Today was kind of a shocker. First I thought it was the Sporting News that had gone batty. Now it's the media, which has gone and picked Pitt to win the conference.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - any team with as big of a question mark at quarterback is hard to pick as a champion. That said, the defense looks good and if the running game can manage the clock a bit, they could surprise some. Still, it's hard for me to pick them outright - I placed them third in the blogger preseason poll in the post below.

And speaking of the Big East, guess who's on Twitter and Facebook?

Recruiting-wise, Pitt landed another one over the weekend in Ohio TE Dan Schneider:

Schneider chose the Panthers over 19 scholarship offers, including offers from Florida State, West Virginia, Colorado, Syracuse, Louisville and Cincinnati. His three finalists were Pitt, Florida State and West Virginia and he made his decision after visiting both Pitt and West Virginia earlier this week.

Looks like Pitt's current Tight End, Nate Byham, had something to do with it:

''It helped a lot to sit down with Nate and get the perspective of someone who's been through this and get his honest opinion of his experience at Pitt,'' Schneider said of their lunch during an unofficial visit this past Monday. ''It was invaluable.''

In the 'not completely meaningless, but darn close' category, you can vote here for Pitt to have a spot in the All-Time Top 40 team (they're currently 37th). ESPN.com has already had their top 40 mock draft and Pitt is not included. Now I'm not normally one for these types of polls, but really - Arizona State? Kansas? South Carolina? Come on.