PITT-PSU and Expansion

PITT-PSU Series

Pitt and PSU decided renew the "rivalry" for at least two games. Some Pitt fans are applauding this. Some are not. Reasons include the series not being long term and whatever hard-on they have for Steve Pederson. Two things stood out to me with this announcement

1. JoePA isn't as "mighty" as everyone has made him out to be.
2. Tim Curley is taking "full control" of PSU's Athletic Department. By "full", he's taking over football too.

Curley has made some nice hires around the board as of late. He also had the balls to boot Rene Portland. I also imagine he told Ed Dechellis to move on with life's work if he couldn't get the basketball team in the Big Dance again.

There's a reason to be optimistic about this two game series...it could lead to more. Unless PSU fans are still pussy enough to complain whatever verbal abuse they received from Pitt fans.

Expansion

This is obviously one of the hot topics of the Big East as of late. Long story short: Villanova is interested, made a presentation, and they were sent packing...which made Pitt/Rutgers look like the bad guys in this. They weren't the bad guys. Villanova for the most part didn't have their shit together. Because if you let 'Nova in with a half-assed plan, then you might as well let Georgetown join as well because they can play their games at RFK.

Ever since then, there's been a mass hysteria of a "split". It's not going to happen. That television deal that's in the works? It's all about basketball. Basketball is the Cash Cow of the Big East. Football can't stand on its own two feet let alone in a BCS bowl game these days. Sure you can trim the "fat" off the basketball-only schools, but that's another battle. Lot of politics and a lot of relationships there.

Big East Preview Part 1: Offseason Assclownery

The Big East was a total comedy once season play ended and it carried on when bowl season was over. Let's do a quick recap of what happened:

1. Pitt forces out Dave Wannstedt.
2. WVU hires Dana Holgerson to replace Bill Stewart after next season.
3. Pitt hires Mike Haywood.
4. Pitt fires Mike Haywood after he pulls an Ike Turner on his babymama.
5. After watching his team get pounded by Oklahoma, Randy Edsall takes a separate plane to College Park to take the Maryland job.
6. UConn drags Paul Pasqualoni out of a bar and names him head coach.
7. Pitt hires Todd Graham to replace Haywood.
8. Dana Holgerson gets booted out of a casino and WVU punishes him by firing Bill Stewart.

There you have it. Somewhere in this, Rutgers, Syracuse, USF, Cincy, and Louisville stayed out of the drama.

Later in the month, we'll be previewing the Big East. Until then, here's a really half-assed analysis of the conference.

The Favorite: WVU. People just love their new head coach. I don't know why, but they do. Maybe it's all those offenses he ran in the Midwest that are a dime a dozen.

The Fucked: UConn. They were due to be a bottom feeder one day.

Can Go Fuck Themselves: Rutgers. They're Rutgers.