Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which would like to thank John Feinstein. Preferably, it’d be in person, but for now this will have to do.

The text came through from Colin Dunlap, he of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the 6-10 p.m. Sunday slot on 93.7 The Fan, yesterday afternoon as I was mowing my lawn:

We were part of a small group, a very small group, that witnessed a man change history.

The NCAA yesterday decided it was going to “change” the best thing going by adding three teams to the field of 65. This, as you know, is a dramatic shift from what sure seemed like an unstoppable movement toward 96 teams. And I mean “unstoppable.” We all gathered in Indianapolis April 1 to cover the Final Four and a press conference that afternoon featured Dan Guerrero, chair of the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee and director of athletics at UCLA; Kevin Lennon, NCAA vice president of academic and membership affairs; and Greg Shaheen, NCAA senior vice president of basketball and business strategies.

The concept was to discuss issues related to men’s basketball and the NCAA Tournament and no issue was of greater significance than this idea of a 96-team field. Shaheen being of business strategies, he was to field many of the questions.

Enter Mr. Feinstein, who embarked on a …. yeah, legendary line of questioning with Shaheen. It was critical, it was combative, it was compelling. I was one of many who sat in a separate room working on a story about something else and then decided to stop what I was doing to go to the other room and witness this confrontation.

Q. Greg, you laid out in great detail the travel schedule for the first week. Just so I’m sure I have it right, you’re going to play the round of 64 Saturday/Sunday, correct?
GREG SHAHEEN: Uh-huh.

Q. So you didn’t lay out the travel schedule for the second week when presumably teams will be playing Monday/Tuesday, then winners would go almost directly to regionals on Thursday/Friday, if that’s the schedule as I think it is.
GREG SHAHEEN: It’s one of several models that exist. But actually it doesn’t necessarily mean that the play continues on Monday/Tuesday. Actually, depending on the structure, there can be a break on Monday so that a team that, for example, is playing Saturday could play Saturday, then Tuesday. So they would have both Sunday and Monday without games.
You also have to keep in mind that on any day of competition, you’re losing half the field. Half of the teams are losing and returning home. So, for example, in the first four days of the championship, whereas right now you go from 65 during that time to 16, here you go from 96 to 32. So the majority of teams by number will be back home at that point in time.
But then for the teams that do advance, they would play — they could play that Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday, for example, going into regional week.

Q. To follow up, if you’re going Saturday/Tuesday, Sunday/Tuesday then with the teams that advance if they’re playing Saturday/Sunday games, right?
GREG SHAHEEN: They would play Saturday/Tuesday.

Q. So you’re not going to play any games on Sunday of the first weekend?
GREG SHAHEEN: No. You’d play half the games on Saturday, half the games on Sunday.

Q. The Sunday teams that advance would play on Tuesday or are you saying Wednesday?
GREG SHAHEEN: Wednesday.

Q. Basically they’ll be out of school an entire week the second week?
GREG SHAHEEN: Actually, if you were to look at the window for each individual team, you have to take each team and contemplate the fact right now you have half the field leaving campus on Tuesday, returning on Sunday or Monday.

Q. If they lose. I’m talking about the teams that win in advance. You’re going to advance 16 teams.
GREG SHAHEEN: No, actually in the current model you have teams that depart on Tuesday, and even if they win, return on Sunday.

Q. We’re misunderstanding each other. Under the new model that you laid out, you play 64 teams Thursday/Friday. 32 advance to games Saturday/Sunday. Then you are down after those games to 32 teams.
GREG SHAHEEN: Right.

Q. You’re saying you play games in the round of 32 Tuesday/Wednesday. They would then advance to regionals when?
GREG SHAHEEN: They would continue into the regional as it’s normally scheduled now.

Q. So they would go Tuesday to Thursday, Wednesday to Friday?
GREG SHAHEEN: Right.

Q. So they miss an entire week of school. That’s what I’m trying to get.
GREG SHAHEEN: If you listened to my original answer, they leave now on Tuesday.

Q. I’m talking about the second week, not the first week. They play a game Saturday/Sunday, play a game Tuesday or Wednesday, then go directly to the regional. Tell me when in that second week they’re going to be in class.
GREG SHAHEEN: The entire first week, the majority of the teams would be in class.

Q. You’re just not going to answer the question about the second week. You’re going to keep referring back to the first week, right? They’re going to miss the entire second week under this model.
GREG SHAHEEN: So they’re going to go to school the first week, and then they’re —

Q. They’re going to be under the same schedule you said basically the first week, and then they’ll miss the entire second week.
GREG SHAHEEN: I’m clearly missing the nuance of your point.

Q. You and I miss nuances a lot. Thank you

You’d have to be a fool to miss the nuances of yesterday. Clearly something happened that stopped this unstoppable movement toward 96 teams. Just as clearly, something happened that day. Mr. Feinstein had the gumption, to say nothing of the profile, the angle and the composure, to take and maintain a position. That press conference seemed, to me, at least, as a way to line those three up and pat them on the back and congratulate them for the 96-team thing. That didn’t happen. And for now 96 teams won’t happen.

Maybe I’m overstating what happened that day, though I doubt it was a variable isolated from the shift. You’d like to think an entity as big and as powerful as the NCAA can’t be undone by one  person, especially when its convictions were once so strong. Still, it’s kind of inspiring and refreshing to see that one person, one voice, one instance can still have a profound effect.

So thank you, John Feinstein.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, pregame!

ccteam said:

WV can’t depend on the ACC or SEC to “save” them from a mid-major future.  They can hope that will happen, but Pastilong needs to be pushing the Big East to act in its on self interest proactively before the Big 10 moves ahead.  It is at least a possibility, if not a probability that WV will be on the outside looking in when the power conferences realign.  WV needs to take the lead in making what is left of the Big East as good as possible.  The Big East/Mountain West merger isn’t perfect, but it is the best option left to insure staying in the BCS picture.

I can assure you WVU is being proactive and no one has their head in the sand regarding expansion imminence. Someone in the Coliseum assured me WVU is “conscious of that and weighing options,” but was quick to remind me “weighing options and being invited” are separate things.

p.i. reed said:

there’s just no way anything good is gonna come of big ten expansion, right? damn, would love to get in there if they expand big as now seems more likely, per chicago tribune

If by “good” you mean anything involving WVU getting into the Big Ten, I’d say no. I still think WVU is in a pretty favorable position, albeit on the second tier. If this thing goes down as most of us expect, multiple conferences are going to be forced to look for teams — whereas right now, one conference is doing the poaching. If the Big East is to shake and lean and lose, say, Rutgers and Pitt, at least, then isn’t WVU — and, for that matter, Syracuse — in a nice spot for the second wave of conferences looking to make a move?

Spatial Angel said:

Can the B11 force any BE schools to accept an offer?
No.
So the BE can stay intact if the members stick together.
The relevant question then, is which BE schools want to jump ship.

The better question would be which Big East schools wouldn’t want to jump? There are a lot of po$itive$ to be gained by making a jump and, quite frankly, a number of the schools would be better off in the Big Ten + ?.

roopoo said:

It isn’t rocket science guys…ANY Big East school would have a hard time passing up an invite to the Big Ten considering the revenue in sports alone would almost be three times as much. Plus the benefits on the academic side in terms of endowments and research funding would go through the roof. The Big East schools could stand defiant against the ACC because the money wasn’t THAT much more one way or another…but an offer from the Big Ten is totally different.

Bingo. It’s not wise to use the ACC raid as a comparison in this instance and the above touches on a lot of that. There’s an academic/research/funding element we often overlook and these college presidents have a very obvious responsibility to at least entertain those aspects. What’s different here is the Big Ten has a pretty lucrative cable network and the conference wants to push that thing to the moon. A lot of schools would like to be along for the ride.

Country Roads said:

Can someone please explain to me the idea of getting into the NYC market? It sounds great in theory, I understand that part. But it’s not like everyone who lives in NYC is a Rutgers or Syracuse fan who watches all of their games. So how many additional viewers do you really get? And if it’s not about actual viewers, but rather getting the cable company to add it to the package, what’s to stop them from offering it now? Is it just an argument of “hey, Comcast/TimeWarner/etc., about 1/10 of your viewing audence would like to watch Rutgers and Syracuse on the B10 network, so you should probably add the channel to your package”? I don’t think I’m dumb, I just don’t know enough about that industry to understand how and why it works the way it does.

I’d say you’ve got half of it and missed half of it. It’s about television sets and there are a lot in that Metro area and northeast market. Continuing on the presumption the Big Ten Network is a driving force, it’s not about adding, say, Rutgers as a way to sell it. It’s about getting those college football fans, Big Ten graduates and Rutgers fans in those markets to watch Northwestern, Purdue and Illinois play against Michigan, Penn State and Ohio State. If a Rutgers v. Michigan State game does numbers, that’s a bonus. Where you nailed it, though, is the interest. Or perhaps disinterest. Enter Dick Weiss of the N.Y. Daily News: “If anyone thinks a team such as Rutgers can provide the Big Ten with a gateway to the East Coast, they will soon find the East has little interest in football on Saturday and looks to the game only on Sundays and Monday nights.” 

Sheik Ybuti said:

And when the BCS schools are free of the NCAA, who keeps them from cheating?

Greg Shaheen?

rekterx said:

1) Big Ten expands; pillages Big East.
2) Then the SEC expands by adding four teams: Choose from Texas, Texas A&M, Florida St., Miami, Georgia Tech, and Clemson.
3) The ACC, after wiping away its tears, picks up the best pieces left in the Big East (including us) and we all live happily ever.

Any questions.

Just one: Can you get this over with?

ccteam said:

I think the potential conference realignment may be a bigger concern for recruiting than the NCAA investigation of The Product. I know the idea has been suggested before and shot down, but I think the Big East has to act before the bigger conferences to insure it maintains its BCS bid. The best way to do it is to merge, for football purposes only, with the MWC. The teams remaining from the Big East after realignment would pick up the best of the CUSA teams to form an 8 team East Division. The MWC would have to add for any desertions it experiences to the PAC or Big 12 to form an 8 team West Division. Teams would play only within their division for regular season conference games and then the Best of the West would play the Beast of the East in a conference championship game. This only makes sense if the Big East stands to lose its BCS bid, but I believe it would. Comments?

Uh … why not? We’re supposed to think outside the box here, right (By the way, that’s an excellent, provocative, all-too-rare story)? We’re about to see things we’ve never seen. So why not? On the screen, it looks like a gr — sorry? John Marinatto on Line One. Yes, patch him thr– Paul Tagliabue on Line Two?

Josh24601 said:

This has nothing to do with anything remotely substantive. Hiring Paul Tagliabue — a prominent Georgetown alumnus, don’tcha know — as a consultant serves only to distract everyone. Distract from what, you ask? From the conference leadership’s unwillingness to either (a) expel Notre Dame in the attempt to force the football Domers to join the Big Ten so that it has a home for other sports — then hope that the BigTen stops at 12; or (b) make tracks toward splitting off the basketball-only schools*.

But neither (a) nor (b) is guaranteed to work, you say. Indeed, sir or madam, but how well do you expect the status quo, cowering with head in sand, to work?

*Georgetown is one of those. Maybe it turns out to be a bad idea to expel all or any of the hoop-first schools, but it needs to be on the table. Adding a GU alumnus to advise the Providence-heavy conference leadership will keep it completely off the table.

Certainly worth thinking about. Perhaps in aligning with another “basketball brain” they’re mobilizing toward that split

overtheSEC said:

Get ready for Big East Europe!

Is Oliver Luck involved?

latin hillbilly said:

i support this move. at minimum, it’s proactive thinking and messaging. maybe it’s posturing. but shouldn’t they at least posture? shouldn’t they at least project the image of “protect this house!” to those who have essentially announced their homicidal intentions with our conference?

it’s easy to armchair this thing and criticize big east leaders, but obviously they’ve gotta do something, and that’s what this is: something in the middle of an imminent conference realignment maelstrom. I expect, and hope, more’s to come.

Again, it is what it is.

NotSoFastMyFriend said:

Unless this means WVU is joining the AFC North or NFC East, I don’t give a squat. And you can quote me on that.

I just did.

Rob W. said:

Are we moving to the AFC north or are we hoping to get the Cleveland Browns to join the Big East?

At this point, I think the fans would be open to that. And I mean the Browns fans.

OB1 said:

Marinatto: “Hey Big Ten, the NCAA called. They’re running out of teams.”

Jim Delany: “Oh yeah, well the jerk store called and they’re running out of you!”

Not sure what it means, but Jack Swarbrick was seen standing off in the corner wearing this.

StraightOuttaNorthCentral said:

It’s good to see that Paul Tagliabue’s influence is already being felt. He’s well known for his sense of humor, as anyone who’s ever heard him speak will tell you.

Immediate dividends!

Chris in DC said:

With all of the heat that the BCS conferences have taken for excluding teams, you honestly believe that they’ll exclude EVEN MORE? I don’t. Congress will step in an remove their tax exempt status which no conference wants to lose. To think that an institution with the success and history that WVU has is unfathomable.

Billy Stewart thinks will be alright and I do too. I think we would be a perfect fit in the ACC…

You’ve pointed at the 500-pound gorilla. This thing could get really ugly and litigious. And it’s worth repeating: Tagliabue is an accomplished attorney who’s mastered these sorts of cases. And his daughter married Jay Rockefeller’s son. Rockefeller sits on the Senate’s Joint Committee on Taxation. These things need to be mentioned.

Karl said:

What the hell do I know, but I’m not buying this. If you limit the football championship to four 16-team conferences, I believe the federal government would step in and squash it. They’re already walking a fine line with the BCS system. Sen. Hatch has been actively trying to dismantle it becase of the snubs Utah has endured, and even Obama is on the record against the BCS. The public pressure has been mounting to be more inclusive, whether by giving more at-larges BCS chances or trying a playoff. So their response would be to limit the field even more?

The whole thing has antitrust lawsuit written all over it. If they do decide to just leave the NCAA, what would differentiate them and a for-profit league like the NFL? Let’s see how much money they make the day these athletic depts lose their tax-exempt status. If WVU were left out of an arrangement like this, do you have any doubt Rockefeller, Byrd, et al would stand up and fight? Hatch would suddenly have a lot more friends — there would be no shortage of aggrieved politicians only happy enough to rep their constituents on such a headline-friendly issue, and it seems like the law would be on their side. I would have liked the Times article to at least address this in some cursory way.

I think the Times was saving it for you. So glad they did.

Alli said:

So these super conferences leave the NCAA. What happens to the Athletic Scholarships? Does this affect all sports? This would be a total upheaval of college sports. I hate it.

Please Big Ten, just take Notre Dame, and be done with it.

I’m glad you mentioned this. I think Notre Dame, in the past, may have been despised beyond comparison had it moved to the Big Ten. Now I think a lot of people would be OK with it if for no other reason than it spares college athletics the makeover we may soon see.

overtheSEC said:

roopoo,
I hear ya, but nothing about conference expansion has to do with more competitive conferences. The Big 10 does little to make themselves more competitve by adding say Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse and Missouri. They just thicken themselves in the middle. You’re rivalry point though is valid.
Two local sports radio guys, who I think do really good work, were talking this afternoon about conference expansion. The theoretical question they posed to each other was, if you’re the SEC, and the Big 10 expands to 14-16, what 4-5 ADs do you get on the phone to try to bring to the “new expanded SEC.” One guy said USF, Louisville, Georgia Tech, and WVU. He said something to extent of “you get Tampa and Atlanta markets, and Louisville is putting up a lot of money for their programs and facilities” but when it came time for his WVU pick he just talked about our rabid fan base that seems to fit in well with the rest of the SEC. We bring very little in terms of money. You don’t have to convince me that we’re a better choice in terms of competetiveness, school spirit, and karmic worthiness, but we’re a realtough sell from a financial perspective.

I think a lot of evaluations are different varieties of unfair to WVU. You could do a whole hell of  lot worse. In the two revenue-generators, you’re going to get a good product and a competitive game. The Olympic sports — can’t forget those — are usually pretty good. The total package, when combined with the fan following, some marketing opportunities and a new president and A.D with their new visions, is better than what a lot of people would (have  you) believe.

Dave said:

Football revenue drives expansion talk … PSU wasn’t invited to the B10 for their basketball program.

In that regard, football revenue includes television audience, market and following. WVU doesn’t fit in any of those … 60k for football games (max) is not comparable with most in the Big 10, there is no TV market in WV that catches the attention of others and while we “travel well,” that is primarily compared to other BE teams and negligible due to the number of times we’d be in big bowls when we join an ACC, B10 or SEC conference. We do not even make the BE BCS slot every year in the BE, so who thinkgs that year-in year-out we’re going to be the premiere team in any other BCS conference?

Look at the reason others are being looked at … lesser teams in UConn and RU are favored for market potential (negating current performance), Syracuse/Pitt are considered for varying degrees of potential, WV is not considered for many reasons others are considered.

And, I believe, this is where garbage like being “known” for throwing things at visiting fans or teams, really puts a final nail in the coffin. Yes, “others” might do it, but they can get in on some other factor … prestige, market, enormous fanbase, academics, etc. It’s hard to cut through on any of those when you factor in the “backwoods” image, the so-so following, and the negative media we’ve received for issues that happen in our venues.

I told you! But in all seriousness, Dave makes a lot of good points and a lot of those are the ones held against WVU. The stadium isn’t very big. There’s not load-bearing TV market. There aren’t championship banners littering the athletic venues. And while the teams are, as I said, good products with competitive games, other schools can give you the same as well as upgrades in areas where WVU lacks. It’s going to be a battle for WVU, for sure.

glibglub said:

Oh sure, it seems like conferences can just keep on expanding forever. But in reality, contraction is inevitable, and will culminate in the superconferences collapsing in upon themselves in a violent orgy of destruction.

Wait, I’m confusing college football and cosmology again. I hate when I do that.

We should probably wrap this up soon…

Michael said:

My two cents… and that is exactly what it is worth.

I agree w Rekterx’s comment:” Stew spoke of the Big East in the past tense and he said we would be alright. I’m leaning in Stew’s direction at this point.”
One of the things that makes me ambivalent regarding Stew’s leadership is his apparent guilelessness. His aforementioned statement tells me that this whole issue of expansion has been top of mind for WVU administrators for quite some time. I have to believe that Pastilong & Clements havebeen in unofficialdiscussions with other conference schools for a while now. I certainly am not as sanguine as Stew that we will land on our feet, but I have to believe that WVU is doing everything possible to ameliorate this situation.
It might, in the end, not make any difference at all if this boils down to demographics.
It does chap my a$$ that Notre Dame, holds not only the fate of the Big East, but the entire collegiate athletic landscape in its hands. Lethope that the Mountaineers do not become the sporting equivalent of alter boys to NDs’ financial pederasty.

… and we’re done.

The Artist Formerly Known as EER96 said:

Michael:

I’m getting a dictionary. You have just single-handedly raised the bar on this here blog!

True, it’s worth a review: ambivalent, guilelessness and sanguine. Well played, sir.

gordo said:

I’m just glad someone used the word ‘pederasty’ on this blog.

I said done!

Jeff in Akron said:

It just makes sense to me that Mullen puts a package together for Coley. He’s already doing the work in practice so why not? If Eu goes down early in the season, say the first two games, Coley is probably going to be the guy. With an established offensive package for Coley WVU has something to build on. Plus, its not like they would be wasting practice time putting it in place.

The irony to me is that every time Pat was hurt JB had to come in and run the offense that was designed around Pat. Now WVU has an offense that is designed around Eu, and Coley has to run it.

Besides, wouldn’t it be fun to see the old zone read plays with Devine playng himself, Coley filling Pat’s role, and Ryan Clarke playing Schmitt. I’m just sayin…

If Eu were to get hurt, the offense Coley (or Brunetti or Johnson) would be made to run would be the same. At the worst, it would be reasonably similar with minor deviations that exist to highlight the current quarterback’s strengths, minimize weaknesses and have everyone feeling confident and capable. Think of it this way: It’s easier to teach three or four people one offense than it is to teach 20 or so people three or four offenses. That said, I can’t see a reason why WVU doesn’t do something for Coley. He’s running the option too well, especially in the red zone. I understand he’s not to be tackled (gold jersey) and that’s one reason he finds the end zone a lot, but I also see him making the right reads and the right cuts and he can also throw the ball.

The 25314 said:

“we have a couple plays that are game breakers”

Hopefully, they’re called Noel Devine zone read right and zone read left.

I’ve seen a few of those this spring. Honest.

StraightOuttaNorthCentral:

“we have a couple plays that are game breakers”

please tell me these don’t include the one where Brad Starks takes the end-around and short arms a throw to a wide open Jock Sanders.

I can’t tell you that.

overtheSEC said:

“we have a couple plays that are game breakers”

Hopefully it’s not a underhand middle screen

(This is a fun exercise in sarcasm!)

You don’t have to walk around Mountaineer Field.

notruB said:

I’ve never heard the Bubble Screen described as a game breaker before…

This may be the FF that gets me fired.

StraightOuttaNorthCentral said:

Man, if I got my name in the paper for every time I urinated in public during college, a Nexis search on my name would have several pages of results.

Of course, I wasn’t a scholarship athlete. But still, how many of the male readers of this blog have never chosen to forego the line at the bathroom during a night out and whizzed in the alley next to the club?

Show of hands? Hello? Are you stretching or raising your — stretching? OK. Anyone?

OHS-WVUFAN said:

Brandon was cited for Urinating in Public—there was no disorderly conduct. It’s a shame the ordinace reads Disorderly Conduct. He did not resist the ticket or become beligerent. I don’t know what trouble people are referring to him being in previously??? He did run steps—missing workouts, and he is spending time with his tutor to get caught up on assignments. According to Morgantown Municipal Court multiple tickets are issued each weekend for urinating in public. It was an incredibly STUPID thing to do, but I do wonder if he were not a young black male with dreads, would he have been ticketed? (I say this as a 50 year old white woman). As always, I sincerely appreciate your fair reporting, you focused (unlike others) on “CITED” not arrested. Brandon did a stupid thing that so many other 22 yr old college kids have done, unfortunately for him EVERYONE gets a chance to comment about him. He went straight to the coaches and apologized for this stupid incident. He feels embarrassed and just wants to move on, play football, and be a better student.

From a friend of Brandon’s back in Manassas, Va.

Michael said:

A male African American mesomorph w dreadlocks saunters thru back alleys in West Virginia at 2:00 AM. Surely this would not attract the attention of Mo Towns’ finest?

Didn’t Latwan Andersen say something about the “cultural climate” in WV? I’m just saying…

And I’m just saying that that Michael is not this Michael.

roopoo said:

Ask me about urination…ask me about urination…is that how he fielded the question?

One of these days, we’ll get through a FF without this. One of these days.

Sheik Ybuti said:

One would hate to think that the opporunity to finish out an otherwise promising playing career could be whizzed away so cavalierly.

Uh huh. I see you working.

glibglub said:

Ah, Spring – with its warm, gentle breezes wafting the scent of lilacs and urine towards one’s nostrils.

It’s in the air!

StraightOuttaNorthCentral said:

Stale beer urine is, after all, the official scent of downtown Morgantown.

Here’s my question: how public was his urination? I mean, considering the amount of public urination I’ve witnessed, I’d think he would have to be using the cop car window as a urinal in order to get noticed.

I never thought of that … and I’m mad at myself.

Birch said:

You can take the boy out of Manassas but you can’t take the Manassas out of the boy.

Enjoy the weekend … except you, Birch!