Syracuse and Pitt to ACC - Track and X-C implications

Pgh. wrote:

higher another AA

WTF

college sports get worse every year.Best example is ACC hoops - remember when it was 8 teams so each school had a home and away game with every team and then a really cool ACC tourney and the players played all 4 years?

[quote]old timer Satch wrote:

college sports get worse every year.Best example is ACC hoops [/quote

How can you say that. ACC Basketball has won 5 national championships in the last 10 years and if you add Syracuse then the ACC has won 6?

Nope. Syracuse wasn't in the ACC when they won, you can't just magically add a championship they won while in the Big East to the ACC tally. The ACC has had fewer teams, per year on average, go to the sweet sixteen than it did prior to the initial expansion in the name of becoming a football league. The depth has fallen out of the ACC.

Prerry Ricky wrote:

There are no track or xc implications.

Pitt is terrible at both. Syracuse is good in xc recently (though over-rated this year), and they'll eventually be hurt by being in the weak ACC. 2nd or 3rd place team if they're lucky - as long as FSU has a foreign pipeline and N.C. State is in the conference - then nothing really will change.

On the track, both teams suck.

_____________________________

You are correct about Pitt.

It's sprints sprints sprints.

XC is no-where

Ask Matt Dowling.

just saying wrote:

noticer of tv contracts wrote:

ND? I've never felt sorry for ND. Never. NBC gives them millions of reasons why no one should ever feel sorry for them. Ever.

Except Indiana has made more money than ND over the last decade because the Big Ten has an equal revenue sharing model.

Are you sure Indiana football made more money than Notre Dame Football? The athletic department at Notre Dame is one of the few universities that actually are in the black and make a profit. What is the Big Ten TV contract? How much does each team get? The NBC/Notre Dame deal is $15 million a year. Notre Dame football made $64 million in revenue, while Indiana only made $21 million according to the most recent EADA reports. Notre Dame sells out every game in its 80,000 seat stadium with tickets at $80 and its cost $40 to park your car. Indiana...when is the last time they had a sell-out in their 50 something thousand seat stadium and we know the tickets are not $80 and parking is dirt cheap.

Indiana is not making more money than Notre Dame.

Who is Matt Dowling? Are you talking about Keith Dowling - Pitt runner from the late 1980s and early 1990s?That era was the heyday for Pitt - Big East champs and All-Americans on the track while the cross country team is top 20 at NCAAs.What has happened, Steve Pederson?

Pittman1 wrote:

XC is no-where

Ask Matt Dowling.

He probably only looked at bowl and TV contract money, if he even did that much research.

Frauddie and the Troll?

Painful to say, but it would be better than what they have now.

I know this post is old, but I wanted to chime in as I'm a hs senior looking at pitt now and just found this when doing a search for "Pitt" on the boards.

Is it really that bad there? I have heard some things about the coaches. That they were going to hire a new distance person, that Alonzo Webb was coaching the distance team now and not Clinton Bell. I want to know who will be coaching me if I go there as it seems like Webb has no distance experience. Can anyone offer any insight into what's going on there now?

DO NOT, under any circumstances, attend Pitt if you hope to improve at all at any event 800m or longer. Pitt devotes nearly zero time, coaching, and resources to the XC and distance programs.

Take a look at results of Pitt's distance crew since Bair and Konoval have left and your question regarding whether you should consider Pitt is answered in those results.

You'd be MUCH MUCH MUCH better off attending DuquesneU or even D3 Allegheny or Carnegie Mellon (if you have the academics) if you wish to run for PGH area colleges that take XC and 800m-10,000m seriously.

Better yet, if you're academically inclined, head east and see if Tom Donnelly at Haverford College is interested. He's the master at making D3 All-Americans from 2:00/4:30/9:45 HS runners.

pittinterest wrote:

I know this post is old, but I wanted to chime in as I'm a hs senior looking at pitt now and just found this when doing a search for "Pitt" on the boards.

Is it really that bad there? I have heard some things about the coaches. That they were going to hire a new distance person, that Alonzo Webb was coaching the distance team now and not Clinton Bell. I want to know who will be coaching me if I go there as it seems like Webb has no distance experience. Can anyone offer any insight into what's going on there now?

it really is that bad. Right now the girls xc is being coached almost entirely by their volunteer assistant (who actually seems like he knows what he's doing). they had a chance to hire him or another distance coach and didn't for whatever reason, a testament to how little Webb cares about xc. Right now they have multiple assistant positions open that have been open forever and they seem to just be hiring noone. They really should hire a fresh face to work with the distance group for both training and recruiting purposes. Seems like the guy from Syracuse(can't remember his name and can't find it on the site) would be a perfect fit: young, motivated, from a distance program, seems to be able to put up with Webb.

But ya, that's all I know. In short, listen to the previous poster and steer clear of Pitt if you are a distance runner

Peter Noone of Hermans Hermits wrote:

pittquit wrote:

Right now they have multiple assistant positions open that have been open forever and they seem to just be hiring noone.

Not true!

Yes, it is true. They have openings for a throws, distance, and jumps/multis assistant coach positions. Throws and distance have been open since July. Jumps for over a year. I don't know what they're waiting for

Yes, it is true. They have openings for a throws, distance, and jumps/multis assistant coach positions. Throws and distance have been open since July. Jumps for over a year. I don't know what they're waiting for[/quote]

I'll confirm this. Its true. As for the distance position, they interviewed 3 people for it in August/early September and then just hired noone... or maybe noone would take it. Its clear they need help with the distance program so I'm not sure why they are waiting so long, kind of tough to hire someone in the middle of the season though I guess.

That's also true. They aren't hiring you. I wouldn't hire someone who feels the need to correct somebody's grammar mistakes on a message board either. Next time I'm posting about a job you didn't get, I'll make sure I run the post through spell check first.

It's been really bad at Pitt since Alonzo Webb got the job. You're thinking that as a distance runner is bad because he does not know anything about XC and distance running but it's just as bad for the sprinters, jumpers and throwers. He gets top notch sprinters but he is not able to bring them to the level they should be at. Decent Jumpers and throwers needed to walk on and earn their scholarship and even after they won conference titles, money wasn't available for them. Stay away. He proved that he is not capable of building a decent program.

Pitt has made a move to improve its XC and distance program. They hired Duquesne's XC and distance coach who has 20 years or so of coaching experience. Jim Lear, if given the resources, is capable of turning the program around.

More importantly, Pitt is a great academic institution.

Pitt always has good sprinters and that's it.

Anything beyond 800m, is sub par at best.

Their xc program is very poor.

Syracuse has had a decent xc and track program, and their girls are MUCH hotter, and so are the cuse, cheerleaders, but that's not saying much compared to Pitt cheerios