are for a reason,” Maryland coach Gary Williams said. “They have great guards, you can start right there. Great leadership from seasoned guards is a pretty good combination most people don’t have. In college basketball veteran guards make a difference, like we had last year.”

After four years of turning to Vasquez for every big shot, pass or defensive assignment, the Terrapins (3-0) are trying to find an identity. They set a tournament record with 105 points in a 29-point win over Seattle in the opener, then survived a scare when freshman Pe’Shon Howard’s jumper with 4.6 seconds left gave them a 75-74 win over Charleston.

“I’m seeing some good things out of our young players,” Williams said. “We do have some veterans from last year, guys who have been there before. We need to get a rotation and a game like Pittsburgh gets you ready for the season.”

College of Charleston has been one of those good/dangerous mid-majors, so don’t read too much into Maryland needing a near-buzzer-beater to win. Afterall, Maryland has already learned that one of their freshmen guards has the stones to take and make that last shot.

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