Or maybe you’re a closet Pitt fan.

…but that is an odd non-denial.

And say that there’s still a chance we hear something Thursday

So transplants like myself will go.

It makes sense if you’re trying to make a super conference and go for 14 and even 16 teams. Pitt fits the mold of a Big 10 school athletically and academically. However, if the stated goal is more eyeballs for the BTN, they’re decidely low on the list. But if you plan on adding other schools, it certainly doesn’t hurt to add Pitt and set the Big East back even further as a football conference.

It makes sense if you’re trying to make a super conference and go for 14 and even 16 teams. Pitt fits the mold of a Big 10 school athletically and academically. However, if the stated goal is more eyeballs for the BTN, they’re decidely low on the list. But if you plan on adding other schools, it certainly doesn’t hurt to add Pitt and set the Big East back even further as a football conference.

I would expect if they told all the current players, Wanny (and Jamie, et. al.) would also have to tell his incoming recruits (and families), which further muddies the waters. Unless, as one account had it, the announcement will be on Groundhog Day and not Thursday or Friday as other accounts have written.

If some of you want to rent a good movie, watch “The Waking of Ned Devine”. It’s about trying to keep a secret (in this case a lie). But at every turn, you have to let somebody else in on the secret until, well, every body knows whats going on before it happens.

Write a rumor based on some questionable information that cannot be confirmed or disproven. Then, after editorializing, drop a bomb in the middle like “it’s a done deal according to multiple outlets.” Always use “multiple”, it’s important even though it’s never true.

The sad thing is it works. This guy has been getting 200-500 views per story, and this one is up around 8,000. I liked the internet better before bleacher report existed.

I keep hearing that, and I have to disagree. Pitt brings a lot to the table in basketball, and their football program should be competitive from day one. Their academics are very good and fit right in line with the Big Ten vision. Plus, just the fact of adding a 12th team that will allow for a Big Ten Championship game with added ticket sales and incredible ratings makes it an attractive deal.

Tried to get there first, but you gots wheels.

“outlet” and “multiple”.

But jokes aside, it’s going to be really difficult to keep something like this under wraps once the invites are extended.

Maybe one of those two schools is willing to swallow their pride and take less that the other schools, while at the same time doubling their drop?

This is the only way it makes sense IMO to add anyone except Notre Dame, Nebraska or Texas. All three of those teams are as likely to join as any of the others.

since it shouldn’t really hurt their current commits, but could bring in a few guys who are on the edge.

It is kinda funny, since just yesterday I was thinking about the effect of the internet rumor, and if there was an “anonymous” source that cited that teams like say Texas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska were a “done deal” to join the Big 10, with an official announcement coming on the very vague day of “coming soon”.

You figure if you make it a big enough rumor, that eventually credible places will start reporting it, and even though it is still just a rumor, now it is a “credible” rumor. Then it gets big enough that the universities and conferences can’t help but think and/or comment about it, especially when various reporters start asking questions about it. And if you get enough people saying how much sense it would make for such a move to happen, then the universities would certainly look like fools if they rejected such an offer, so they might be compelled to accept just because of that, etc.

I almost wonder if this is how the Brian Kelly to Notre Dame thing happened. Was he really up there as their choice before all the “well Brian Kelly makes the most sense to go to Notre Dame” internet rumors started? Maybe, or maybe that’s the catalyst that got his hiring started in the first place.

why even bother doing a move that could very possibly lose money for the current conference members, even after the Big 10 Championship game is added in. Remember, everything would be split 12 ways, so you want to bring someone in who will at least be reasonably close to the current financial status of teams.

Pitt brings no more TV viewership contracts, and not really any football revenue. They bring basketball revenue, but that’s not much compared to football revenue.

I also don’t know if we would get another bowl tie in with Pitt, so that’s even more money down the drain (Pitt seems to go to a bowl game only about half of the time).

I’m not saying Pitt would be a terrible decision, but they’re sorta “last” on the viable teams list. I’d rather have Rutgers or Syracuse than Pitt, because they bring basically the same thing (though Rutgers bball sucks), while opening up the big ten footprint and media exposure.

As I see it, in no particular order, the “viable” candidates (not meaning they’d want to join, but that I could see the Big 10 wanting them to join) are:
Notre Dame
Missouri
Nebraska
Texas
Pitt
Rutgers
Syracuse
and maybe even some schools like Maryland, Oklahoma, and Texas A&M, though those last 2 I think wouldn’t make the cut for a 1 team addition.

I just don’t see Pitt bringing more to the table than any of those other schools on any level.

this is an awesome idea.

I tried it and it sucked. All I got was my rug micturated upon.

I get an error when i try to open the page The pitt ad got to them too!!!!!!

All it took was for anybody to search Google for roughly 5-10 minutes, figure out that the only people perpetrating this garbage were (1) message board posters, (2) blogs without sources, and (3) some suckhole in Milwaukee. None of them had anything credible. None. And they still don’t.

You don’t find a lot of Penn State fans talking shit about how our basketball team is superior to Pitt’s, or anybody elses for that fact. Why would we, when all of the obective evidence points to a contrary conclusion.

In the alternative, many Pitt fans take the position that there football program is every bit as good as Penn State’s. It ain’t, and photo only provides a semblance of visual evidence.

I’ve been looking for an analogical comparison to Pitt football, and I think you hit the nail on the head with “Penn State basketball”. Kudos to you.

Come to Penn State: where our basketball team is as popular as Pitt’s football team!