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Pitt's added money from their move to the ACC isn't something I've given a lot of thought about lately. It was obviously a big topic of discussion in the immediate aftermath of the move, but to be honest, it's kind of fallen off my radar lately.
The Post-Gazette's Sam Werner did a great job with some quotes from athletic director Steve Pederson about just how Pitt is spending their newfound money. Definitely check out the whole article, but in a nutshell, Pederson says the money is going to a few specific areas:
- Increased recruiting budgets
- Men's/women's basketball team area upgrades at the Pete
- Football weight room expansion
I'm fine with all of that and it makes sense to take care of the two marquee sports. Really, I don't have much of a beef with this. That said, I'm really hoping more of this money trickles down into making improvements to some of the non-revenue sports. A few programs like tennis are so far behind, not even having a home facility.
The baseball, softball, and soccer programs got a boost several years ago with the Petersen Sports Complex. But I'd like to see some more of that money in the future filtered into those smaller programs. Those recruiting budget increases, I'm guessing, span all or most of the sports (particularly since Pederson seemed to suggest that some programs got bigger increases than others). Still, it'd be nice to see more investments into some of the smaller programs, whether that's paying more for some higher-profile coaches, more improvements to the Field House or other facilities, etc.
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