Pitt Rumor On Big 10

[miamihoya]

Not sure how reliable this source is, but word is Pitt will join the Big 10:

ow.ly/12yaS

[guru]

If true, do they even need to be replaced? Certainly not for basketball - but I'm unsure how it affects the football conference.

Any chance this starts a ripple effect that really changes the league?

[Cambridge]

Welcome to irrelevance Pitt basketball.

If true, I'd wager two things: Memphis coming to the Big East and Jamie Dixon moves on to a different program.

[ksf42001]

Feb 1, 2010 10:02:08 GMT -5 Cambridge said:

Welcome to irrelevance Pitt basketball.

If true, I'd wager two things: Memphis coming to the Big East and Jamie Dixon moves on to a different program.

Yeah, Dixon was very clear about his disapproval of a Big Ten move

[mfrekko]

If true, that's a blow to BE basketball. The conference obviously has a ton of great programs and will move on without much of a hitch, but Pitt has been among the conference's Top 5 high profile, successful basketball programs going on 8-10 years. It's too bad the school is prioritizing football over basketball. I can understand why with the money involved, but Pitt basketball has been much better than Pitt football over the last decade and I can't imagine from a pure basketball perspective how Pitt would prefer the Big Ten over the Big East.

With a young-ish Dixon at the healm, the Pitt program will probably continue to perform well going forward.

[Cambridge]

Feb 1, 2010 10:06:45 GMT -5 @mfrekko said:

If true, that's a blow to BE basketball. The conference obviously has a ton of great programs and will move on without much of a hitch, but Pitt has been among the conference's Top 5 high profile, successful basketball programs going on 8-10 years. It's too bad the school is prioritizing football over basketball. I can understand why with the money involved, but Pitt basketball has been much better than Pitt football over the last decade and I can't imagine from a pure basketball perspective how Pitt would prefer the Big Ten over the Big East.

With a young-ish Dixon at the healm, the Pitt program will probably continue to perform well going forward.

But Dixon has been very vocal about not leaving the Big East. Maybe he'll change his tune and stick around, but he's going to have a lot more trouble recruiting the kind of kids he does to move to Pittsburgh and play Big 10 ball against the Iowas and Northwesterns of the world.

[lichoya68]

i do wish this werent happening HOWEVER our getting them at home started a slide and maybe they are running away seriously seems like the bball schools get ruled by football all the time i think the acc bball is in part kinda falling apart in part because of the football expansion... atttendances way down rivalries way of and thats per mr. feinsteins artlcle

[hoyas2006]

i have a friend who graduated from pitt and keeps up todate with all of this and he says the story is picking up major steam in pittsburgh and they are trying to bring uconn and syracuse along for the ride in hoops

[SDHoya]

With any luck, a Pitt move to the B10 will improve their football almost as much as the ACC's raid on the BE did.

[lichoya68]

if cuse and uconn go with pittt i see the end of big east bball as we know it.. but then again maybe a jesuit/catholic national league.. cant these teams learn from miami bc and tech adn cant they learn from the acc bball down falling in attendance energy traditional rivalries its about football adn the money and very sad

[TBird41]

Feb 1, 2010 10:22:55 GMT -5 hoyas2006 said:

i have a friend who graduated from pitt and keeps up todate with all of this and he says the story is picking up major steam in pittsburgh and they are trying to bring uconn and syracuse along for the ride in hoops

That makes no sense. Why would UConn and Cuse join an inferior basketball conference while staying in an inferior football conference (or become independents in football?). One team leaving the Big East is something that can make sense b/c of football. But it definitely doesn't make sense to leave the Big East for basketball.

[GUJook97]

Feb 1, 2010 10:20:56 GMT -5 Cambridge said:

Feb 1, 2010 10:06:45 GMT -5 @mfrekko said:

If true, that's a blow to BE basketball. The conference obviously has a ton of great programs and will move on without much of a hitch, but Pitt has been among the conference's Top 5 high profile, successful basketball programs going on 8-10 years. It's too bad the school is prioritizing football over basketball. I can understand why with the money involved, but Pitt basketball has been much better than Pitt football over the last decade and I can't imagine from a pure basketball perspective how Pitt would prefer the Big Ten over the Big East.

With a young-ish Dixon at the healm, the Pitt program will probably continue to perform well going forward.

But Dixon has been very vocal about not leaving the Big East. Maybe he'll change his tune and stick around, but he's going to have a lot more trouble recruiting the kind of kids he does to move to Pittsburgh and play Big 10 ball against the Iowas and Northwesterns of the world.

Was going to say the same thing. I bet Dixon leaves if this happens. It would be a huge blow to recruiting.

[daytonahoya31]

There is NO way UConn and Syracuse leave the Big East. Your friend just lost credibility. I now deem this story to be bullcrap

[3xhoya]

In my fantasy world Dixon will leave Pitt as soon as they switch and make his way north to revive St. John's and bring them back to a national level. He recruits very well from the NYC area so I think he would be able to do it and it would be great for the conference (especially because we would get another strong non-football school).

[SFHoya99]

I can see Pitt going, but I don't see why Syracuse or UConn would do anything partial.

They can play non-conference if it is important to them, but I think they'll find out that no matter how good they were, no one gives about Pitt basketball. No one is going to miss that "rivalry."

Dixon could go, but I think only if a job offer comes calling. He's not going to quit over it.

Pitt will never win a conference championship in football ever again.

The best thing for us is if the BE adds a team quickly from CUSA or something like that and moves on. I think the basketball schools actually half brought this on ourselves by insisting on Marquette and DePaul -- at this point I'd give up the voting block to have a stable conference.

[GUJook97]

Feb 1, 2010 10:34:50 GMT -5 3xhoya said:

In my fantasy world Dixon will leave Pitt as soon as they switch and make his way north to revive St. John's and bring them back to a national level. He recruits very well from the NYC area so I think he would be able to do it and it would be great for the conference (especially because we would get another strong non-football school).

good call. That would be cool.

[SFHoya99]

By the way, this is an AWFUL time for GU to be without an AD.

I thought something was in the works?

[lichoya68]

it is but tempus fugit

[CAHoya07]

Well, very interesting, and we'll see how this develops. I'm not too paranoid about the Big East going down the tubes yet, though. Something like this happened in 2003, and while the Big East had to scramble, it got some new schools and survived.

I have faith, although it will be interesting to see what kind of domino effect this causes if it goes through. But right now, it is still just a rumor.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

If true even more reason to hate pitt.