In Case Of Emergency
Pitt Wise To Keep Football Options Open
By Tony DeFazio & Scott Robertson

It's the time of year again to start looking at early college football projections and, what do you know? Some things never change. Miami again is picked to finish at or near the top of its conference football standings.

They are no threat to win the Big East Conference, though. Neither is Virginia Tech. Simply because those two no longer play there. They both jumped to the Atlantic Coast Conference after last season and will begin playing football against ACC rivals this fall. Boston College joins them in 2005.

The defections have left the Big East a shell of itself in terms of football. No less an expert than ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. called the 2004 version of the Big East "a terrible football conference" in July when he began a series of conference previews on his weekly radio show.

He is joined in that assumption by many others, notably Pittsburgh's own Beano Cook, another ESPN college football expert.

"The Big East will be the best basketball conference in the country and the worst football conference," Cook said.

Big East officials clearly understand the challenge they face. If they learned anything from the ACC's raid, it's that all options must be kept open. The first course of action the holdover teams chose to pursue was the task of upgrading the level of football in the conference. Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville and South Florida have all been added in football.

"We're going to have to step up in football," Syracuse athletic director Jake Crouthamel admitted. "Maybe we relied a little too much on Miami in recent years. We're all going to have to step up."

By retaining the league's BCS bid, Big East football narrowly averted relegation to second-class status. Still, the league is clearly sixth among the six "power" conferences in the country, the SEC, Big 12, ACC, Big 10, PAC 10 and Big East.

This is not to say there is not hope for the future of the league, there is. But much has to happen. The four new members still have much to prove on the gridiron. Among the holdovers, West Virginia appears poised to have a break-out season this fall, and that will be a big advantage to the entire conference if they, or anyone, can emerge nationally. But the fact is none of the teams have very impressive records over the past few years. Since 2000, Pitt leads the way with a 31-19 mark, West Virginia is 27-22, Syracuse 26-22 and Rutgers is - well, Rutgers.

Caught Napping

Perhaps the most alarming aspect of the ACC raid was not the raid itself, but the fact that the Big East was caught so unprepared. Once the ACC dropped the bomb, the Big East members could only react with a series of hopeless lawsuits.

It's not the first time eastern schools got caught, either. Penn State's decision to join the Big Ten was a major blow for a true all-eastern football conference. What's to say it won't happen again? Syracuse was perilously close to joining the ACC last summer. Pitt and Syracuse have been mentioned in numerous reports as candidates to become a 12th Big Ten team. The Sporting News mentioned West Virginia as a possible target for the SEC if Vanderbilt is dumped.

While University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark Nordenberg reaffirmed Pitt's commitment to the new league last fall, his comments were not all that different from Boston College president William Leahy's a few weeks before BC departed for greener pastures.

The short-term plan to upgrade Big East football is clear. The ACC fiasco, however, made it just as clear that the remaining schools at the very least need an "in case of emergency" survival plan.

Options To Consider

Since the ACC plan began to take shape, fans and media across the eastern seaboard have concocted their own versions of what Pitt and their fellow Big East teams should do.

What about the ACC? If the league was willing to stretch to Boston, Pittsburgh is certainly not out of the way. Pitt in the ACC would open up Western Pennsylvania recruiting to the rest of the conference. Also, the Pittsburgh media would give the ACC a top 25 market nationally. If the ACC wanted Pitt, though, they certainly had their chance. And now? They already have the 12 teams needed for a playoff, so any future expansion is probably years away, and that nasty lawsuit is still stuck in some ACC-folks' collective craws.

Pitt to the Big Ten was (and remains) a popular idea.

Would it work? Academically, Pitt seems to be a good fit for the Big Ten. Geographically, such a move also makes sense, as Pittsburgh bridges the gap between Columbus and State College.

But what could Pitt bring to the Big Ten that it doesn't already have? The conference is already in this television market with Penn State. The Lions also opened the region's recruiting to the league when they joined over a decade ago.

In Heinz Field, the Panthers have the largest stadium in the reconfigured Big East. Placed in the Big Ten, however, the 65,000-seat facility would rank eighth. Additionally, Pitt's athletic budget would be near the bottom of the Big Ten. And with just 19 varsity teams, Pitt falls well below the Big Ten standard in terms of Olympic sports.

"The Big Ten, as a conference, puts a tremendous amount of resources behind their Olympic sports facilities," said Sue Lister, Big Ten Associate Commissioner and Director of Communications.

Pitt has no track facility, no soccer facility, and a shoestring baseball/softball facility. Even the two "urban" campuses in the Big Ten are ahead of Pitt when it comes to Olympic sports.

Minnesota recently spent $11 million on Jane Sage Cowles Stadium, a softball-only facility. At Northwestern, the $1.1 million Gleacher Golf Center is considered the finest indoor learning center in the collegiate golf world.

Facing Reality

In the end, Pitt's best option may well be in the Big East. But not by doing things the way they have.

"The days of the easy non-conference football schedules for the Big East teams have to come to an end," says Cook. "They are going to have to get top-flight teams to play against in their non-conference games."

The BCS provided some medical help by allowing the Big East to keep its bid into the championship series. That will get them into the series, but not much farther, according to Cook.

"Look, going undefeated against the Big East schedule will get you qualified for the BCS," Cook said. "But it won't get you a chance at being in the title game. The teams won't be ranked high enough (because of the comparatively low level of competition they have faced throughout the season).

"If I was (Pitt athletic director) Jeff Long, I'd already be on the telephone trying to schedule a home and home series with Miami. I'd be trying to get a home and home with USC or some other national power, maybe Florida State."

That plan worked beautifully for Florida State when they first entered the ACC. The league was relatively weak in terms of football at the time, so they scheduled out-of-conference games against Miami, Florida, Notre Dame and Southern Cal.

"I don't know if Pitt will do that," Cook said. "But I think it is critical that three of their four non-conference games be against tough opponents. They have to play those kinds of teams (if they want to be part of the national championship picture)."