Phil Steele named Pitt's schedule the toughest in the Big East and 28th in all of college football.
Gatorsports.com of the Gainesville Sun previews Pitt football and ranks them at #21 in their top 25.
NationalFootballPost.com previews Pitt's potential NFL players in next year's draft including Jason Pinkston, Greg Romeus, Jabaal Sheard, Dom DeCicco, and Jonathan Baldwin. No Dion Lewis.
And the NCAA may be limiting the number of coaches allowed on staffs. Nick Carparelli of the Big East weighs in:
"We are very concerned about the cost of this kind of proliferation and whether it's necessary to … putting our teams in the field of play," said Petrina Long, senior associate athletics director at UCLA and chair of the NCAA Division I Recruiting and Athletics Personnel Issues Cabinet. "The consensus is there are a lot of people involved who may not necessarily need to be involved."
Added Nick Carparelli, Big East senior associate commissioner and chair of the NCAA's Football Issues Committee: "There's a unanimous position (among Big East coaches) that football staffing positions need to be regulated. There are just too many. The Big East coaches feel that there are some schools that have staffs that are so big that it raises the question of what these people can be doing within the rules."
Lee:
ReplyDeleteTheir non-con schedule is going to be very difficult if not close to impossible, at Utah, at ND and home to Miami. That could easily translate to 3 losses. Realistically I can't see them winning more than 1.
Once Big East play starts these games will be extremely difficult games UConn - away, WVU - home and UC -away. They have to play well to win, let's say they win 2.
Throw in Rutgers and USF as competitve games, worst case situation a split.
Pitt could have a better team this year but a poorer w-l record and yes another muffler bowl.
I'm not crying wolf but a few injuries and a few bad breaks could translate to a disaster in the making.
I'm worried about the interior o-line and the secondary!
I think 8-4 is it, let's see, talk with you later.
I agree, Dallas - and personally, outside of ticket sales for Miami this year and ND/Utah next year, I don't know why they schedule games like that. All three of those games will be very difficult.
ReplyDeleteI've long said that scheduling tough non-con games in football is like shooting yourself in the foot. In basketball, it makes sense. There's a playoff and scheduling tough games helps your RPI, which in turn, gets you a better seed. In football many years, one loss and you're out.
Undefeated teams in football do still get left out, but in BCS conferences, it's rare if memory serves me correctly. Cincinnati was on the outside looking in last year, but that would not have been the case in other years (such as 2007 WVU could have gotten in even with one loss).
Further, even if Cincy had a tougher non-conference schedule, the Big East gets so little respect, I think they still would have been left out.
For non-BCS schools like Boise or TCU, I understand the need to bulk up your schedule. But outside of ticket sales, I just don't get it for schools like Pitt.