By the time many of you read this, most of the players that comprise the second class of Tech's strongest two-year haul ever will have already penned their signatures onto letters of commitment to play football for Virginia Tech.

On Tuesday, Warwick High wide receiver Andrae Harrison held a press-conference to announce the most poorly kept secret in recruiting - he will attend Virginia Tech.   Although his verbal (remember, I don't call them "commitments" anymore) was not unexpected, it was still a joyous moment, on par with the announcements of Vick, Suggs, and Houseright last year ... if you go by message board traffic, that is.   Here is Doug Doughty's article on Harrison:

No Surprise:  Hokies Get Harrison - The Roanoke Times

Harrison, along with Keith Willis and Nathaniel Adibi, is the crown jewel of this year's class.  Harrison is the most highly-rated player to verbal to Tech, and his verbal means that, God willing, four of Doug Doughty's top 10 players in the state of Virginia will sign with Virginia Tech.  Here are Doug's rankings, with the latest verbals:

Top 1998-99 state football prospects - The Roanoke Times

After a terrible finish to 1997's recruiting class (the class was good, but down the stretch, UVa kicked our butts for all the outstanding in-state recruits), this marks the second straight year that Frank Beamer and company have finished strong.

I am working on an article for this year's recruiting, which I will post soon to the Members Only portion of the site.  Those of you who read my recruiting recaps know that I don't get bogged down in the details of players, positions, and rankings.  I prefer instead to paint things with broad strokes, and taking that approach, this year's class - the way it developed, how it ended up, and what it portends for the future of Tech's recruiting - is an interesting one indeed, with many ramifications.  Look for the article soon.

One of our favorite whipping boys, Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese, is at it again.  In a  recent Charleston (WV) Gazette article titled Big Ten, London Calling Notre Dame This Week, the following paragraphs appeared:

Tranghese did comment on some of the other issues hanging over the Big East. Like Virginia Tech's hope to join the league as a full-time member.

"When we finish our strategic planning study,'' said the commish, "we'll turn the whole thing over to the [university] presidents.

"I'd imagine Virginia Tech would be on their agenda, and a decision would be made this spring.''

Apparently, the Big East football schools, including WVU, Boston College and Syracuse, are leery of keeping the football-only Hokies exposed to the outside elements of expansion.

"But it's not a business decision,'' said Tranghese. "It's about how to deal with friends, good people. Plus, they've really contributed in the football league.''

Um, yeah, whatever, Mike.  Train Grease has never been a big proponent of Virginia Tech or Virginia Tech football, so forgive me if reading those quotes makes me wonder what space alien has invaded Mike the Moron's body and has actually said something halfway complimentary of the Hokies.

First of all, it's always been a business decision, Mike.  The numbers (dollars) and the balance of power have never added up for the basketball-only schools, so they have shut us out.  Even when we were winning Big East football championships in 1995 and 1996 and fielding excellent men's basketball teams those same two years, it was never about on-the-field performance or "friends."  It was about money and power, and that makes it a business decision.

Secondly, I doubt a "decision will be made this spring."  There's absolutely no reason for the Big East to change their stance on Virginia Tech all-sports membership at this time.  And as for Mikey's mythological schedules, does anyone remember the strategic planning report that was supposed to be finished and submitted to the Big East?   In April?  Of 1998?

Yep, never happened.  Trained Geese's excuse then was that he was too busy brokering the bowl deals that eventually screwed over the Big East by handing the BEFC's Gator Bowl bid over to Notre Dame, and sent the great fans of West Virginia out to (geez!) the Insight.com bowl.  So forgive me if Mike's promises for things to occur "next spring" fall on deaf ears here.

His excuse this time will probably be that he's busy trying to renegotiate the Big East's football TV contract with CBS, which I believe is supposed to expire after the 2000 season.  Frankly, I hope the Big East runs as far away from CBS as fast as they can, and shacks up with Fox or ABC/ESPN.

Why?  Simple.  CBS has already re-signed their deal with the SEC, even though it had a few more years to go, and the Big Eye network has cut the SEC one sweeet deal, leaving very little air time or money for their other two football conferences, the Big East and Conference USA.  CBS currently only "has to" show something like 9 or 10 Big East football games a year, and that's exactly what they do, no more.

Every halfway-decent Miami game winds up on CBS, and every time a BE member plays Penn State, you can chalk that one up, too.  CBS never promotes in-conference clashes, except for Syracuse-Miami.  Tech's classic matchups with Miami the last few years have wound up on ESPN2 and ESPN, where Charlie "Pass the Scotch, and check out those Virginia Tech Huskies" Steiner butchers the play-calling on a yearly basis.

CBS's "commitment" to the Big East has been insulting and non-existent, so if the BE told CBS to go pound sand, I wouldn't shed a tear.  Meanwhile, Trained-Geese, visionary thinker that he is, no doubt has his fingers crossed and is muttering to himself, "Boy, I hope Miami has a good year, boy, I hope Miami has a good year ... "

Because in Mikey's brain, which has a very limited range of motion, he is no doubt thinking that if only the Canes could return to glory, he could milk CBS for millions of dollars.

Yeah, Mike - don't think about other networks, and don't think about promoting the other good teams in the conference to try to build some brand identity.  Just stay in your little box.  God help us.

Sorry, for those of you who frequent the message board, you've already seen the article, and the opinions and fears expressed here are not earth-shattering to you.   But sometimes, I just gotta vent.

Tech's loss to Xavier last Friday night really didn't do much damage to the Hokies in the RPI and the rankings.  The RPI rating dropped from #4 to #9, then quickly rebounded to #7, whereas the USA Today coaches' and AP rankings, which were #12 and #11, settled to #14 in both polls.  Not quite the calamity I expected.

I previously assumed that a loss anywhere along the way would doom my dream of having the Hokies host an NCAA sub-regional, but perhaps not.  It's still more likely that politics and bull-headedness will prevent that, not the performance of Bonnie's team.

The good news is, Tech's strength of schedule rating, an integral part of the RPI, should hold steady over the coming six final regular-season games.  The Hokies have to play Xavier again, and the Musketeers are currently #31 in the RPI.  GW looms at the end of the year, and the Colonials are #50 in the RPI, so those two games will help out Tech's S.O.S. rating.  It will still slip, but maybe not drastically.

As for this Friday's Xavier game, the talk is whether or not the game is going to be sold out.  I hope so, but not until I buy my tickets on Friday night.  I trust in the fanaticism of Hokie fans, and I wouldn't be surprised if the game did indeed fill up the Cassell for the first time in women's basketball history.

Who would have thought it?  Last year, the men's team seemed headed in this direction, with young stars Rolan Roberts and Jenis Grindstaff on the court, and future stars Kenny Harrell and Dennis Mims waiting in the wings.  Now, a year later, the men's team has hit a Manhattan-sized pothole, and the next sellout I go to might very well be for the women's team.

Well, like the man said in Wayne's World, (shrug) "The world's a twisted place."

Congrats to HC message board poster "Gath," who registered the one millionth HokieCentral site visit.  Gath is a Virginia Tech employee, and currently not a HokieCentral member, so I'm glad that the prize - a free HokieCentral Platinum membership, including a snazzy HokieCentral jacket - went to someone who otherwise was not enjoying the benefits of HokieCentral membership.  Congrats, Gath!

And, oh-by-the-way, thanks to everyone for making HokieCentral such a great success, from the members, to the article contributors, to the message board posters, and to everyone who does little things here and there!

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