Should Pittsburgh be invited to the ACC? (PART OF A SERIES)

Last edited by thewiz06 on Mon Dec 07, 2009 1:32 pm; edited 3 times in total

University of Pittsburgh
The Academics
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Type of School: Public
Total Student Population: 44,406
Undergrads: 17,054
Demographics: 5%Asian; 8% Black; 1% Hispanic; 84% White; 1% International
Sex Ratio: 49% male; 51% female
%age of Natives: 83% are Pennsylvanians
Ranking: 56^th among Full Research Universities
AVG SAT of admitted kids: 1260
Endowment: $2.33 Billion

CURRENT CONFERENCES: Big East (all sports)
Football stadium capacity: 65,050
Men's Basketball capacity: 12,508
Women's Basketball capacity: 12,508
Most notable money sport: Football

We stay in the Quaker State, and head over to the University of Pittsburgh, or Pitt as many guys call it in short. It is the second place public university in Pennsylvania, Penn State being the flagship school, but Pitt students and alumni, and a lot of researchers, and even I personally think Pitt is a better academic institution than Penn State.

First undergraduates here are clearly academically better than those at Penn State. SAT average is higher, more students are in the Top 25 and Top 10 percentile in their high school graduating class. Second, their graduate schools are also highly regarded, in particular in the social sciences and medical schools. In fact, Pittsburgh is one of the best full research universities in the country when you stack their grad programs against the rest.

Why the Panthers should get in the ACC
First, they have an excellent academic reputation. Sure US News says Penn State’s better, but its clear every year that Pitt gets the better college kids, and the ACC wants universities with great undergrad programs. Second, they have the resources and facilities to play right away and compete in the ACC. Football is consistently in the national picture, and is one of the best programs ever with sports writers and coaches giving eleven national championships to the Panthers. Men’s basketball this past decade has been a contender in the national scene. Women’s basketball has drastically improved this decade from Big East doormat to Big East contender. Next, Pennsylvania borders Maryland so this does expand the ACC geography, but the schools representation area is in one continuous unit, unlike BC is right now.

Why not
Pitt is the most prestigious member of the Big East football conference, and one of the best in their conference overall academically for football, and still one of the better schools academically when you add the non-football schools. Therefore, it’s gonna be very very hard to try to get them away from the Big East. They ARE a Big East power. Next, Pitt has a very long and heated rivalry against fellow conference member West Virginia, and putting this match into non-conference play can put the rivalry into jeopardy. WVU already had to stop its matches against Virginia Tech because of the Hokies move to the ACC, and are currently in a slugfest with Marshall, and to make Pitt a non conference game will limit their scheduling opportunities not to mention that they’d have to add another school which they probably have little to no history with. Also WVU has a rivalry wirth Maryland which takes another conference game away most years. Also, Pitt is quite happy with being in the Big East and being among the leaders in ALL THREE money sports. Do they need the ACC, or is it the other way around? After all, they have Georgetown, Rutgers, Notre Dame, and Villanova to share research info around.

Again like Penn State, Pitt would be a bit out of place in the ACC, though not as much as Penn State or BC would be. Sure they get reunited with Virginia Tech and Miami, but they never had a ton of beef with them before. I don’t think Pitt would demand that WVU come to the ACC with them, since they don’t care if Penn State is not in their conference as it is.

Pitt Alumni:

Gene Kelly (1933) – Academy Award winning actor – was a Broadway monster in his day, most famous movies are Singin’ in the Rain and An American in Paris

Marty Schottenheimer (1965) – AFC All Star Linebacker for the Patriots and Bills; more famous as a head coach for the Browns, Chiefs, Skins, and Chargers

Tony Dorsett (1977) – 1976 Heisman Award Winner; Hall of Fame Halfback for the Dallas Cowboys and won a Super Bowl

Dan Marino (1983) – Hall of Fame Quarterback for the Miami Dolphins

Your take
Pitt is a great school, with solid programs academically and athletically, in particular for the money sports. However, you need to factor in that it is a signature Big East school, and that it may enjoy being a big fish in a smaller pond than the ACC’s.

So how’s Pitt’s chances?

**Pics now up of these guys when they were young.**

For the ACC's sake yes. For the Big East's sake they shouldn't let this happen. Outside of UNC,and Georgia Tech I'm not much of an ACC guy.

I'd actually think it'd benefit Pittsburgh though in the ACC.

Pittsburgh is highly competitive is both sports. Down in bball this year but will be back and proved they could compete with national powerhouses so it only adds to the Big East in basketball.

In Football Pittsburgh could hang with any team in the ACC right now as well.

The ACC gets a boost with both sports from luring in Pittsburgh. Also brings back a Pittsburgh-Boston College rivalry that was in the Big East and these would be the 2 northern most schools in the ACC. Location may be a problem since it's pretty close to Ohio. But competition wise it's excellent.

_________________

Still No Rings For Queen James

Well we didn't put them in the ACC, but we can put them in the Big Ten. Generally the reasons for moving them or not moving them are practically the same. But what do you think of Pitt in the Big Ten finally getting a chance to play Penn State every year in all sports? That would be sick!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd rather see Pitt join the Big 10 than the ACC, but overall I'd prefer to see Pitt stay in the Big East.

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Should Pittsburgh be invited to the ACC? (PART OF A SERIES)

Should Pittsburgh be invited to the ACC? (PART OF A SERIES)

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