Sold out for basketball

[djbpitt]

The seeds of this current football situation were planted many years ago, when administrators without the vision, skill and fortitude to build an on-campus football stadium made their choice. And what we got with that "all in" decision on basketball was permanent damage to the football program.

I am not trying to rekindle the stadium debate. That ship has sailed, especially now with the state of university funding and our abysmal alumni donation rate for athletics. "Rocket Man" had none of the requisite skills to lead such a project. Indeed, he was too busy meddling like the Kim Jong-un of Cardiac Hill: imposing torch-cut logos, a dino-cat and calling us "Pittsburgh."

A football stadium is the front porch of a university. For many alumni, it's the only tangible connection to their alma mater. But lost in all the hand-wringing over Saturday's loss is this: Over the long term, how has sharing facilities benefited Pitt -- aside from perhaps shedding costs? From an optics standpoint, it creates mixed messages: It says we're not big-time enough to have our own facility. It reinforces the fact that we will always be a distant second to the Steelers in the pursuit of fans' time and money.

Most of all, can anyone point to more than a handful of recruits who were so wowed by our sub-lease situation with the Steelers that they came to Pitt?

Somehow, those few "glory years" of basketball -- as underachieving as they were -- were ultimately too costly to the football program. Pitt simply is not imbued with the fan or donor support to be prominent in both major sports, and the administration squandered 110 years of football tradition just because it was the easy thing to do. 22 years removed from the beginning of Rocket Man's reign of terror and we're STILL paying the price. Add to that the chaos of the Wanny/Haywood/Graham/Chryst coaching carousel and it's no wonder we're still digging ourselves out of a hole.

 

[ThePanthers]

I'm not going to rekindle the stadium debate, but I'm going to talk about the stadium. - most posters who want to talk about the stadium

 

[HailtoPitt]

It is VERY simple. They don't want to win enough to commit.

 

[djbpitt]

I'm not going to rekindle the stadium debate, but I'm going to talk about the stadium. - most posters who want to talk about the stadium

The real issue is years of bad athletic management and poor AD hires, coupled with the fateful "all in" decision on basketball.

 

[DiehardPanther]

Pitt was playing in front of 15k at Pitt stadium in many cases during the 90’s. The students in many cases didn’t bother walking 500 yards to get there. The place was a dump. The seats were terrible, the concessions were terrible, the restrooms were terrible, there weren’t any club boxes, and how many additional indoor/outdoor practice facilities did the team have to practice on?

 

[runshadyrun]

no parking, terrible interstate access...

 

[JokePa]

Pitt was playing in front of 15k at Pitt stadium in many cases during the 90’s. The students in many cases didn’t bother walking 500 yards to get there. The place was a dump. The seats were terrible, the concessions were terrible, the restrooms were terrible, there weren’t any club boxes, and how many additional indoor/outdoor practice facilities did the team have to practice on?

Exactly!

It is an argument built on no logic. Now, saying it looks bad not having your own stadium, OK, that is valid. Saying fans will come to see Pitt lose at said stadium is dumb. Pittsburghers are NOT like that. Every Pittsburgh sports team suffers when it loses, there is simply too much else to do, and not enough extra money to spend. The Pirates had an ANNOUNCED attendance of 8,000 last week at a game, and they are .500

I think in some ways, playing where the Steelers play and having the Steelers practice at our facility is more beneficial to recruiting than if we had an on campus smaller stadium.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

I'm not going to rekindle the stadium debate, but I'm going to talk about the stadium. - most posters who want to talk about the stadium

The real issue is years of bad athletic management and poor AD hires, coupled with the fateful "all in" decision on basketball.

To be fair, I don't think it was an "all in" basketball decision. Pitt Stadium was a trash dump. It was beyond repair. Maybe you could have squeezed another 10 years out of it but it was a terrible stadium. On campus, yes, but awful. So, really, they needed 2 new facilities, 1 for football and 1 for basketball. There was only limited money so they decided to play in the Steelers stadium. It wasn't a bad short-term decision. It was a really bad long-term decision because Pitt football cannot be viable long-term in a stadium of that size

 

[pittguy81]

The seeds of this current football situation were planted many years ago, when administrators without the vision, skill and fortitude to build an on-campus football stadium made their choice. And what we got with that "all in" decision on basketball was permanent damage to the football program.

I am not trying to rekindle the stadium debate. That ship has sailed, especially now with the state of university funding and our abysmal alumni donation rate for athletics. "Rocket Man" had none of the requisite skills to lead such a project. Indeed, he was too busy meddling like the Kim Jong-un of Cardiac Hill: imposing torch-cut logos, a dino-cat and calling us "Pittsburgh."

A football stadium is the front porch of a university. For many alumni, it's the only tangible connection to their alma mater. But lost in all the hand-wringing over Saturday's loss is this: Over the long term, how has sharing facilities benefited Pitt -- aside from perhaps shedding costs? From an optics standpoint, it creates mixed messages: It says we're not big-time enough to have our own facility. It reinforces the fact that we will always be a distant second to the Steelers in the pursuit of fans' time and money.

Most of all, can anyone point to more than a handful of recruits who were so wowed by our sub-lease situation with the Steelers that they came to Pitt?

Somehow, those few "glory years" of basketball -- as underachieving as they were -- were ultimately too costly to the football program. Pitt simply is not imbued with the fan or donor support to be prominent in both major sports, and the administration squandered 110 years of football tradition just because it was the easy thing to do. 22 years removed from the beginning of Rocket Man's reign of terror and we're STILL paying the price. Add to that the chaos of the Wanny/Haywood/Graham/Chryst coaching carousel and it's no wonder we're still digging ourselves out of a hole.

Pitt's front porch had a ripped up recliner with a broken footrest, pizza boxes, chicken wing bones, empty beer cans and a dead cat.

Let's all pine for the 10,000 strong that were packing the house, sitting on the bleacher seats and standing in line for 45 minutes to take a piss.

Let's talk about the recruits that were beating down the doors to play in a place with no practice facilities, a weight room from 1980 and 3 concession stands that sold cold hot dogs, stale popcorn, watered down flat soda, and cold hot chocolate.

Pitt fans are imbued with selfishness and a lack of pride regarding their alma mater. They like to bitch about things but aren't willing to put their money with their collective mouths are.

 

[Las Panteras]

Win....and all of a sudden the Steelers partnership is really exciting and different

win....and playing in Heinz Field with the Steelers is what kids want to do

win.....and the girls in Oakland / Carson Street / Strip all look twice as hot

win...and all the cool stuff to do in this city becomes another great reason to play here.

win.....and the WPIAL recruits will be interested in playing here

win...and said recruits will at the very least stop blowing us off as "beneath them'.

Win.....and the local fans that dont care about Pitt all of a sudden want to be part of the party (See Pitt basketball 2008-2011)

win....and ALL pipelines....from Jersey to Liberty City and back to Aliquippa....all become fertile recruiting grounds for us.

WIN.


JUST.


WIN.

 

[JokePa]

Win....and all of a sudden the Steelers partnership is really exciting and different

win....and playing in Heinz Field with the Steelers is what kids want to do

win.....and the girls in Oakland / Carson Street / Strip all look twice as hot

win...and all the cool stuff to do in this city becomes another great reason to play here.

win.....and the WPIAL recruits will be interested in playing here

win...and said recruits will at the very least stop blowing us off as "beneath them'.

Win.....and the local fans that dont care about Pitt all of a sudden want to be part of the party (See Pitt basketball 2008-2011)

win....and ALL pipelines....from Jersey to Liberty City and back to Aliquippa....all become fertile recruiting grounds for us.

WIN.


JUST.


WIN.

TROOF

 

[McKee Place]

It is VERY simple. They don't want to win enough to commit.

Certain percentage do. But others have been jealous or delusional when one of the revenue sports grabs too much glory. It's a weird constant tug of war.

When i was an undergrad I had multiple profs openly and bitterly denounce the football team in classes (today I suppose it would be Trump ). One clear time was my Fr year, when my professor ripped the team, and John Congemi was in our class. He chuckled and just shook his head. To be fair he usually WASN'T in that class (but he was that day). But i wasn't always there either!

I imagine there's such resentment in most bigger sports school. But i would imagine the profs aren't as open about it. At pSU one of their football- crazed student might actually assault such a prof for saying stuff I heard multiple times in classes. Certainly would report them and they'd likely get hustled out, tenure or no.

 

[oldpanther]

The seeds of this current football situation were planted many years ago, when administrators without the vision, skill and fortitude to build an on-campus football stadium made their choice. And what we got with that "all in" decision on basketball was permanent damage to the football program.

I am not trying to rekindle the stadium debate. That ship has sailed, especially now with the state of university funding and our abysmal alumni donation rate for athletics. "Rocket Man" had none of the requisite skills to lead such a project. Indeed, he was too busy meddling like the Kim Jong-un of Cardiac Hill: imposing torch-cut logos, a dino-cat and calling us "Pittsburgh."

A football stadium is the front porch of a university. For many alumni, it's the only tangible connection to their alma mater. But lost in all the hand-wringing over Saturday's loss is this: Over the long term, how has sharing facilities benefited Pitt -- aside from perhaps shedding costs? From an optics standpoint, it creates mixed messages: It says we're not big-time enough to have our own facility. It reinforces the fact that we will always be a distant second to the Steelers in the pursuit of fans' time and money.

Most of all, can anyone point to more than a handful of recruits who were so wowed by our sub-lease situation with the Steelers that they came to Pitt?

Somehow, those few "glory years" of basketball -- as underachieving as they were -- were ultimately too costly to the football program. Pitt simply is not imbued with the fan or donor support to be prominent in both major sports, and the administration squandered 110 years of football tradition just because it was the easy thing to do. 22 years removed from the beginning of Rocket Man's reign of terror and we're STILL paying the price. Add to that the chaos of the Wanny/Haywood/Graham/Chryst coaching carousel and it's no wonder we're still digging ourselves out of a hole.

Let me understand,this four or five paragraph rant is not about the stadium but it is about a stadium. People should stop looking at pictures of the Pitt vs Fordham games of the late 1930’s (when the stadium was full and capacity was about 70,000)for it is stupid. Pitt attendance is probably the same if not more by playing at Heintz vs Pitt Stadium. The old stadium slowly but surely turned into a dump, a few insignificant changes made over the years was the reduction of seating capacity, metal covering on the wooden seats, scoreboard with viewing screen, a paint job or two, blasting of the exterior to remove the soot and sulfur from the mills, Astro turf, lights for night football and Majors on his second tour had a weight room installed. I believe the year was 1960, just discharged from military, purchased a pair of shoes from Kamps shoe store and just for purchasing shoes I was given 4 tickets to the Pitt vs WVU game. There were others in the store that made a purchase that weren’t even interested in the tickets. I went to the game, Pitt beat WVU 42-0 I think that was the final, but the even though free tickets could be had the stadium was but 3/4 full. Stadium, script, royal blue and yellow arguments are ridiculous, none of those topics improve attendance or fan base. 25 to 30 thousand base and if one uses the 1973 to 1983 example for increasing attendance it took about 8 years of winning and dominating opponents in order to get to a total of 52,000 average in1982.

 

[Pantherguy4]

Win....and all of a sudden the Steelers partnership is really exciting and different

win....and playing in Heinz Field with the Steelers is what kids want to do

win.....and the girls in Oakland / Carson Street / Strip all look twice as hot

win...and all the cool stuff to do in this city becomes another great reason to play here.

win.....and the WPIAL recruits will be interested in playing here

win...and said recruits will at the very least stop blowing us off as "beneath them'.

Win.....and the local fans that dont care about Pitt all of a sudden want to be part of the party (See Pitt basketball 2008-2011)

win....and ALL pipelines....from Jersey to Liberty City and back to Aliquippa....all become fertile recruiting grounds for us.

WIN.


JUST.


WIN.

Truer words were never written.

 

[Pitt79]

It is VERY simple. They don't want to win enough to commit.

OK, we have all this talk all the time about the Pitt "Eggheads" who hate sports and won't commit and are embarrassed to be good at football. So we're talking about this over like 40 years? Don't the people in those positions change? Or do they just make sure when they hire their replacements that they hire other people that hate sports too? Why can't we ever get a University President that's some Good 'Ole Boy Southern Hillbilly that would rather be good at football than reading books?

 

[thom67]

I quit going to Pitt Stadium years ago giving up my season tickets. Since games are at Heinz Field now, I began going to the games because the experience is so much better. I began going to Pitt Stadium in the early 60’s. It was a dump then and only got worse over the years. No way to get there and park, no tailgating, and no restrooms.

 

[Panther_in_Kentucky]

Pitt's front porch had a ripped up recliner with a broken footrest, pizza boxes, chicken wing bones, empty beer cans and a dead cat.

Let's all pine for the 10,000 strong that were packing the house, sitting on the bleacher seats and standing in line for 45 minutes to take a piss.

Let's talk about the recruits that were beating down the doors to play in a place with no practice facilities, a weight room from 1980 and 3 concession stands that sold cold hot dogs, stale popcorn, watered down flat soda, and cold hot chocolate.

Pitt fans are imbued with selfishness and a lack of pride regarding their alma mater. They like to bitch about things but aren't willing to put their money with their collective mouths are.

It was clearly "the fans fault" last Saturday right? Dumb Ass.

 

[BIGPanther]

Clearly, you and I remember the 1990s very differently.

 

[McKee Place]

OK, we have all this talk all the time about the Pitt "Eggheads" who hate sports and won't commit and are embarrassed to be good at football. So we're talking about this over like 40 years? Don't the people in those positions change? Or do they just make sure when they hire their replacements that they hire other people that hate sports too? Why can't we ever get a University President that's some Good 'Ole Boy Southern Hillbilly that would rather be good at football than reading books?

Look at our last 3 chancellors, they are about as opposite as your description as one can get!

The chancellor before them, a former military guy, did care at first and facilitated our brief football renaissance. But ended up getting marginalized and neutered by his athletic department subordinates, who ripped the balls clean off.

And it pretty much indicates how pervasive the Pitt culture, even as officials and employees move in and out. Based on nearly 40 years evidence, its not a culture that values excellence in revenue sports. Olympic sports are apparently ok.

(Merely fielding teams and paying HEAD coaches somewhat near market rates is not the same as positive culture either... everyone knows that what is passed, or allowed to go on, under the table is at least as important as above...)

I credit the school to some degree to compartmentalize sports as it does, it it's closer to how everyone should do it ... but then you get tons of negativity and financial pain from constant losing, which by far cancels out anything positive that comes from it (I frankly just don't care about the Olympic sports being good) ... but that's only my opinion apparently.

 

[upj87]

The seeds of this current football situation were planted many years ago, when administrators without the vision, skill and fortitude to build an on-campus football stadium made their choice. And what we got with that "all in" decision on basketball was permanent damage to the football program.

I am not trying to rekindle the stadium debate. That ship has sailed, especially now with the state of university funding and our abysmal alumni donation rate for athletics. "Rocket Man" had none of the requisite skills to lead such a project. Indeed, he was too busy meddling like the Kim Jong-un of Cardiac Hill: imposing torch-cut logos, a dino-cat and calling us "Pittsburgh."

A football stadium is the front porch of a university. For many alumni, it's the only tangible connection to their alma mater. But lost in all the hand-wringing over Saturday's loss is this: Over the long term, how has sharing facilities benefited Pitt -- aside from perhaps shedding costs? From an optics standpoint, it creates mixed messages: It says we're not big-time enough to have our own facility. It reinforces the fact that we will always be a distant second to the Steelers in the pursuit of fans' time and money.

Most of all, can anyone point to more than a handful of recruits who were so wowed by our sub-lease situation with the Steelers that they came to Pitt?

Somehow, those few "glory years" of basketball -- as underachieving as they were -- were ultimately too costly to the football program. Pitt simply is not imbued with the fan or donor support to be prominent in both major sports, and the administration squandered 110 years of football tradition just because it was the easy thing to do. 22 years removed from the beginning of Rocket Man's reign of terror and we're STILL paying the price. Add to that the chaos of the Wanny/Haywood/Graham/Chryst coaching carousel and it's no wonder we're still digging ourselves out of a hole.

oops, I came in because I thought the Pete was amazingly sold out for the year...never mind, carry on...

 

[wbrpanther]

The seeds of this current football situation were planted many years ago, when administrators without the vision, skill and fortitude to build an on-campus football stadium made their choice. And what we got with that "all in" decision on basketball was permanent damage to the football program.

I am not trying to rekindle the stadium debate. That ship has sailed, especially now with the state of university funding and our abysmal alumni donation rate for athletics. "Rocket Man" had none of the requisite skills to lead such a project. Indeed, he was too busy meddling like the Kim Jong-un of Cardiac Hill: imposing torch-cut logos, a dino-cat and calling us "Pittsburgh."

A football stadium is the front porch of a university. For many alumni, it's the only tangible connection to their alma mater. But lost in all the hand-wringing over Saturday's loss is this: Over the long term, how has sharing facilities benefited Pitt -- aside from perhaps shedding costs? From an optics standpoint, it creates mixed messages: It says we're not big-time enough to have our own facility. It reinforces the fact that we will always be a distant second to the Steelers in the pursuit of fans' time and money.

Most of all, can anyone point to more than a handful of recruits who were so wowed by our sub-lease situation with the Steelers that they came to Pitt?

Somehow, those few "glory years" of basketball -- as underachieving as they were -- were ultimately too costly to the football program. Pitt simply is not imbued with the fan or donor support to be prominent in both major sports, and the administration squandered 110 years of football tradition just because it was the easy thing to do. 22 years removed from the beginning of Rocket Man's reign of terror and we're STILL paying the price. Add to that the chaos of the Wanny/Haywood/Graham/Chryst coaching carousel and it's no wonder we're still digging ourselves out of a hole.

Actually I read comments by recruits all the time about practicing in the same place as the Steelers and playing in a Pro stadium.

 

[pittdan77]

Win....and all of a sudden the Steelers partnership is really exciting and different

win....and playing in Heinz Field with the Steelers is what kids want to do

win.....and the girls in Oakland / Carson Street / Strip all look twice as hot

win...and all the cool stuff to do in this city becomes another great reason to play here.

win.....and the WPIAL recruits will be interested in playing here

win...and said recruits will at the very least stop blowing us off as "beneath them'.

Win.....and the local fans that dont care about Pitt all of a sudden want to be part of the party (See Pitt basketball 2008-2011)

win....and ALL pipelines....from Jersey to Liberty City and back to Aliquippa....all become fertile recruiting grounds for us.

WIN.


JUST.


WIN.

It's easier to complain about things that will never happen or should never happen like a football stadium in Oakland or tarps. Or for that matter, the color of the helmet or the font of the logo.

Pitt fans don't know how to win. That's the problem.

 

[pittman71]

To be fair, I don't think it was an "all in" basketball decision. Pitt Stadium was a trash dump. It was beyond repair. Maybe you could have squeezed another 10 years out of it but it was a terrible stadium. On campus, yes, but awful. So, really, they needed 2 new facilities, 1 for football and 1 for basketball. There was only limited money so they decided to play in the Steelers stadium. It wasn't a bad short-term decision. It was a really bad long-term decision because Pitt football cannot be viable long-term in a stadium of that size

they could if they started winning.

 

[djbpitt]

Pitt was playing in front of 15k at Pitt stadium in many cases during the 90’s. The students in many cases didn’t bother walking 500 yards to get there. The place was a dump. The seats were terrible, the concessions were terrible, the restrooms were terrible, there weren’t any club boxes, and how many additional indoor/outdoor practice facilities did the team have to practice on?

So take away all those supposed disadvantages and where are the fans? Where are the better recruits? Something HAD to be done with Pitt Stadium but, for the long term, I just haven't seen the benefit of Heinz -- except for the casual fan.

 

[IamHeisenberg]

The first place to look is at your check book. If you are barely donating to Pitt athletics and are on a fan message board then you are part of the problem.

 

[djbpitt]

We need to aspire to be as good at football and men's basketball as we are at medicine, philosophy and health care.

 

[SonnyBono]

I agree

 

[djbpitt]

The first place to look is at your check book. If you are barely donating to Pitt athletics and are on a fan message board then you are part of the problem.

I give to both athletics and the department that granted my degree.

 

[SonnyBono]

I believe if we need a new football coach, Lyke will find us a coach to hire , one who will breath life into the program like the new BB coach

 

[DiehardPanther]

I believe if we need a new football coach, Lyke will find us a coach to hire , one who will breath life into the program like the new BB coach

Capel hasn’t even coached a game yet. Let’s wait to see the results first. I am hopeful, but the proof is in the pudding.

 

[pittguy81]

It was clearly "the fans fault" last Saturday right? Dumb Ass.

Yes, that's clearly what my post was about.....if you have no reading comprehension or are pushing your own agenda, you belligerent and ignorant hilljack. The next reasonable post you make will be your first, Jethro

 

[Fsgolfdr]

Let me understand,this four or five paragraph rant is not about the stadium but it is about a stadium. People should stop looking at pictures of the Pitt vs Fordham games of the late 1930’s (when the stadium was full and capacity was about 70,000)for it is stupid. Pitt attendance is probably the same if not more by playing at Heintz vs Pitt Stadium. The old stadium slowly but surely turned into a dump, a few insignificant changes made over the years was the reduction of seating capacity, metal covering on the wooden seats, scoreboard with viewing screen, a paint job or two, blasting of the exterior to remove the soot and sulfur from the mills, Astro turf, lights for night football and Majors on his second tour had a weight room installed. I believe the year was 1960, just discharged from military, purchased a pair of shoes from Kamps shoe store and just for purchasing shoes I was given 4 tickets to the Pitt vs WVU game. There were others in the store that made a purchase that weren’t even interested in the tickets. I went to the game, Pitt beat WVU 42-0 I think that was the final, but the even though free tickets could be had the stadium was but 3/4 full. Stadium, script, royal blue and yellow arguments are ridiculous, none of those topics improve attendance or fan base. 25 to 30 thousand base and if one uses the 1973 to 1983 example for increasing attendance it took about 8 years of winning and dominating opponents in order to get to a total of 52,000 average in1982.

A solid fan base of 50k would be great the problem is Pitt has a solid fanbase of 30k now . People buy season tickets to get PSU or ND tickets then never show up except for that one game . If Pitt can win over a prolonged period of time adding 2-3000 loyal fans /yr would be great and in ten yrs they'd have a good base . It won't happen overnight and it won't happen losing every big game you have in an embarrassing way . It's obvious that the Pitt name doesn't sell itself , they need a coach who can and that just might
cost them some money . The balls in their court ( field ) they stepped up in Bb now it's time to do it in Fb !

 

[Pitt79]

A solid fan base of 50k would be great the problem is Pitt has a solid fanbase of 30k now .

WIN GAMES.

 

[HailtoPitt]

Pitt's front porch had a ripped up recliner with a broken footrest, pizza boxes, chicken wing bones, empty beer cans and a dead cat.

Let's all pine for the 10,000 strong that were packing the house, sitting on the bleacher seats and standing in line for 45 minutes to take a piss.

Let's talk about the recruits that were beating down the doors to play in a place with no practice facilities, a weight room from 1980 and 3 concession stands that sold cold hot dogs, stale popcorn, watered down flat soda, and cold hot chocolate.

Pitt fans are imbued with selfishness and a lack of pride regarding their alma mater. They like to bitch about things but aren't willing to put their money with their collective mouths are.

Why do people always bring up the Pitt Stadium bathrooms as if those weren't something that could have been dealt with. Why weren't they?

 

[PITTLAW]

The seeds of this current football situation were planted many years ago, when administrators without the vision, skill and fortitude to build an on-campus football stadium made their choice. And what we got with that "all in" decision on basketball was permanent damage to the football program.

I am not trying to rekindle the stadium debate. That ship has sailed, especially now with the state of university funding and our abysmal alumni donation rate for athletics. "Rocket Man" had none of the requisite skills to lead such a project. Indeed, he was too busy meddling like the Kim Jong-un of Cardiac Hill: imposing torch-cut logos, a dino-cat and calling us "Pittsburgh."

A football stadium is the front porch of a university. For many alumni, it's the only tangible connection to their alma mater. But lost in all the hand-wringing over Saturday's loss is this: Over the long term, how has sharing facilities benefited Pitt -- aside from perhaps shedding costs? From an optics standpoint, it creates mixed messages: It says we're not big-time enough to have our own facility. It reinforces the fact that we will always be a distant second to the Steelers in the pursuit of fans' time and money.

Most of all, can anyone point to more than a handful of recruits who were so wowed by our sub-lease situation with the Steelers that they came to Pitt?

Somehow, those few "glory years" of basketball -- as underachieving as they were -- were ultimately too costly to the football program. Pitt simply is not imbued with the fan or donor support to be prominent in both major sports, and the administration squandered 110 years of football tradition just because it was the easy thing to do. 22 years removed from the beginning of Rocket Man's reign of terror and we're STILL paying the price. Add to that the chaos of the Wanny/Haywood/Graham/Chryst coaching carousel and it's no wonder we're still digging ourselves out of a hole.

You are 100% right. Moreover, Pitt geared its athletic fundraising efforts based upon the success of the basketball program. Because there was demand for basketball tickets, the programs and giving levels were premised off of a basketball model. Not only was that short sighted, it was fundamentally wrong...as not even the best big time basketball programs generate close to half of what a football program does. Just look at what ACC membership pays for football versus basketball, and you will get the message. Unfortunately it is going to take a bit of time to fix this problem...as now Pitt has way more capacity for football than it needs, and the same goes for basketball. Give the new leadership a little time and support, the get it. Hail to Pitt!

 

[Ski11585]

Investing in basketball was the right move. Under the current system, Pitt will never win in football. I always thought, and still believe, that they can win a title in hoops.

 

[PITTLAW]

Investing in basketball was the right move. Under the current system, Pitt will never win in football. I always thought, and still believe, that they can win a title in hoops.

Well winning in basketball is nice, but it will not financially support all the other athletic programs that need cash to turn on the lights [let alone compete in a league that is good in nearly every sport offered]. What Pitt hauls in for ACC membership just for the bowl games in football far out paces what it would get paid by the ACC for actually winning the national championship in basketball. You must look at revenue and potential revenue to intelligently invest in college sports programs. Be certain, the answer is football...whether you like it or not. Hail to Pitt!

 

[DiehardPanther]

Investing in basketball was the right move. Under the current system, Pitt will never win in football. I always thought, and still believe, that they can win a title in hoops.

I agree that Pitt should go all in to win big in basketball. We don’t have a pro basketball team in Pittsburgh, and could easily fill the void for basketball fans in the area. We did it for awhile.

I like football and basketball, but the reality is football has a lot more challenges in their way to becoming a Top 15 Program.

 

[Fsgolfdr]

WIN GAMES.

It's amazing how this simple solution is too difficult for those in charge to grasp .

 

[jtownknowitall]

The seeds of this current football situation were planted many years ago, when administrators without the vision, skill and fortitude to build an on-campus football stadium made their choice. And what we got with that "all in" decision on basketball was permanent damage to the football program.

Somehow, those few "glory years" of basketball -- as underachieving as they were -- were ultimately too costly to the football program. Pitt simply is not imbued with the fan or donor support to be prominent in both major sports, and the administration squandered 110 years of football tradition just because it was the easy thing to do. 22 years removed from the beginning of Rocket Man's reign of terror and we're STILL paying the price.

The decision to go all in in basketball was made in November 1981. On November 19 Pitt announced it was joining the Big East Conference. Exactly two months later Jackie Sherrill became the new coach at Texas A&M. The Big East rejected Penn State. Foge Fazio was named the new football coach.