Rumors about Pitt heading to the Big Ten

[Marcus]

I will stress that this is merely a rumor, but the word on the street (and by street I mean message boards and Twitter) is that Pitt is set to join the Big Ten, and an announcement will be made next week. Supposedly Pitt’s athletes have been informed of the move, which is how the rumor got started in the first place. The date of the announcement is allegedly February 4, which is next Thursday.

If this turns out to be true, and I still think that’s a big if, I’m more than okay with Pitt becoming the 12th member of the Big Ten. They are at the top of my realistic wish list of candidates to join the conference alongside Missouri. I probably would be a bit more excited if Missouri were to join (partly because of how entertaining it would be to watch the domino effect the move would set off on the Big 12), but the Big Ten could certainly do worse than Pitt.

Aside from that, if this is true then I’m going to really start wondering about how the teams will be split up into divisions. Rivalries in the Big Ten will play a large role in splitting up the 12 teams, as will making sure the divisions are balanced. It will definitely be interesting to see how that turns out, because I don’t know if a perfect plan to split the teams up exists. I imagine the Big Ten will want to make sure that rivalry games played in the last week of the season are between teams in the same division in order to prevent a possible rematch in the conference title game, but it is going to be tough to set it up in a way where everything works out.

The other thing I’m going to start wondering about is when the official move to the conference would happen. The consensus seems to be the fall of 2012 based on how long it would take to leave the Big East, which does make sense. A move like this doesn’t just happen overnight, because the Big East will need to receive notice well in advance if Pitt decides to leave, and obviously the Big Ten will have to take some time setting up the schedules to include Pitt and plan a conference title game in football.

I suppose we’ll find out more next week if this rumor is true, but until then, let the speculating begin.

The fantastic medium of Twitter is heating up yet again today with rumors of the University of Pittsburgh leaving the Big East for the Big Ten. Initially, the committee search with the eleven-member Midwest-oriented Big Ten conference was set to take 12-16 months, but these rumors are indicating that the Panthers might be the choice. Of course, the initial article about said rumor was from a blog about that dreaded team from up north, so take this with a grain of salt.

Denny wrote an article shortly after the Big Ten began the search. In that article, he wrote that the Panthers would add a “strong basketball in addition to consistent football program that would strengthen the conference’s second tier of teams.”

I'm sure it's just speculation, and I'm not sure if this has been posted or not: but I didn't see it. Anyone else hear any of these rumors?