I really think it would be a bad move for Pitt to enter the Big Ten. In the Big East, they can recruit kids from NYC, DC, and other places out east. Kids from the East coast will have more opportunity to play in front of friends and family, either in person or on TV. A kid from NYC could play basketball in front of family when Pitt plays at home, at St Johns, Syracuse, UConn, or Georgetown, etc without much travel time. But not going to get a lot of family going from NYC to Wisconsin for a game. That could hurt their recruiting. Admittedly though, it hasn't really hurt Penn St's recruiting in football. What kid from NYC is going to play in front of family at Syracuse or Georgetown? You might as well be in Ohio. In theory that could hurt recruiting, but would it in reality? Iowa football has been getting multiple kids from NJ for decades now. Why? I have no idea. Supposedly some coach who worked under Fry had ties with NJ, but anyway, that was in the 80's and they were getting kids to go from NJ to freaking Iowa. Nobody was watching Hawkeyes games on TV back then. Granted it was the Big Ten and there really wasn't any meaningful east coast college football then. But I think most kids get recruited based on where they will be playing their home games, not based on potential road trips.