• Q: Is it true that LeSean McCoy can turn pro after next season? If it is true, what do you think the chances are he does?

Ray Weaver, Mars

ZEISE: McCoy -- thanks in part to Larry Fitzgerald's successful appeal back in 2003-04 -- would have an opportunity to make a case that he should be allowed to enter the draft after next season because he spent that one season at prep school. He'd have to appeal, he'd have to find the right loophole and make a good argument, and at that point the outcome would be in an arbitrator or a judge's hands. The key in the Fitzgerald case was that he argued that he had enough credits to graduate at the end of his senior year of high school but chose to go to prep school to improve his academic standing thus the year at prep school should be counted as a post-graduate year. If McCoy could make a similar argument, he could then be eligible after next season but I don't know what his status was in the spring of 2006 when his high school class graduated. As for the chances that he goes pro -- that hasn't even been discussed yet, but I'd say if he has a huge season and it looks like he is going to be picked high, I'm sure it will be a possibility.

• Q: Do you have any idea what the non-conference schedule will be for next year? I've heard that Central Florida is pulling out of the game scheduled for next year . Do you know the replacement?

Darrell Edwards, Philadelphia

ZEISE: It isn't finished yet but it is getting close. Apparently they are working on a deal to play Bowling Green -- the game that was supposed to be played this year -- as well as closing in on a deal to play Buffalo. And yes, Central Florida has opted out of the game which means the home schedule next year -- assuming both of the aforementioned deals get done -- would be Buffalo, Bowling Green, Iowa, Rutgers, West Virginia and Louisville and the away schedule would be Notre Dame, Navy, Syracuse, Cincinnati, South Florida and Connecticut.

• Q: Will there be no bowl season this year for us and was this season a disaster?

Jim Bowser, Freeport

ZEISE: I would say chances of a bowl game are looking bleak but it is not out of the realm of possibility. Pitt would need three wins in four games to become bowl eligible but even then, considering there are already four bowl-eligible teams in the Big East and two more that are likely going to be in the next week or two -- six wins might not be enough. And the season will only be a disaster if the team finishes like it started -- with awful losses and getting blown out. If the team continues to make progress and improves and wins a few more games, then it will at least be something to build on for next year and there would truly be a reason for optimism.