1. The announcement was made on a Friday when the Penguins were facing elimination in the playoffs and the Pirates were starting a nine-game trip. Usually Friday in a crowded schedule like that is an environment for a company that wants to bury bad news, like a price increase or an unpleasant termination. Just odd they didn't wait until Monday.
2. Barnes' hiring comes nearly four months after Pat Narduzzi signed on as Pitt's football coach, and that shows what the AD's job is these days. The administration of will take care of the big decisions, while the AD's job is to bring in as much money as possible.
So Barnes, who has no prior relationship to Pittsburgh, will figure ways to make wallets magically open.
It's an interesting challenge, because Pitt isn't necessarily it for a lot of people.
This market is dominated by professional sports. Football weekends revolve around the Steelers, in good times and bad. For every talk show call about Pitt football, there are 20 complaining about the Steelers' offensive coordinator, no matter who he is.
Even among those who follow college football, Pitt may not be it.
Penn State and West Virginia have a lot of alumni in the region, and their only interest in Pitt is in seeing the Panthers lose, preferably by as wide a margin as possible.
The venom can run deep. A friend -- let's call him Jeff, because that's his name -- is a Penn State loyalist. He has all the words to that "We Are..." chant memorized.
Pittsburgh born and bred, he lives here, too. But his sports loyalties are firmly planted a few area codes away at University Park.
Occasionally Pitt will have a football game that intrigues him as a viable Saturday afternoon entertainment option. But if he does attend, Jeff won't buy a ticket at the window.
He'll deal with one of the "who needs two?" guys on the street because he figures that means his money isn't going directly into Pitt coffers and helping the enemy.
That's the kind of hard case Barnes will encounter on his new job.
His first priority is to fix football, along with Narduzzi. The program has taken too many punches in recent years. Home games show how faded those yellow upper deck seats at Heinz Field are, because too many of them are empty.
If he wants to work a miracle, he could find a way to make people interested in women's basketball. Pitt made the NCAA Tournament and has a well-known and charismatic coach in Suzie McConnell Serio, but nobody goes to games.
The smartest thing Barnes can do is avoid the crackpots who want Pitt football to return to campus. Not only is the cost of building a sparsely-used stadium outrageously prohibitive, there are now fewer than 10 open parking spots in Oakland at any given moment.
The idea of funneling 60,000 people into that area on a Saturday is ridiculous. Better to spend the effort finding ways to get people into Heinz Field on days when the Steelers and Kenny Chesney aren't the attraction.
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--LOOK OUT
The Pirates have enjoyed kicking the Cubs around for the past few seasons, but those days may be ending.
The Cubs have assembled a nice group of young talent. As Wrigley Field is being expanded into a beer-soaked theme park, the Cubs' revenues should be spiking in the next few years, too.
That talent base and ability to spend will make them a formidable competitor.
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--PLUGGING LEAKS?
The Steelers have made the necessary deletions on defense, but have they actually improved on that side of the ball?
The offense is good enough to win a Super Bowl. The defense is still well short of that level. You can't win 'em all 41-35.
They usually don't find immediate help in the draft, so presumably they're counting on a lot of improvement from within (Hello, Ryan Shazier and Jarvis Jones).
Given their beast of a schedule, that could be a tall order.
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--THE TWO AND ONLY
Root had one of those "Pucks and Bucs" combination specials on Friday, covering the Penguins' playoff game, followed by the Pirates at Arizona.
That proves that no matter what it sounds like, Dan Potash and Robby Incmikoski are actually two different people.
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