I really dislike being in the ACC
- Thread starter Gep Dawg
- Start date
What's more likely? Going undefeated in the AAC and being the highest rated Group of 5 team and play in a NYD bowl game OR winning the ACC game and making a NYD bowl game?
I'm not saying we would roll there. Im just saying its more likely. Also how has our recruting improved since we joined the ACC? Its actually gone down and those AAC teams recruit just as well as us anyway.
Just saying all that actual extra money hasn't done anything for us. We are less competitive than we used to be and have less kids making the NFL to boot. All the extra revenue came with extra expense. Other than paying more to our administrators and coaches for the same results I dont know where all the money has made us better or more relavant on the national scene
I’d say winning 10 games while in the ACC is as likely as beating both Cincy and UCF in the same season.
Bizarro world.
Wow I couldn't disagree more. Plus even if we somehow won 10 regular season games for the first time in 40 years we still aren't guaranteed a spot in the NYD games unless we win the championship game
Right. Like when we were in the Fiesta Bowl, New Year's Day, great location, warm, all that other stuff, and we sold tickets like crazy.
To Utah fans.
The only response I have to that post is that I'm glad you didn't have a say in Pitt's decision to join the ACC. There's not a team Pitt has that would be better off in the AAC.
And, you should care that Pitt makes a whole lot more money and is in a stable conference.
The results on the field/court are worse now than before. Would rather be a big fish in a small pond than an afterthought in a major conference. Temple went 8-4 and is playing in a better bowl game than Pitt. Glad the administration is making more money. But for the fan it hasn’t been better and no one has been able to prove otherwise. Just a lot of personal insults. I don’t want to feel this way. I wish I was wrong. But both revenue sports are worse now than before. I see a lot less coverage of both sports and the bowl destinations are no better. It’s frustrating.
What makes you think Pitt would be able to hire better coaches with less money, in a less desirable conference?
I'm frustrated as well as most every Pitt fan has been for the last 35 - 40 years, but what makes you think Pitt would be able to hire the coaches that Temple has if Pitt were in the AAC?
Pitt football has it as easy from a conference standpoint as any team in the country. With the right leadership the football program could be winning the Coastal Division with regularity, getting to the ACC championship game to get killed by Clemson then on to a desirable bowl. The Coastal is begging for someone to step up and be the annual alpha dog. Pitt, Miami and VT are the three programs that should be vying for that every year but they can’t get their $hit together. The other division is a joke as well outside of Clemson and I think FSU will be a factor again soon. The rest is trash.
Beating the VTs and BCs of the world on a regular basis is hardly a lot to ask of a football
program starving to get back to some level of national relevance. The right coach could make it happen.
Hey I think we are all frustrated. I'm not suggesting Pitt would hire better coaches. Im just saying being in the ACC hasn't benefitted Pitt at all. We cant get better coaches than Temple despite paying more and having a higher profile program in a higher profile conference. Now if Pitt could have the success Temple has had hiring the right head coaches then winning in the ACC would be a bigger deal. I'm just saying being an after though in a better conference isn't necessary a better experience for the fans. And since Pitt gets the same revenue share whether it plays in the Quick Lane Bowl or the National Championship game I think there really is no incentive for Pitt's administration to doing anything more than the bare minimum anyway. Especially since we don't have alumni who demand winning at all coast like they do at the big southern schools.
This is an excellent point. I guess all of this is leading me to where I don't want to go...we need a regime change. The question is whether our AD can make the right hire...or at the very least force our existing head coach to hire better surrounding staff.
Or some people to actually ya know-
Get off the couch , open their wallets , and start being part of the solution .
or whine anonymously while being part Of the problem .
Pitt has very capable people in charge for a change .
This is a red herring argument. Temple has not even a quarter the support Pitt football has and they still out perform us on the field and in coaching hires. For an inner city school Pitt has pretty good support.
Do you attend games in person at Heinz? We might get 5-10k more people at some of our home games than Temple.
Well... if they don't get their Victory Heights built they won't be in the ACC much longer anyways.
Why is that? They have the facilities already for all the sports they play.
I don't know. Pitt played in Orlando in 2001, and the Fiesta Bowl after the 2004 season. I don't think the crowds were good.
This isnt that far from the truth. Like if Vegas put odds out on making a NY6 bowl over the next 10 years, my guess is that the top American programs would have better odds than Pitt.
I vehemently disagree with this post. Given the past 40 year sample size, Pitt has no business being discussed on equal footing with VPI and the U. Those TWO should be challenging for annual supremacy of the division without Clemson. Pitt should be grouped with the other programs in that division.
Who is the ACC paired with in the Holiday Bowl? PAC? I really like that Bowl Game.
I agree 100% with you that the ACC Bowl Tie-ins are terrible. I really think the ACC did a terrible job when the bowls all started to switch alliances due to the CFB.
I'll take the ACC over the AAC any day of the week and twice on Sundays. The basketball is the reason. I prefer basketball to football, so it doesn't really matter to me what conference we're in for football. But playing in the ACC is hoops is far better than any other conference.
I have to agree here, it's nice that that they have more money, but the teams where better in the Big East, who can argue that, especially in basketball, being a Pitt fan was more fun winning 25-30 games every year in BE basketball than being in the ACC wishing to get on the NIT bubble. And even in the BE, Pitt Football was usually a mediocre also ran.
BEING PITT, often times a BIG DAWG in the Big East was WAY, WAY BETTER than what we experience now in basketball
exactly. If we were in the crap AAC, it would be more of the same. Maybe record is a little better with a 9-3 finish, but Navy or Memphis or someone else would still win the division every year and the bowl would be just as insignificant for a 3rd place AAC team. Look at where Cinci is playing.
What exactly is the outperform temple has done?
their most successful season
They beat psu
Lost to notre dame,USF , and Houston in the amaericsn champion game and the. Lost to Toledo in their bowl
that’s very Pitt like
You don’t get around much, do you? Their current facilities are not even MAC level. Which is quite appropriate considering their opponent in Detroit.
I went to the Fiesta Bowl and it was 85-15 Utah but we had a blast.
Everything is just an excuse , the will to win in Fb is just not a priority at the highest levels . Pitt was absolutely horrible when they hired Johnny Majors , now the rules were different back then which made it easier to turn a program around , but they had enough of losing . Low and behold a few yrs latter Pitt was a national champion . This administration is happy with a 7 or 8 win season against weak opposition in the Coastal division of the ACC and a who cares embarrassing bowl game . Even sparsely attended Fb games doesn’t seem to bother them . Face it Pitt will never attract the fan support of schools like PSU , OSU , MICHIGAN ETC , but there’s no reason they can’t put 60,000 in HF and be the power in the Coastal .
The excuse is poor Pitt doesn’t have the financial support of alumni and with the way they’ve run their program why should they ! Pitt invest in yourself , hire a coaching staff that can attract better players and win over a consistent period of time and whatever you’ve invested will be a mere pittance to what you’ll reap .
Unfortunately this is a concept they don’t get so one can only expect more of the same .
The excuse is poor Pitt doesn’t have the financial support of alumni and with the way they’ve run their program why should they ! Pitt invest in yourself , hire a coaching staff that can attract better players and win over a consistent period of time and whatever you’ve invested will be a mere pittance to what you’ll reap .
Unfortunately this is a concept they don’t get so one can only expect more of the same .
Unfortunately there really is an egghead infestation, that is considered to be a legend, but there is truth to it, I won't bring it up in any detail, so I don't get banned from this message board for a month again.
To me, the dream scenario for Pitt (independent in football, Big East in basketball) is economically and basically literally impossible. So if the choice is AAC and ACC, it's clear the ACC is the better landing spot. The revenue has already drastically improved our Olympic sports and probably made it possible to flip Stallings for Capel. So that's not just "well as a fan I don't care if we get more money", it's that Heather has done a good job with that money. Fwiw, we also have an easy division in football that includes some historic opponents, even if not our "big three" rivalry games. And if we think our attendance is bad now, imagine it for playing Uconn, ECU, Tulane, and Tulsa in football. Or having to play those western teams in basketball.
First post - might as well start here 
The ACC is good for Pitt in one area - money. That's really all it's about anyway. Pitt gets a big check every year from the ACC regardless of how they perform. Win 6 games? Big check. Win 10 games? Same big check. It's like MLB - they incentivize mediocrity. Every conference need a handful of teams that represent easy-ish wins for the big dogs. One loss would have likely dropped Clemson out of the playoff. Better to have two teams in the mix. That's where the HUGE money is - and doormats are useful as long as everyone gets PAID.
I continue to feel that recruiting is, and will continue to ultimately be the biggest issue with the ACC - both for football and BB. We're just out of our element. Not every talented kid can go to FSU, Clemson, UNC or Duke, but there are a whole bunch of other schools that make sense for a South Eastern kid before Pitt starts to look good. Recruiting the North East is the same problem reversed - Big 10/Big East teams make sense before the ACC/Pitt makes sense. You're in a no man's land - my guess is that Capel figures it out before Narduzzi. You only need a couple of guys in BB.
Ultimately, Pitt's options were limited. The AAC is a different animal to be sure, and as mentioned, it's no guarantee of competitiveness. Our roster would likely be worse than it is now. Frankly, I think it would be a shame to sink to that depth and it would torch a lot of pride and tradition. Make that move and there's no turning back. The ACC Costal is weak enough - Pitt needs to find a way to make that work.
The "egghead infestation" is real, and it has been for a long time. My fathers boss, who I knew well, was VERY connected at Pitt as a previous student athlete and became a LARGE booster. He complained about it regularly to anyone who would listen, but he still gave....
The ACC is good for Pitt in one area - money. That's really all it's about anyway. Pitt gets a big check every year from the ACC regardless of how they perform. Win 6 games? Big check. Win 10 games? Same big check. It's like MLB - they incentivize mediocrity. Every conference need a handful of teams that represent easy-ish wins for the big dogs. One loss would have likely dropped Clemson out of the playoff. Better to have two teams in the mix. That's where the HUGE money is - and doormats are useful as long as everyone gets PAID.
I continue to feel that recruiting is, and will continue to ultimately be the biggest issue with the ACC - both for football and BB. We're just out of our element. Not every talented kid can go to FSU, Clemson, UNC or Duke, but there are a whole bunch of other schools that make sense for a South Eastern kid before Pitt starts to look good. Recruiting the North East is the same problem reversed - Big 10/Big East teams make sense before the ACC/Pitt makes sense. You're in a no man's land - my guess is that Capel figures it out before Narduzzi. You only need a couple of guys in BB.
Ultimately, Pitt's options were limited. The AAC is a different animal to be sure, and as mentioned, it's no guarantee of competitiveness. Our roster would likely be worse than it is now. Frankly, I think it would be a shame to sink to that depth and it would torch a lot of pride and tradition. Make that move and there's no turning back. The ACC Costal is weak enough - Pitt needs to find a way to make that work.
The "egghead infestation" is real, and it has been for a long time. My fathers boss, who I knew well, was VERY connected at Pitt as a previous student athlete and became a LARGE booster. He complained about it regularly to anyone who would listen, but he still gave....
The conference revenue difference is a non-starter for this whole silly discussion. But your odds premise is flawed. The top teams in the AAC do have a better shot at a NY6. Teams plural. Last year UCF had a better shot. This year they are in the Gasparilla Bowl. This year Memphis had a better shot, but they played in Birmingham last bowl season. Next year it may be Cincy if their coach isn't hired away.
Maybe Pitt could be that team one year if they were in the AAC but they could just as easily be UVA if they had won games. That is really the issue and if you think Pitt would clean up in the AAC, look at the teams: Cincy, UCF, SMU, Houston, Navy, USF, UConn... it is like a hall of horrors for Pitt fans. We have comically bad losses to damn near every school in that conference.
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