in Pitt Football 265 Words

Pitt’s Day of Giving

Today is Pitt’s annual push for donations to the university.

Here is the website where you can help Pitt accomplish our Mission Statement goals…

Lets do what we can – I’m going to tally up what it usually costs me to attend a couple of football games in a season with a bit extra so we can bribe a decent OC to come to Pitt.

I’ll leave this up or 24 hours or so but don’t forget about the great article by Richard just posted earlier this morning.

Along with that our HC just did a great thing for Pitt’s future football program needs…from a Pitt press release:

Narduzzi Family Makes Six-Figure Gift to Pitt Football Championship Fund  

PITTSBURGH—CoachPat Narduzzi and his wife, Donna, have made a six-figure financial gift to the University of Pittsburgh’s Football Championship Fund, which serves the program in such key areas as student-athlete development, facility improvement, technology and recruiting.

“I take great pride in wearing that Pitt Script on my chest each day as the University of Pittsburgh’s head football coach,” Narduzzi said. “This is an outstanding place with so many amazing people. Donna and I feel incredibly blessed to call Pitt our home.

“This gift is an expression of our thankfulness for the people of Pitt, especially the student-athletes we get to work with each day. Our responsibility is to give them the finest experiences possible—academically, athletically and personally. Donna and I feel truly honored and fortunate to be able to provide support for that mission at Pitt.”

55 thoughts on “Pitt’s Day of Giving”

  4. That’s a nice gesture. But to put things into perspective. The man makes $4 million per year. His gift is one 40th of his salary. That’s like the average American donating $700 dollars or a months rent.
    He can also write it off.

    He really needs to take a cut in pay like many highly compensated individuals are doing throughout the college sports landscape. Many are taking 10-15 percent reductions. That’s a $600k hit for Pat. But Pitt hasn’t eliminated any positions or cut salaries in sports.

    However They have furloughed hundreds in academics.

    Just some perspective.

    What Florida state is doing

    https://floridastate.rivals.com/news/financial-woes-mount-for-fsu-athletics-teams-likely-to-see-budget-cuts

    Liked by 1 person

  5. I want to encourage you Pitt Basketball fans to read the article in Sports Illustrated about Gonzaga and how they built their program, the setbacks and hiring Mark Few. This is a small Catholic school
    in E Washington State with 10% of the $$ of Pitt. They started in 2003 and they had a plan and many setbacks.

    I give/ and gave again today to Pitt Women’s Basketball. Coach White is one of the best I’ve ever known.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I plan on giving to wrestling, men’s soccer and volleyball.

      Wrestling is ranked 16 and heading into the ACC tourney.

      Volleyball is ranked 19. They got as high as number 2 last year

      Soccer was the number one team in the nation last Fall.

      I will NOT give any money to support a .552 career coach.

      Compare Narduzzi against coach fisher.

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    2. So you’re not sold on Capel?

      I don’t know enough on basketball to really have an opinion despite playing the sport until high school and in pickup games and intramural.

      I know soccer. Played and coached it. Coach Jay is a keeper.

      Tex and my two dogs are huge supporters of FC Pitt.

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  6. Fisher equates to a ten win football coach every season. Narduzzi is a seven win coach. I give my money to support winners and not mediocre chumps.

    Fisher is a Barnes hire

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  8. Wow – when I read that press release misunderstood the text – I thought it said “seven-figure financial gift”. Six-figures is still very nice though.

    My went to the ‘Students with Special Needs” donation fund. I just can’t bring myself to give to the athletic programs.

    Then again – I wonder how much advertising money would Pitt have to spend to get the publicity coverage amount that the POV gives them for free??

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  9. How did this get under the radar? Today is the Day Pitt briefs The Pittsburgh City Planning Commission regard Pitt’s two-step master plan.

    In essence this incorporates the Victory Heights plans and makes a special note that an on-campus stadium is not envisioned for at the least the next 25 years. That is not surprising in the least.

    “The Petersen expansion is one of a number of improvements the university proposes to its athletic facilities over the next two decades. An on-campus football stadium is not among them.”

    So we can be 100% sure that wherever the Steelers go – so goes the Panthers.

    An excerpt:

    “The University of Pittsburgh is eyeing dozens of projects, from the expansion of the Petersen Events Center and other prominent campus facilities, to the addition of hundreds of new student beds, as part of a master plan spanning the next two decades.

    Pitt officials will brief city planning commission members Tuesday on the plan, which will serve as a map for development within the Oakland neighborhood over two time periods — 10 years and 25 years.

    The 232-page document envisions work throughout most of the campus, including a major expansion of athletic facilities and the development of a “transformative academic facility” to house the new school of computing and information and other programs…”

    Very interesting article.

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    1. It’s under the radar because pitt planned it that way. You think the media rags will notice.

      No feasibility study for a MPC or hockey. No justification is needed.

      Pitt plays us fans like fools.

      Sorry coach Jay and fisher and Gavin. But your donation was just cancelled due to this breaking news.

      I’m sending my money to Texas. They don’t pull these stunts.

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  10. One thought on the transfer portal from the last segment:
    Best transfer was when my friend Farmers High entered the transfer portal from Gold lot to Red 5a…haha.
    Within one year attendance quadrupled.
    No Fanta or Sweet Caroline needed.

    Liked by 6 people

      2. I was going to try to get EJ to ditch the Sweet Carolina bit in that list of suggestions – but then thought that is the only time the student section seems to be paying attention to what is going on.

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    2. Wow! What an honor, Fran. But you are not fooling anyone. We all know that you are the glue that holds that tailgate together. Thank you for letting me be a part of your group! I will say that there is no one who missed the tailgates more than me last year. And if we do get to hold them again this coming fall, I pledge that I will do my part to make them even better than before. Can’t wait!!!

      Liked by 4 people

  11. Just puked a bit when chief yellow blouse quotes ” i guess you know why I came to a place that expects sports excellence and delivers it”…..uggggh, double puke.

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  12. That ruins my day. Pitt will be following the Steelers to cranberry then. No stade Pierre mauroy concept. No pitt hockey. More mediocrity and sub standard facilities that aren’t even Mac worthy. Thank you Nitter BoT. I’ve decided to cancel my day of giving after this. I’ll give to myself instead. A nice bottle of bourbon so I can forget about pitt sports and it’s gutless, inept and totally non innovative thinking. Why do I even try sometimes. I’ll tell you why. Because of pandora and those damn Greeks.

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    1. Hockey actually works at the Pens arena. They actually want a local D1 team to use the place. The Steelers jumped in on Pitt’s money to fix up Pitt Stadium and slammed them into a dump.

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      1. Funny thing is. Heinz rivals old Pitt stadium as a dump. And taxpayers paid close for $400 million for that dump.

        The Death Star is no dump

        New Rangers stadium is also fantastic inside. But the outside looks like a big metal barn.

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  14. I took classics (history,mythology, and philosophy)and Russian lit at Pitt as minors. You don’t want to mess with Tex – pointing at you heather and the BoT. Your world view is the last 20 years of Pittsburgh. Free your mind.

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  15. yeah, it was her awful and misleading first day quote on the video of the athletics giving day. I really did puke a bit, but it might have also been the thought of the sugardale rep stopping at the farm….. 🙂

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  16. Well this master plan is still just a plan. It won’t see the light of day without money. How is pitt financing these capital projects. It’s most likely through debt. Floating a bond or two. As Gallagher said himself, it could easily become a mortgage on our future. If Pitt can’t get hard cash commitments upfront, they have no business pursuing this. It could easily bankrupt the university.

    Signed litchfield.

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  17. How is heather defining excellence.

    Is it a .552 career football coach

    A .585 career basketball coach

    Placing dead last in the directors cup.

    Having the worst donation rate in the ACC

    Having one of the lowest P5 revenues

    Having one of the highest subsidies in all P5

    I really don’t think she understands the meaning of that word.

    Liked by 1 person

  19. I think it’s a bit poor taste to be dumping on Narduzzi for his donation. I don’t care what his salary is, a six figure donation is significant.

    Liked by 5 people

  20. Seriously, a 20 year plan? No Leader plans something out 20 years. None. Nil. Nada. With the velocity of change in corporate america, most leaders are only looking 2-4 years now, with 5-7 being the furthest out..unless of course you are a hollywood producer.

    I wonder how many people hours were lost/wasted, putting together projections and designs of buildings that will never happen. People don’t even stay employed for 20 years at the same place any more. This cracks me up.

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  21. “Donna and I feel truly honored and fortunate to be able to provide support for that mission at Pitt.”

    Maybe Narduzzi should feel fortunate he makes nearly $700k for every DI win he secures annually. That’s higher than both Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney (and many, many others).

    All donations are appreciated. However, assuming a donation of $100k (obviously, we don’t know the amount), it amounts to about $60k after factoring the tax benefit. That’s a bit less than 2.5% of his annual salary (also after taxes).

    There are POV’ers (POVerts?) that donate sums far more than that amount when compared to their annual compensation. For you former econ majors, that number is even higher when you consider the value of a dollar decreases the more you have.

    Welcome back, Reed.

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  22. “Donna and I feel truly honored and fortunate to be able to provide support for that mission at Pitt.”

    Maybe Narduzzi should feel fortunate he makes nearly $700k for every DI win he secures annually. That’s higher than both Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney (and many, many others).

    All donations are appreciated. However, assuming a donation of $100k (obviously, we don’t know the amount), it amounts to about $60k after factoring the tax benefit. That’s a bit less than 2.5% of his annual salary (also after taxes).

    There are POV’ers (POVerts?) that donate sums far more than that amount when compared to their annual compensation. For you former econ majors, that number is even higher when you consider the value of a dollar decreases the more you have.

    Welcome back, Reed.

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    1. His effective cost for the donation is far less than a $400-$600k hit that he should have taken due to Covid. But Pitt would rather layoff hundreds of university workers on the academic side before they touch these fat cat coaches. And one wonders why the academic eggheads hate these jocks at Pitt.

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  23. Note to MajorMajors: My donation went to Electrical Engineering and, so far, we are kicking your Civil butt!

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    1. Ha-ha. Civils — doing the dirty work — just don’t get paid the big bucks like you EE wizards. I admit it!

      Go Pitt.

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  24. OK, is anyone having continued problems commenting… Except for the 45 people I have banned since I got back (sorry Ike, Annie and HCPNarduzzi.com).

    Let me know – there are more filters (necessary ones) than when I left. I just fixed two commenters’ problems. Tell me who else’s posts needs looking into…

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  25. Jamie Dixon’s TCU team playing WVU right now on ESPN2. Would like to see Jamie beat them but not likely as a 9 point underdog.

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    1. Georgetown and Akron got cancelled. Those are two very good programs. I expect Pitt to destroy the Dukes. 4-1 score. That’s roughly a 30-6 score in American football. Coach Jay and Coach Fisher are in my opinion the two best coaches Pitt employs.

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  27. In this season of pandemic basketball, the mountainqueers have a legitimate shot at the NC.

    Ugh!

    There really is no dominate team and the hoopies are beating some really good teams. Huggie Bear lost his best big man and his team goes on a winning spurt.

    Pitt and Capel lose a big man and they go on a dive to the bottom of the ACC after flirting with the top 3 in the ACC in early January.

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  28. TEX, enough!

    I gave today to Track and Men’s Soccer. PITT Track was the first ACC team to send a letter of interest to my grandson. He also played on the, Nation’s #11, undefeated NJ State Soccer HS team as a Junior. He died of a rare cancer at the age of 18. He never graduated from High school.

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    2. So sorry to hear of your grandson’s passing, Old Pitt Grad. Sounds like he accomplished a lot in his unfairly shortened life. I’ll be thinking about your post when playing with my 6 year old granddaughter this weekend. These moments are so precious. Thank you for sharing your story with us.

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  29. So sorry for your loss OPG.

    You guys can pile on me for being an enabler, but I made a small donation to the Pitt FB Victory fund. In my mind, while I am mildly interested in what happens in the other sports, FB is the only sport that I am invested in so if nothing else it makes me feel better to make a small contribution. Looking at the ticker last night, while the FB fund donations were around $60 K, the number of donors didn’t seem that many to me.

    Liked by 3 people

  34. Pitt has over 350,000 living alumni.

    So three percent of alumni donated. Probably less since many donations are from non alumni.

    I would think the participation rate is below that of most schools. Not sure whether Pitt marketed this day well. Since it was easy to give and many options. I was impressed with their main landing page.

    Average gift was around $225. That tells me pitt didn’t have broad support and depth.

    They really should have gotten at least a quarter of all alumni to gift with most donations around $50. They would have doubled their dollar amount.

    I doubt pitt had a large percentage of first time donors.

    Again, fundraising is an art and science. I think Pitt doesn’t know how to sell and do some very basic things to boost participation in gifting.

    There is a reason why pitt sits at the bottom of the ACC in gifting rates. And it’s not because alumni don’t love their school. It’s a competence issue at Pitt running fundraising.

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  36. I gave to the volleyball team. Football gets enough from me for the seat donation ( if we ever get to sit in our new club seats!)

    OPG, my heart breaks for you. Sending prayers for healing to you and you family.

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