While football pays the bills, it can also drain you. The plight of UCONN
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Just another reminder that it could be much, much worse for Pitt.
We are so very fortunate that we landed in the ACC!
We were going to the Big 12 if we didn’t go to the ACC, but I agree we’re fortunate we’re not heading into the abyss that UConn is.
There were Pitt fans who actually complained it was the wrong move to go to the ACC. Those people are not smart.
There were Pitt fans who actually complained it was the wrong move to go to the ACC. Those people are not smart.
Exactly. When the Big East contracted, and we went to 5 power conferences, UConn was by far the clear loser of everyone.
But Cincy is still doing okay, didn't spend millions and millions on a stadium and have always made good coaching decisions.
Did anyone here this rumor.
Not sure of the year but the CEO of our company who is a PITT fan and significant donor toll me that the BIG10 was looking at PITT. At that time basketball was king at PITT and Dixon wanted to say in the BIG East which factored in to the NO decision.
Keep in mind the BIG10 was just looking at PITT but we backed out.
Any info on that?
Not sure of the year but the CEO of our company who is a PITT fan and significant donor toll me that the BIG10 was looking at PITT. At that time basketball was king at PITT and Dixon wanted to say in the BIG East which factored in to the NO decision.
Keep in mind the BIG10 was just looking at PITT but we backed out.
Any info on that?
The one thing that really differentiates Cincinnati from UConn is the recruiting base. Cincy can get 10 really good players in their backyard or in Columbus that didn’t get an offer from Ohio State whole UConn doesn’t really have any base at all. Not a great state for football talent and not a great region either.
I think UConn's decision to leave The American was very stupid. Their basketball league is just about as good as the Big East with Cincy, Memphis, Temple, Houston, Wichita, SMU, and UCF. It is pretty bad at the bottom but oh well. And they could easily get home and homes with Nova, Gtown, Prov, SJU, and SHU if they wanted to. I would have kept throwing money at football in the hopes the ACC or Big Ten come calling the next time there's an expansionapocolypse.
Sounds right. I recall a few articles during that time that mentioned Dixon was absolutely against Pitt moving to the Big Ten. Although, I don’t think we’d be in the B1G even if Dixon was fine with it.
Or................
Mark Dantonio
Brian Kelly
Butch Jones
Tommy Tuberville
Luke Fickell
Pitt could use these types of decisions when choosing coaches.
I know that there is more money in the big 10. But we fit better
into the ACC with travel and location.
The discussion with the big 10 had to be before the upsr got in.
It would have been interesting though.
into the ACC with travel and location.
The discussion with the big 10 had to be before the upsr got in.
It would have been interesting though.
Pitt would be in a worse spot for both sports in the Big 10.
Pitt didn't back off, the B10 did. They were looking at multiple schools and Pitt was one of several.
PSU blackballed us. Not that we might have been selected because Pitt didn't necessarily fit with their market strategy for the B10 Network, but an invite was dead in the water because of PSU. The was publicly spoken to by OSU's former AD. If we seemed to "back off", it was probably because we were told as such through different channels.
A year prior to us getting an invite to the ACC, Nordenberg sent a letter to the Big East office and presidents informing them that Pitt would actively pursue opportunities to change conferences. This letter has previously been posted publicly, but I can no longer find it. Pitt was actively courting conferences as well as being a courted. It would have taken a B10 invite immediately. It never came. As Dr Yinzer stated in the other post, it was in serious conversations with the B12 but only wanted to go there as a package with WVU and either Rutgers or Louisville. Pitt was hesitant to go by itself and become a geographical outlier like WVU is. That hesitation paid off when the ACC suddenly decided to strike, and I have to think they were spurred to strike because they wanted in PA and saw Pitt was close to going to the B12.
Now, I've also heard that prior to that, as part of Pitt feeling out other universities, that Steve Pederson had been down in Greensboro (or somewhere with ACC people) trying to sell Pitt. If true, how that factored in to the sudden invite is unknown, but it appears Pitt was in no way inactive in trying to secure its future.
I'm too lazy to look at the data, but I wonder what the revenue vs. expenses are for UConn FOOTBALL. In my opinion, colleges fund to many sports as it is, so is football actually losing money or are the other sports just draining things because football doesn't bring in the extra ten of millions per year to cover them.
With that being said, I knew it was over for UConn football the minute they hired Paul P as coach. What a moronic hire. It's up there with Stallings.
With that being said, I knew it was over for UConn football the minute they hired Paul P as coach. What a moronic hire. It's up there with Stallings.
I think the right move would be to drop to FCS and move out of their current stadium. They’ve made their bed, so to speak; they prioritize basketball first and should spend accordingly.
IIRC, they actually pay rent to play at Rentschler Field because it was built, owned, and operated by the state of Connecticut. Just another unnecessary overhead cost. Their best option would likely be to move on-campus into their new soccer stadium. Would probably hold enough.
IIRC, they actually pay rent to play at Rentschler Field because it was built, owned, and operated by the state of Connecticut. Just another unnecessary overhead cost. Their best option would likely be to move on-campus into their new soccer stadium. Would probably hold enough.
I remember when UCONN first announced that they were planning to upgrade football to help expand the Big East. Steve Pederson was interviewed about it towards the end of his first run during a pre-game show. He was absolutely giddy about it. Said that when UCONN puts their mind to something they are always successful, citing the basketball programs, and had no doubts they would be great in football.
Still bugs me that we let those jabronis beat us several times while in the Big East.
That was exactly what they did. It was the point of the article that they threw money after football but made poor hires and stacked coaches contracts with frivolous bonuses not typically seen.
Pitt went 4-5 against the Huskies. That rankles me more than any of our losses to Temple ever did. Pitt should have beaten UConn at least 6 times.
It's like I've said before, when the Big East created their league, I figured Pitt would be one of the powerhouses and win championships, and they never won even one outright, just shared 2 and one BCS game where they got pounded. Pitt, Underachievers since 1983
wow, didn't research to see that was the actual record. How can we have such a poor record against a school that just started playing D1? Record should have been no worse than 7-2.
Everything was in place for us to step up and take control of the Big East. Pitt & WVU had the most tradition, a big name coach in Wannstedt. Resources, recruiting base, etc. Instead UCONN & Cinnci filled the void.
yep, the Big East really needed Pitt to be the name program after the raid. Instead it was UCONN & Cinci. Big East was dead in the water after the raid, but I think if we would have came through in 2008 & 2009 with big seasons (12-0, or 11-1), played in a BCS game, maybe pull an upset, things would have been better for the Big East.
I actually take some glee in UConn’s demise. They were nothing 30 years ago and invested for the big time. Had some success and then got punched in the face a few times by stupid decisions and the overall landscape of college football. Now they are going back to being nothing as a big boy independent. What a shame LOL
the hiring of Pasqualoni, coming off a BCS bowl game, will go down as one of the most bizarre hires of all time. And then to follow it up with Bob Diaco of the civil conFLict trophy. Made the hiring of Hackett followed by Majors II look brilliant in comparison. Kind of goes smack in the face to Pederson saying that when UCONN sets their mind to something they do it well.
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In UConn's case it may have been even worse than Stallings. At least Pitt was able to dump Stallings after 2 years and start rebuilding. At the time of the Pasqualoni hire, the guy that was UConn's biggest football booster by a significant margin was a guy who had a son that played for Pasqualoni at Syracuse and vehemently disliked him. I don't remember how things ended up shaking out; but when Pasqualoni was hired the booster wanted his most recent $3,000,000 donation returned and wanted his name removed from UConn's football training facility:
http://archive.boston.com/sports/co...25/uconn_donor_demands_return_of_3m_donation/
Again, you see some of the coaching decisions by UConn and Pitt, and compare them with Cincinnati, and you just scratch your head.
I mean even from the actual start of BE football, I knew Miami would be the real powerhouse, but I figured Pitt would be the #2 team that might win every few years when Miami didn't. WVU passed us by for most of the BE years, and others had better years than we ever did.
Every schools makes bad hires at some point. Sure, some schools have worse track records than others, but it is inevitable. But UConn's came at the absolute worst possible time.
That said, they likely weren't getting into a Power 5 over any of the other invitees anyway because of a variety of factors, but it couldn't have chosen a worse time to botch their hires. It wasn't UConn's fault that the Big East fell apart though.
Yeah they have a very good streak going for them. If we need to replace HCPN, I hope ADHL looks to Cincy for inspiration.
I remember that guy getting a lot of heat for speaking out against the hire. People felt that he should have shut up and supported the program. I didn't feel that way. In my opinion he was 100% correct because of just how God awful that hire was. Sometimes the wrong AD can really wreck a program, as we saw with Barnes. It's important for fans to speak out in such cases.
big10 was never taking pitt. they SHOULD have but didn't want us, which is good for me b/c i wanted the ACC and think we're in the right place.
thank god we didn't end up in the big 12. that'd have been worse case scneario.
thank god we didn't end up in the big 12. that'd have been worse case scneario.
I too am glad Pitt didn't get an invite to the Big 10. IMO, it would have been a horrible decision in every way.
Well I would definitely go one route Cincy has. NO GREEN COORDINATORS! Every coach they have brought in either were or had HC experience.
