After Eastern Washington announced its intentions to install red turf into its football stadium for the upcoming season, I shuttered (shuddered?) to think of what might be next on the horizon for That Next Program Looking For Attention For Doing Nothing Particularly Special. But seriously, what attention whore of a football team could possibly top RED TURF? Here are a few of my best guesses: Read the rest of this entry »
Ben Maller, citing an unnamed source, is reporting that the University of Pittsburgh is joining the Big Ten conference, that it’s a done deal and that some announcement will be coming down the pike on Thursday. Whether or not the report is actually true, it’s worth looking at how Pitt would fit into the Big Ten, and what that school’s departure would mean for the Big East, which would be left with only six teams. Well, seven…if you count Louisville.
Pittsburgh is a near-ideal fit for the Big Ten, geographically speaking. The University of Pittsburgh campus is almost exactly between Ohio State and Penn State, giving Penn State a natural rival and Minnesota another boring (but not terribly long) plane ride, a situation that should be alleviated once the conference breaks into divisions. It’s the ideal spot for a 12th school not named Notre Dame.
Academically, Pitt will hold its own. Pittsburgh received a score of 52.0 in the latest US News and World Report university rankings, which put it 56th among all national universities so ranked. The average Big Ten score was 57.1, and the average rank was 50th. Their strong academic reputation will ease the school’s entry into the conference, which must be ratified by the faculty of the current member institutions.
Pitt is pretty good at football. Pitt finished 15th in the AP rankings after a 10-win season; the Panthers also finished 2nd in the Big East, trailing only undefeated Cincinnati in their conference. The rest of the Panthers’ sports programs are not quite as strong; Pitt finished 93rd in last year’s Directors’ Cup, which is based on schools’ performance in all varsity sports. The average Big Ten school finished 29th in that same span.
The Big East is all but finished as a BCS conference. Pitt’s departure would leave the Big East with seven teams, two of which were acquired from Conference USA less than five years ago. And the options to bolster the conference’s membership are rather slim. Geographically, the best prospective members would be Temple (MAC), Marshall (C-USA), Buffalo (MAC), and Navy (FBS Independent). Yeah, I’m not impressed, either.
ASYLUM POLL: Which team would YOU like to see in the Big Te11n?
But the biggest question might deal with the Big Ten’s name. The conference kept the “Big Ten” moniker even after adding Penn State as its 11th school in 1990, though they’ve now committed to always spelling out the “Ten.” Honestly, I don’t really care. If they can squeeze a two into that logo of theirs, that works for me. And put a pirate ship on their, too. Pirates are pretty sweet.
The Big Ten is enjoying a bit of an international boost this week after the Korean pop group Girl Generation released this video featuring these random shots of an Iowa Hawkeyes football helmet. And I just wanted to point out that this is South Korea, and not North Korea, so the Axis of Evil jokes don’t really apply here, although “Axis of Jailbait” is totally in play. –Black Hearts Gold Pants.
The University of Tennessee has found a football coach, but they had to go all the way to Louisiana Tech to get him. Derek Dooley, who accumulated a 17-20 record in two seasons in the WAC. ESPN and a few other people are reporting that Dooley’s hiring is about a done deal.
And now brace yourself for some INSTANT ANALYSIS. Weak hire. It’s amazing that NOBODY wanted this job. I thought that Southern Cal was settling just to get Lane Kiffin, but this was almost sad. It’s an SEC school, a 100,000-plus capacity stadium, tradition, strong booster base, and the Vols are stuck with what seemed like their 22nd choice.
Texas Longhorns quarterback Colt McCoy proposed to his girlfriend Rachel Glandorf in Texas Stadium earlier this week. Deadspin had photos of the how he did it: he took her into the stadium at night and had the scoreboard operator flash a message on the JumboTron. I would have flashed something else. You know, like my wang. McCoy, seriously here, says his injured shoulder should be ready to go for the upcoming NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis. He’s currently considered optimistically a low first-day pick. Rachel could have done so much better.
There have been some fun ancillary reports coming out of Knoxville in the wake of Lane Kiffin’s departure for Southern Cal, mostly about students burning stuff and painting rocks and what have you, but the best for my pesos involves former Tennessee assistant coach Ed Orgeron’s efforts to bring his current crop of recruits with him to Los Angeles.
Former Tennessee recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron has contacted multiple UT mid-term enrollees and encouraged them not to attend class today so that they can easily leave UT and enroll at Southern California, multiple sources told the News Sentinel.
By attending class today, the nine mid-term enrollees, who have been at UT since Monday, would have to follow strict transfer rules, which include sitting out a year. –GoVolsXtra.
And confirmed reports had Orgeron making some of these calls while Kiffin was still giving his farewell speech to his old team. It’s kind of unreal that USC can hit the ground running like that in somebody else’s building. I don’t fault Kiffin for heading back to familiar territory. Who wouldn’t screech their tires to get out of Tennessee at the first possible chance?
