When UCF unveiled details of its 2006 football schedule in February, among the pearls was a Friday night home game with Pittsburgh, set for a national ESPN telecast.
But when the Panthers studied UCF's schedule, they got upset.
Schedule-makers at both schools had agreed to adjust an Oct. 14 game to Thursday or Friday to accommodate TV but only on the condition that both schools had the same number of days off before the game. One problem: A miscommunication between Conference USA and the Big East, both of which coordinate their schedules after TV partners weigh in, has left Pitt in a competitive disadvantage.
The Golden Knights have an Oct. 4 (Wednesday night) game at Marshall, then have eight days off before playing Pitt. The Panthers play a noon home game against Syracuse on Oct. 7; that gives them just five days off.
The two-day difference did not escape Pittsburgh's attention for long. Within a couple of weeks of UCF's Feb. 9 announcement, Pitt Athletic Director Jeff Long fired off a letter to UCF expressing his frustration for a breach of trust.
UCF officials acknowledge Long's point, saying Knights Coach George O'Leary never would have agreed to the game if he knew of the disparity.
Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, its disappointment probably won't carry the day because ESPN is involved. If the Panthers take a hard line and say they won't come to Orlando unless some changes are made, well, then they might not come at all. The Big East, C-USA and ESPN then would have to find a game for UCF.
The Knights don't think it'll get that far. And they're keeping their fingers crossed it won't.
More Mickle lore
In his eulogy of protege and friend Tom Mickle on Thursday, former Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner Gene Corrigan added more mystery to the lore surrounding Mickle's concoction of what became the Bowl Championship Series.
Mickle, who died at 55 last week in his office at Florida Citrus Sports, is credited with drawing up the tenets that blossomed into the Bowl Coalition (which begat the Bowl Alliance, which begat the BCS) on a napkin at a Lone Star Steakhouse in Greensboro, N.C., in the early 1990s.
Corrigan said he and deputies Mickle and Rick Chryst had a habit of gathering in his office after work hours. There they hashed out issues from A to Z, but he said the most attention was focused on "how to make the ACC better, what can we do."
One day, the three talked about ways to mix and match conference champions and bowl bids. The next morning, Mickle walked into Corrigan's office.
"He said, 'I came up with a few more thoughts on that,'" Corrigan said. "I saw his notes on paper. It's possible they started on a napkin somewhere."
Nice guys department
Kudos to Andre Miller, a former Utah guard who is donating $500,000 to his alma mater. Miller, now with the Denver Nuggets, earmarked $200,000 of his donation to go toward upgrading the locker rooms at the Huntsman Center; former Utah center Andrew Bogut got the project started when he donated $125,000 after he was drafted No. 1 overall in the draft by Milwaukee last year. The remaining part of Miller's donation will help endow basketball scholarships.
Hoop talk
In one of the weirder moves in recent years, Chicago State has pulled out of the Mid-Continent Conference and will go at it as an independent. The school decided it needed to be in a conference that had a more metropolitan feel (funny, considering the Mid-Con has teams in Indianapolis, Kansas City, Tulsa and the Detroit area). As bad as Chicago State has been -- 37 wins in the past five seasons -- at least the Cougars had a chance at an NCAA bid because of the Mid-Con tourney. As an independent, they have no shot.
G Blake Young, a former Oak Ridge and Daytona Beach CC standout, had no qualms about signing with new Kansas State Coach Bob Huggins, whose players historically haven't graduated at a high rate. "As long as I get there, I know I'm going to graduate," Young said. "It's important for me to try to get a degree. I know Coach Huggins still gives players opportunities. Everything fit into what I'm looking for -- the coaching staff, the style of play and the opportunity to play."
Interesting doings on the AAU trail. G O.J. Mayo, the top prospect in the class of 2007, is expected to play for the Miami Tropics this summer. Mayo goes to high school in Cincinnati. One of the Tropics' top players last year was Jason Bennett, a 7-3 center from Jacksonville's Arlington Country Day School who has signed with Kansas State. When Huggins was coach at Cincy, it was seen as a fait accompli that Mayo would be a Bearcat. The Tropics' coach is Art Alvarez. He was coach at Miami Christian when the school won the state Class A title in 2002, but Miami Christian was placed on probation the following season for recruiting violations. Alvarez then left high school coaching and started the Tropics, a Nike-sponsored team.
Going into the weekend, eight coaching vacancies remained (out of 51 changes). The biggest is North Carolina State's. Names said to be under consideration for the Wolfpack include UNLV's Lon Kruger, West Virginia's John Beilein, Fordham's Dereck Whittenburg (an NCSU alum) and ESPN analyst Steve Lavin.
Grid bits
Last season's inaugural ACC Championship Game received a prime-time slot on ABC. Not this season. The game will kick off at 1 p.m. on Dec. 2 in Jacksonville.
Nebraska held its spring game last Saturday. It drew a crowd of 57,415.
Utah State QB Jerod Walker, who started the last two games in 2005, was kicked off the team last week after he was charged with aggravated sexual assault in Logan, Utah. He would've been a sophomore this season.
The Ivy League is the only I-AA conference that doesn't allow its members to participate in any postseason games. The Ivy Council, a group of student government leaders representing the eight Ivy League schools, has passed a resolution asking league presidents to overturn the postseason ban.
Give it up for former Michigan WR Braylon Edwards, now with the Cleveland Browns. He is giving his alma mater $500,000 to endow a scholarship to whichever Wolverine wears No. 1, the jersey number he wore (so did WRs David Terrell and Anthony Carter, among others). If there is no No. 1, the scholarship will go to another player.
A Final Thought: Aug. 31 -- the first day of college football season -- can't get here fast enough.
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Pitt angry about ESPN game
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