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Steve Pederson

SoufOaklin4Life said:
Why do you think Pitt was a better option than say Louisville, wvu, UConn, etc?

What made us more attractive?

How did that chance from the first raid?
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The easiest answer is that Pittsburgh is a decently sized TV market with nobody in place to object. UConn had BC saying no and WVU and Louisville don't have nearly the television audience (that's not saying all those TV's are tuned in to Pitt but that potential exists).
 
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pittdan77 said:
The easiest answer is that Pittsburgh is a decently sized TV market with nobody in place to object. UConn had BC saying no and WVU and Louisville don't have nearly the television audience (that's not saying all those TV's are tuned in to Pitt but that potential exists).
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Exactly. Pretty much fell into our laps based on our football program still having somewhat of a brand name and Pgh stil having a decent tv market.

Ironically, so many here and in the Pitt offices that are embarrassed of the Golden Panther era producing that brief stint of top Ten teams, and so giddy today that ACC money is there to milk for the chick sports, really should be thanking that era, because the football brand that got us into the conference is still living off that brief spurt, long ago as it was.
 
McKee Place said:
Exactly. Pretty much fell into our laps based on our football program still having somewhat of a brand name and Pgh stil having a decent tv market.

Ironically, so many here and in the Pitt offices that are embarrassed of the Golden Panther era producing that brief stint of top Ten teams, and so giddy today that ACC money is there to milk for the chick sports, really should be thanking that era, because the football brand that got us into the conference is still living off that brief spurt, long ago as it was.
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If you think pitt’s brand from 20 years ago was relevant to the offer you’re crazy.

So important they took Boston college before us.
 
Steve 1 made the single biggest mistake for Pitt football. Tearing down the stadium AND building on the land, leaving Pitt with no viable solution to moving back to Oakland. They should have sucked it up and rebuilt the stadium. Stanford rebuilt theirs from the ground up for $90 million in 2006, and their stadium is more than adequate. If Pitt would have done the same, they would be around 20 years into their 30 years or debt payments, probably costing about the same as it costs to utilize Heinz Field every year.

I blame Nordenburg for hiring Steve the second time. Sometimes really smart people do really stupid things, and this is exhibit A.

It doesn't surprise me that the usual Steve disciples are here defending obvious bad decisions, at both Pitt and Nebraska. He hired Bill Callahan AND gave him an extension. That is all you need to know.
 
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I remember when Steve was at Nebraska, I met a guy who's father-in-law was a big NU booster.

When conversation got around to sports, and I found out that he was a Nebraska fan, I told him that we had something in common - Steve Pederson as AD of the school.

He told me that if his father-in-law had anything to do with it (he then admitted that wifey's dad did have the pull to have something to do with it, and traveled on the team plane to games) Steve wouldn't be AD for much longer.

Steve was done at NU a few months later. Little did I know at the time that he wasn't done screwing programs up, and would end up back at Pitt.
 
RaleighPittFan said:
I remember when Steve was at Nebraska, I met a guy who's father-in-law was a big NU booster.

When conversation got around to sports, and I found out that he was a Nebraska fan, I told him that we had something in common - Steve Pederson as AD of the school.

He told me that if his father-in-law had anything to do with it (he then admitted that wifey's dad did have the pull to have something to do with it, and traveled on the team plane to games) Steve wouldn't be AD for much longer.

Steve was done at NU a few months later. Little did I know at the time that he wasn't done screwing programs up, and would end up back at Pitt.
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That is an amazing third hand story!
 
Here's the thing, again. The things people tend to really like or hate, they are too big for an AD to have the final say, especially if an irreversible cataclysmic decision (demolishing the stadium, pushing out a legend like Jamie Dixon etc).

Next tier, hiring football and basketball head coaches, are big items and I can't imagine a chancellor or trustees (responsible ones anyway) keeping hands off those... they are the two highest salaries of the university and the two most visible individuals representing the university. How Gallagher allowed that whole Barnes and Stallings swindle... and then kept his job in the aftermath...is bewildering and angering. Gallagher's blunder cost the university egregiously. Yes Barnes brought in the turd but Gallagher polished it.

Obviously the AD does have a lot of responsibility ... one would hope so given the salary ... but they usually aren't going to be things worth exclusively loving or hating him for. Sometimes, sure. Scheduling, I could see that kind of being a big one, but a school like ours doesn't have the flexibility there most of you seem to imagine. Ticket and donation policies, yeah those can be hot items. Maybe even silly things like uniforms, which is a little crazy to get too mad about. Otherwise would you really get so bent about the other mundane items he or she has to oversee?
 
HailtoPitt said:
Steve 1 made the single biggest mistake for Pitt football. Tearing down the stadium AND building on the land, leaving Pitt with no viable solution to moving back to Oakland. They should have sucked it up and rebuilt the stadium. Stanford rebuilt theirs from the ground up for $90 million in 2006, and their stadium is more than adequate. If Pitt would have done the same, they would be around 20 years into their 30 years or debt payments, probably costing about the same as it costs to utilize Heinz Field every year.

I blame Nordenburg for hiring Steve the second time. Sometimes really smart people do really stupid things, and this is exhibit A.

It doesn't surprise me that the usual Steve disciples are here defending obvious bad decisions, at both Pitt and Nebraska. He hired Bill Callahan AND gave him an extension. That is all you need to know.
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The usual Parachute Petey water boys are confused.

Bigly
 
McKee Place said:
Here's the thing, again. The things people tend to really like or hate, they are too big for an AD to have the final say, especially if an irreversible cataclysmic decision (demolishing the stadium, pushing out a legend like Jamie Dixon etc).

Next tier, hiring football and basketball head coaches, are big items and I can't imagine a chancellor or trustees (responsible ones anyway) keeping hands off those... they are the two highest salaries of the university and the two most visible individuals representing the university. How Gallagher allowed that whole Barnes and Stallings swindle... and then kept his job in the aftermath...is bewildering and angering. Gallagher's blunder cost the university egregiously. Yes Barnes brought in the turd but Gallagher polished it.

Obviously the AD does have a lot of responsibility ... one would hope so given the salary ... but they usually aren't going to be things worth exclusively loving or hating him for. Sometimes, sure. Scheduling, I could see that kind of being a big one, but a school like ours doesn't have the flexibility there most of you seem to imagine. Ticket and donation policies, yeah those can be hot items. Maybe even silly things like uniforms, which is a little crazy to get too mad about. Otherwise would you really get so bent about the other mundane items he or she has to oversee?
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He might not have made the final decision, but Steve convinced Nordenburg that it was necessary to tear down Pitt Stadium and move football to Steeler land.
 
HailtoPitt said:
He might not have made the final decision, but Steve convinced Nordenburg that it was necessary to tear down Pitt Stadium and move football to Steeler land.
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But, right or wrong, it was the decision of Nordenberg and the board. Pederson just showed a PowerPoint. Maybe it was a very pretty PowerPoint, and maybe had some nice 3D charts, but for that degree of decision, it wasn't his.

Schedule Akron or Bowling Green? Paint an outline on the logo on the baseball field? Renegotiate the contract on jock straps? Assistant gymnastics coach? Yeah, buck stops with him on those things.

But the big stuff you want to hate someone for, it's ultimately not him. Same with Barnes, Jaynes, Long, or Lyke. The really monumental stuff, AD can be overruled... and sometimes, obviously should be (aka, Haywood, or Dixon/Stallings).

But still, for the important stuff, look to cast your bile on a different guy, in a different expensive suit.
 
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paulbl99 said:
Some of those Eggheads running Pitt over the yrs have had their head so far up their Ivy League Sheepskins I’m sure a few couldn’t have found Pitt Stadium if you spotted them 5th and Desoto.

Parachute wanted to leave a lifetime impact...he did
Of failure and long term misery whether or not the confused water boys can see beyond their noses.
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Good point-
Because Pitt stadium was a jumping atmosphere from mid 80s to late 90s!

All 5k of us to win in overtime in the rain against 1aa Villanova!
 
paulbl99 said:
Some of those Eggheads running Pitt over the yrs have had their head so far up their Ivy League Sheepskins I’m sure a few couldn’t have found Pitt Stadium if you spotted them 5th and Desoto.

Parachute wanted to leave a lifetime impact...he did
Of failure and long term misery whether or not the confused water boys can see beyond their noses.
Click to expand...

I always find it funny when people complain about a university being run by academics.

You have to have a pretty warped point of view to think that football should be the primary focus of ANY university.
 
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McKee Place said:
But, right or wrong, it was the decision of Nordenberg and the board. Pederson just showed a PowerPoint. Maybe it was a very pretty PowerPoint, and maybe had some nice 3D charts, but for that degree of decision, it wasn't his.

Schedule Akron or Bowling Green? Paint an outline on the logo on the baseball field? Renegotiate the contract on jock straps? Assistant gymnastics coach? Yeah, buck stops with him on those things.

But the big stuff you want to hate someone for, it's ultimately not him. Same with Barnes, Jaynes, Long, or Lyke. The really monumental stuff, AD can be overruled... and sometimes, obviously should be (aka, Haywood, or Dixon/Stallings).

But still, for the important stuff, look to cast your bile on a different guy, in a different expensive suit.
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As I said, it was up to Nordy and the Board, and Steve convinced Nordy, who was originally against Steve's idea. If Pitt had a different AD, we would be playing football in Oakland in a ~20 year old stadium that is perfect for Pitt's needs. And we likely wouldn't have fans confused over school colors and logos, at least not nearly as much. And we would be playing in the ACC.
 
HailtoPitt said:
As I said, it was up to Nordy and the Board, and Steve convinced Nordy, who was originally against Steve's idea. If Pitt had a different AD, we would be playing football in Oakland in a ~20 year old stadium that is perfect for Pitt's needs. And we likely wouldn't have fans confused over school colors and logos, at least not nearly as much. And we would be playing in the ACC.
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Of course we changed colors what 3 times in the decade prior to 97?
 
HailtoPitt said:
As I said, it was up to Nordy and the Board, and Steve convinced Nordy, who was originally against Steve's idea. If Pitt had a different AD, we would be playing football in Oakland in a ~20 year old stadium that is perfect for Pitt's needs. And we likely wouldn't have fans confused over school colors and logos, at least not nearly as much. And we would be playing in the ACC.
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So you're saying that this Mark Nordenberg, the guy so many here lionize as the most brilliant mind at Pitt in decades, savior of the university after O Conner, cult of personality approaching PSU and Paterno, the guy nobody can question on anything ... was thoroughly helpless in the wake of the diabolical genius and charisma of Steve Pederson, the mastermind of the Bubble Boy and Torch Cut?

Im sorry, I simply cannot give Pederson that much credit.
 
McKee Place said:
So you're saying that this Mark Nordenberg, the guy so many here lionize as the most brilliant mind at Pitt in decades, savior of the university after O Conner, cult of personality approaching PSU and Paterno, the guy nobody can question on anything ... was thoroughly helpless in the wake of the diabolical genius and charisma of Steve Pederson, the mastermind of the Bubble Boy and Torch Cut?

Im sorry, I simply cannot give Pederson that much credit.
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Why not? Nordenberg gives Steve the credit. Said himself that he was against the change until Steve convinced him otherwise.
 
Ed Bozik was far worse as AD. He should have been drawn, quartered, reassembled, boiled in oil and drawn and quartered again. Pederson was a mixed bag; his rebrand was his greatest disconnect with the fan base, but many of his changes improved the professionalism of the department. When Petey arrived there were too many booster cooks in the kitchen with too much influence creating a cluster****. He escorted them to the dining room, and many never forgave him for that.
 
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pittdan77 said:
No...Pitt was not invited. Pitt wasn't interested and wanted to keep the Big East together.
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Pitt was interested. They just had no other choice so they had to keep the Big East together as Cuse, BC, and Miami, and then VT replacing Cuse, were the chosen schools.
 
SoufOaklin4Life said:
I don’t misremember-
We weren’t invited first round.
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We had that brand new basketball arena and brand new Heinz Field, but still didn't get invited.....

That didn't happen until the B10 showed everyone how a boring football league could rake in money with their TV network. Then the ACC adds Pitt and Syracuse. Rutgers even gets an invite to the Big10.

An answering service could have taken the call from Swofford and told him if Pitt was interested.
 
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SoufOaklin4Life said:
You don’t seem to gather that Steve’s job was to be the public fall guy??

It’s why there was “loyalty “ to him because he took the hit and didn’t deflect.
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I'll take Nordy at his word, that it wasn't in his plan until SP convinced him. But, I do think SP was the fall guy, when there is plenty of blame to go around.
 
HailtoPitt said:
I'll take Nordy at his word, that it wasn't in his plan until SP convinced him. But, I do think SP was the fall guy, when there is plenty of blame to go around.
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I actually sat on those meetings as a student liaison.

Trust me- the decision was made way before those meetings- and for very good financial reasons .
 
Pederson always struck me as a guy with big ideas, but he was incompetent when it came to execution and wasn't good at building relationships. At Scott Barnes' introductory press conference, I don't think it was an accident that Gallagher referenced he wanted somebody who could execute and said, "Vision without execution is just a dream."
 
ThePanthers said:
Pitt was interested. They just had no other choice so they had to keep the Big East together as Cuse, BC, and Miami, and then VT replacing Cuse, were the chosen schools.
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SoufOaklin4Life said:
We would have gladly left with an invite-
Like we did .
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Pitt doesn't leave the first time and I think that's true even if there was an offer. ESPN used the Pete as the backdrop for an OTL piece that put Pitt front and center to the ACC resistance. That wasn't an accident. Later, when it was clear that Pitt would be courted in the next round of expansion, Nordy was even worried that Pitt would look hypocritical for now considering the same move it publicly fought eight years earlier. One of his first moves is to ask the Big East if it's committed to football and acknowledge that Pitt was a likely target for expansion by the ACC and B1G.
 
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pittdan77 said:
Pitt doesn't leave the first time and I think that's true even if there was an offer. ESPN used the Pete as the backdrop for an OTL piece that put Pitt front and center to the ACC resistance. That wasn't an accident. Later, when it was clear that Pitt would be courted in the next round of expansion, Nordy was even worried that Pitt would look hypocritical for now considering the same move it publicly fought eight years earlier. One of his first moves is to ask the Big East if it's committed to football and acknowledge that Pitt was a likely target for expansion by the ACC and B1G.
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Pitt would have definitely left if they were invited, however none of us will never know for sure. And of course Pitt was front and center of Miami, BC, and VT leaving because they were worried about their future. That is what any good leader would have done that cared about their athletic programs.

As for when they left, Nordy told the Big East if they got a better deal they were leaving. A few months later the ACC came a knocking along with the Big XII.

In an ideal world I think they would want the BE to survive with Pitt, WVU, Miami, VT, Cuse, BC, Rutgers, UConn, and the BB schools, but they would never sit around and watch others leave to do it.
 
HailtoPitt said:
As I said, it was up to Nordy and the Board, and Steve convinced Nordy, who was originally against Steve's idea. If Pitt had a different AD, we would be playing football in Oakland in a ~20 year old stadium that is perfect for Pitt's needs. And we likely wouldn't have fans confused over school colors and logos, at least not nearly as much. And we would be playing in the ACC.
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I think many are forgetting history here.....Heinz wasn't a slam dunk. Tax payers voted it down originally. Rooney's & the city needed more weight behind their Plan B to make it viable. They really needed Pitt to sell that Heinz would be more of a community asset. I think Rooney's & the city influencing played more of a role than any crusade by Pederson.

And to note it is one of the few times Pitt had this sh*t-hole city government by the balls. Should have pushed for more things like closing Bigelow and other things that are past due but let that opportunity just go by the wayside.
 
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