While Pitt doesn’t have the same long history as Duke or UNC, outside of those two behemoths, who are Pitt fans to fear? To the Wikipedia Cave!!!

Since the ACC expanded after the 2004-2005 season, no team from that conference has advanced past the Sweet Sixteen except UNC and Duke. NONE.

In that same time span, 6 Big East schools have at least made the Elite Eight, with 4 advancing to the Final Four.

Pitt’s 23 all-time bids ranks 10th in the current Big East (11th if you include former member WVU). In the present-day ACC, Pitt would be tied for fourth.

After the next round of expansion, Pitt’s 23 bids will be tied for 7th in the new-look ACC, such is the strength of the three Big East teams being added to the roster.

Everyone knows the elephant in the room for Pitt basketball over the past decade+ of success – reaching the Final Four. I’m really looking forward to the new ACC as it will undoubtedly be the best basketball conference in the land after the decimation of the Big East (momentofsilenceohwearedonealready) and the Big Ten diluting its basketball brand by adding Rutgers.

But seriously, outside of Duke and UNC, who else should truly concern me? NC State is respectable but maybe (probably not) on the level of even Georgetown. Between the two of Miami and FSU, you usually find one surprise which might equate to a Marquette or Cincinnati. Virginia is doing well this season but again, probably no greater than Notre Dame year-in, year-out. Of the Big East additions, Pitt has a 9-3 record recently over Syracuse and has gone 4-4 vs Louisville. Notre Dame is a tougher out for us but we still usually finish above them in the standings.

While Pitt is still searching for that NCAA Tournament breakthrough, I have every confidence they’ll be able to compete at the highest levels of the ACC. In most years, I think we’ll be able to slot in to the Top 5 or 6 of the new ACC.

Source: Wikipedia.org

It pains us, it does. It burnsss. It freezessss. Volek’s goal places him among the top sports villains of my life.

Not as high as Scottie Reynolds. But higher than Alfred Pupunu. Maybe in the same vein as Mardy Gilyard or Larry Brown (the Cowboys DB) , though Brown’s misdeeds against my sporting life were in a higher stakes game.

There would be no dynasty for the Pittsburgh Penguins of Mario Lemieux. They continued to be among the top teams for many years afterwards but looking back now, damn, that team should’ve won that third Stanley Cup! If not for David #$%^@ Volek.

I suppose with the Superbowl coming up, I should name Ray Lewis or Ed Reed in the list. Long and storied careers full of antagonism but to my recollection, neither have a signature, defining play that cuts so deep. They would likely go on a different list.

No one will likely ever supplant Francisco Cabrera though.

Ok, so the ACC released their schedules for the 2013 and coupled with a scheduled home game against Notre Dame, there is awesomeness all around for Pitt fans:

But since I’m a Pitt fan and we forever live in the land of hope and tomorrow. Here’s a projection of Pitt’s home schedules in the next couple years afterwards:

There is currently a scheduled away game at FIU but I expect that to be bought out. It’s not as exciting as 2013 but home games vs Iowa, GT and Virginia Tech are very solid.

Onward brave denizens!

No telling what the cross-division game will be. As it stands, I probably expect the Akron game to be bought out or moved to a home game so we have a home MACrifice. Then the Open date shown would be a BCS level opponent similar to Iowa or Navy. Without having looked at their schedule, the Open Date could be WVU since ND would fulfill Steve Pederson’s wish to have a National opponent.

And the one that’s sure to give me a heart attack:

I listed an Away and Home Open Date just for balance’s sake. It’s entirely likely that Pederson will schedule two home games, both against subpar teams (MACrifice and FCS). With ND away and PSU at home, it’s unlikely that Pederson would try to WVU since PSU already fulfills the regional and BCS level opponent in one. Pederson would probably have tried to get the 2015 BCS-level home-and-away in non-consecutive years so as to avoid three BCS-level non-conference opponents in one year.

Past 2016, there’s three more years of Pennstate games and a home game vs Delaware in 2019. But I’m probably going to get stabbed by a Pennstater (maybe even my own kin, Munia!) in 2016 (if not sooner) so I’ll  stop here.

Related Posts: ND and PSU > WVU
Sources: Cardiac Hill – Pitt’s 2013 opponents, FBschedules.com

Suarez has a poor reputation in England, as evidenced by the fact that his propensity to go down easily means that, at times, he gets fouled and officials don’t give him the benefit of the doubt. This was a missed opportunity to polish his image a little bit, without any great cost or inconvenience to him. And, referees being what they are, you can’t help but feel that the next time there’s a controversial handball incident involving him, they’ll come down harder than they would otherwise.

Bollocks. Suarez has come so far in his role as villain that were he to have tried to give the goal back, the futbol intelligentsia would have cast it as a shallow and blatant attempt to curry favor with the English public and the referees in order for him to continue pillaging towns and killing babies with impunity, as he so obviously does. Not as a sincere attempt at sportsmanship in favor of gamesmanship.

I also thought this was a good take from one of the commenters on the story:

People will always moralize an athlete without regard to context. Suarez clearly has questionable on-field ethics, when his blood is pumping hot and the game is on. Yet his off field attitude has yet to show the same on field exploits. He is a fierce competitor, derived from his street urchin days in Uruguay, playing football without shoes against bigger and meaner opponents. His family was incredibly poor, as was his education. These facts have combined to make him incredibly competitive and driven to win and succeed, without regard to sportsmanship. Sportsmanship wasn’t part of his life, as it has been for most people reading these pieces; who grew up playing politically correct suburban football, with trophies for everyone. Stop moralizing without context, enjoy the game and try to separate real life from the gladiator ring.

It not as easy as just looking at some of the guys that are currently available and say they would look great in Black and Gold. That is what happened to the Eagles. They brought in Howard Mudd to coach their offensive line after Juan Castillo was promoted to defensive coordinator. If there is a Hall of Fame for offensive line coaches, Mudd would be in on the first ballot. But, he was a disaster in Philly. Mudd likes big offensive linemen because he believes in a vertical pass drop set, whereas Castillo always preferred smaller, more athletic linemen. The overhaul that resulted really impeded their offense. Some guys may teach things a certain way that doesn’t fit with Haley or the players we currently have. That narrows the list, and would obviously bode well for Ilkin if he was interested in the job.

I’d never really thought of offensive line coach as being such a study in varied techniques but after reading that passage, it makes sense, doesn’t it. And because they’re more nitty-gritty than head coach or even offensive/defensive coordinator, perhaps it’s more difficult to customize techniques based on available personnel. It’s easier to stress over a coordinator or head coach’s philosophies, as so many did/have done w.r.t. Tomlin’s background in the 4-3 vs the Steelers current use of the 3-4. But the impact of position coaches shouldn’t be understated either.

And if the game doesn’t happen in the next few years while Pitt is waiting to renew their series with Penn State, it just doesn’t look like it will happen at all. The Panthers have clearly placed a priority on the series with the Nittany Lions and after you throw in a cupcake game and a random series against other BCS foes as Pitt has played recently with teams like Iowa and Utah, there’s simply no room.

Because Pitt has ND on the schedule until 2016, there would be no room for WVU even in this interim time before the PSU series is renewed. While it’s true that Pitt will have both ND & PSU on the schedule for 2016, by and large, I don’t think Pitt AD Steve Pederson wants two regularly scheduled regional high majors in the non-conference schedule. He’d want more variety.

So pick one of PSU, ND and WVU, then a random other national BCS opponent (your Iowa’s, Nebraska’s, Texas A&M’s) and two cupcakes (probably one FCS and one MAC-level or two MAC-level).  If ND is on the schedule, Pederson might try for either WVU or PSU but I don’t think he’d want PSU & WVU in the same non-conference schedule. It would be too regional for his liking.

Of course I say screw it – try for WVU & PSU on the schedule every year and when ND comes along ever 5 years per the ACC agreement, it’ll be a monster schedule! [/end wishful thinking]

In football, we can still maintain a strong northeastern and mid-atlantic presence against former Big East schools Syracuse, BC and VT. We get a better toehold in Florida with the additions of games against FSU and resumption of games against Miami-FL. We can expand our recruiting south to places like the Carolinas. And historically, Pitt hasn’t needed a rivalry presence to recruit Ohio; the River City Rivalry with Cincinnati stretches back less than a decade. Moving to the B1G would open up the midwest more but that’s about it.

There’s no doubt that Big Ten schools have more aggregate football success and tradition at the top than the ACC. OSU, Michigan, Nebraska and Pennstate are among the blue-bloods of collge football. But the ACC still has two blue-blood brands of its own in FSU and Miami-FL and two barons (so to speak) in Clemson and VT.

In basketball, the advantage is clear. In either scenario, B1G or ACC, Pitt loses the access to Madison Square Garden that the Big East provided. But one of the biggest false narratives about Pitt basketball is our supposed reliance on NYC talent. In Ben Howland’s early days, that was certainly true but Jamie Dixon has broadening our recruiting during his tenure, expanding into DC/MD area. The best Pitt team of the past two decades, the 2008-2009 Elite Eight team, had only two players from NYC prep schools (three if you count Don Bosco Prep, which I don’t). Sam Young, one of the most dynamic players on that Pitt team, came from Maryland. As Pitt’s talent level has slowly improved, Dixon’s need to rely on under-talented grinders from NYC has diminished.

Institutionally, Pitt fits equally well in the ACC and Big Ten. We’re a major research university. We’re part of the AAU. Our endowment of $2.5 billion would be the third highest in the B1G, fourth highest in the ACC (if you include ND).

In terms of our enrollment, Pitt would be one of the smallest schools in the Big Ten, third from the bottom. In the ACC, we’re right in the middle. Don’t think that enrollment doesn’t factor into a school’s ability to fill its stadia. When it wins, Pitt can/will fill Heinz Field because the city is also along for the ride. When it loses, well, it looks like Byrd Stadium at Maryland.

Ultimately, money talks. For Rutgers, this move absolutely makes sense when the alternative is staying in a sinking Big East ship. But for Maryland, outside of the money, it’s a bad, bad decision. The same would have gone for Pitt.

• SEC Title game: 11-1 Alabama vs 11-1 UGA.

• BCS National Championship: 12-1 SEC title game winner vs 11-1 Florida.

• Does this mean I have to root for ND to beat USC just so that we have some variety? Yikes. ND is already a lock for a BCS bowl game and deservedly so but they’re going to get waxed by any of the other contenders.

• Brian Kelly is a dbag but man, can he coach. I said it when he left Cincinnati that he would reawaken the echoes. Looks like he has done that.

• Maryland and Rutgers to the B1G. Makes financial sense for both but athletically, they’ll be whipping boys going up against those huge schools.

• I don’t regret one bit that Maryland and Rutgers might be going to the B1G while Pitt is going to the ACC. The B1G was a pipedream of Pitt fans for many years but we fit better athletically within the ACC.

• If ever you doubt that college football is more innovative and interesting than pro football, check out Chris Brown’s site, Smart Football.

“And all four quarterbacks — Matt Schaub, Philip (Rivers), myself and Eli — that were drafted there. I hope we can play well enough that one day they talk about us as maybe the best quarterback draft class of all time.”

Let’s check out the numbers.

I tend to believe 2004 has already surpassed 1983 because of a superior Superbowl record. 2-9 for 1983? That’s abysmal!

Although they ran into the dynasties of their time (Montana’s 49ers and Aikman’s Cowboys), there were fewer mitigating circumstances to excuse Kelly’s and Elways’s 7 combined Superbowl losses. They played on fine teams. The Pitt partisan in me still can’t forgive Don Shula for not building better teams around Marino but that’s a discussion for another time. Blackledge was a clear bust, Ken O’Brien was a serviceable QB and Tony Eason ran into the 1985 Bears, ’nuff said.

Ben & Eli still have good years left, maybe Rivers can resurrect his career somehow (doubtful) and Matt Schaub is a pretty decent QB whose SB impact is hard to determine. But we can project out their stats. If Ben & Eli play 16 years like Elway/Marino and Schaub & Rivers plays 12 years like the Ken O’Brien of 1983′s class:

So we can see that the 2004 draft class would fall short by 9,087 yards but with 5 fewer seasons with one less player.

The NFL may be a pass-happy league now but if you take 2004′s relatively prolific passing yards (esp. since I may be shortchanging Matt Schaub) and far, far superior Superbowl record, I think 2004 comes out ahead over the long-haul as well.

Reference: Pro-Football Reference.com

“Political pundits across the nation have spoken about the relative unimportance of this debate to the greater outcome of the President Election in November so we were surprised and disappointed that normally erudite Steelers fans disregarded the science of Superstition and watched the VP debate instead,” said a clearly angry Pop Warner, chief spokesman for the Football Deities. “Even channel surfing between the two is considered bad form. In our estimation, Titans fans’ attentions weren’t as divided so we chose to reward their loyalty.”

Your humble narrator can attest to the scatter-brained nature of the Nation as after the game, he saw numerous Facebook posts and tweets by otherwise loyal Steelers fans who had been commenting on the VP debate during the game.

Let this be a lesson, Steelers Nation. FOOTBALL > politics. The Gods do not care about your political loyalties, or even your level of activity or advocacy. But when your Steelers are playing, TUNE THE FRAK IN!

Photo Credit: Al Messerschmidt, Getty Images