A Plea To Continue The Backyard Brawl
by oaklandzoo12 on Feb 15, 2012 1:00 PM EST
in Pitt Athletics
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For most Pitt fans, it was a time for celebration back in September when Pitt announced they were moving to the ACC. Now, though, we're seeing the negative aspects of conference realignment with the loss of arguably our biggest rival - West Virginia.
With the Mountaineers' move to the Big 12 now official on July 1st, the Backyard Brawl may be over for a while. I don't expect the Mountaineers to be showing up on any future Pitt football schedule for the next few seasons, which is truly a sad sight to see. While WVU fans are no doubt happy to see home match-ups with Oklahoma and TCU next season, most are probably a little upset to not see Pittsburgh on it as well. And Pitt fans should be as well.
Do we hate having to go to Morgantown to play WVU? Yep. Do a couple West Virginia and Pitt fans tend to take the rivalry too far? Undoubtedly. But if we refuse to play West Virginia, are we really any different than Penn State? For years, Pitt has been trying to get an annual series against the Nittany Lions started up. But the constant statement out of State College was that there was no room on the schedule for Pitt. The Panthers' stance is now looking eerily similar to Penn State's. A 100+ year rivalry and there's no room on the schedule? That's not just wrong, it seems criminal.
While football is the main focus, what will happen to the basketball series? Bob Huggins would like to continue it and if Jamie Dixon was smart, he should as well.
West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said today he will speak with Pitt coach Jamie Dixon about continuing the popular basketball series between the two schools after the season. The Mountaineers are moving to the Big 12 in the fall and there are no scheduled games in the future.
Basketball schedules are put together during the summer, but Pitt also has to want to continue the series. Pitt athletic director Steve Pederson said he would have to "evaluate his options" concerning the football series with the Mountaineers. Dixon does the basketball schedule on his own. He was noncommital on the WVu series when asked about it in October. He will speak with reporters later today after practice.
Huggins said he would be surprised if the two schools did not find a way to continue the series.
Unlike in football, there's plenty of room on Pitt's non-conference schedule to have an annual game against West Virginia. It'll give fans a game to look forward to in the early part of the season as opposed to playing teams like VMI, North Florida, or South Carolina State and will give the winner a good non-conference win for their tournament resume. And if Pitt can play Robert Morris every year, it makes good sense that room can be found for the Mountaineers.
No offense to Maryland or Syracuse, but games against the Terps or the Orange just don't get my blood boiling quite like seeing that obnoxious gold and blue. Sure, it's fun to see Jim Boeheim get all frazzled as Pitt destroys his 2-3 zone that he's spent 30+ years perfecting and I'm sure beating Randy Edsall will make Pitt fans happy. But will it ever compare to this? Or this? Or this?
In the end, it all comes down to Steve Pederson and if he ever realizes that he will put West Virginia in the same situation that Penn State put Pitt in, maybe talks to resume the series annually will begin. Would an annual series against Penn State be nice? Sure ... and I get the fact that Penn State means a lot more than West Virginia to many fans. But as a younger Pitt fan, I never saw a Pitt-PSU match-up and while it's fun to hate on PSU, it just doesn't do the same thing that WVU does to me. And honestly, do we really expect Penn State to ever agree to an annual home-and-home series with Pitt, anyway?
Let's be honest - the Notre Dame series is great. It puts Pitt on national television every time and draws a lot of interest. But Notre Dame probably wouldn't flinch if Pitt wasn't on the schedule - especially now that the Panthers won't be in the Big East much longer as the Irish must play conference opponents in football as part of their agreement with the Big East. And Pitt has plenty of opportunities to get on national television in the ACC when they play teams like Virginia Tech, Miami, Florida State, or Clemson. And quite frankly, I wouldn't be upset to see Notre Dame replaced on the schedule with West Virginia.
But West Virginia is different. We're happy when we win and sad when we lose to any opponent, but those feelings are amplified against the Mountaineers. Why should playing only three non-conference games mean that we can only have one marquee non-conference opponent? If we want to be the best, let's play the best teams to prove it and not skate through to a BCS bid through a weak non-conference schedule like Virginia Tech did this season.
Pitt. Don't pull a Penn State and deny fans a chance to see a great rivalry. Continue the series with West Virginia.
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room to schedule
I don’t think Pitt is pulling the same maneuver as Pennstate did to us. Having only 3 OOC games is markedly different from the 4 OOC games that PSU used to hang their non-competing hat on. While for football/rivalry’s sake, I might rather play WVU than ND, let’s just accept ND on the OOC schedule as a fait accompli.
If the Big XII goes to 12 teams and adopts a 9-game conf sked, I would not blame WVU if they also couldn’t find room for Pitt on their OOC schedule.
Schedule
Yeah, the three games really hampers the ability to play certain teams. Would like to see the ACC go to an eight-game conference schedule.
Manager of Cardiac Hill - SB Nation's Pitt Panthers blog
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Are you kidding? Why would we ever play West Virginia again?
It’s hard to understand the sentiment for keeping the series with West Virginia in football and basketball. All the drama around Pitt’s 2012 football schedule is a result of West Virginia’s childish and Texas-serving temper tantrum to get along to the Big 12. We shouldn’t be lending WVU a hand. Let their fans enjoy home games against the likes of Kansas State and Iowa State. I hope the Mountie fans have saved up their travel $$. Other than perhaps flights to Houston for the UT game, they will have no discount air fares. Let’s not play them in hoops either. Why risk the loss? Pitt needs to direct its attention to continuing its series with Notre Dame and bringing Penn State on as often as possible. Most fans would rather see an annual Pitt-Penn State basketball game than a Pitt-WVU game. West Virginia made its own bed – let them lie in it.
PSU hoops are terrible
I’d much rather play WVU where a win would mean something and a loss isn’t considered a bad loss.
I get why fans want to play PSU but we need to get it through our heads that we probably won’t see an annual game against them. We have a great rivalry game already.
Cardiac Hill contributor
by oaklandzoo12 on Feb 16, 2012 9:52 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
Hoops
Man, I don’t know – of PSU/WVU/ND, I’d rather play Penn State every year in football. But for basketball, not so much. Those games aren’t rivalry games at all – certainly not to the level of Pitt-WVU.
Manager of Cardiac Hill - SB Nation's Pitt Panthers blog
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Uhhhh
have you ever been to Morgantown? Those girls you refer to rank about a 5 out of 10. Poor Pitt fan. Going out in Mo-Town gives a college dude whiplash. Can’t say the same about Oakland.
(Cue the “buckteeth”, fat and “sister” comments in 3…….2……….1……..)
Very well written
and just as I thought. 65% of PITT fans want the series to continue. Sources close to the b-ball program have Bob Huggins wanting to begin a “City” format (ala Philly) where WVU, Pitt, Duquesne, Robert Morris play each other. I’m not concerned about annually playing Pitt in b-ball. That’s gonna happen.
It NEEDS to happen in football as well. These sorts of rivalry games are so difficult to duplicate. The rivalry is so unique. Think of when both teams will be good (not in the last 10-15 years when you guys have gone through so much turnover, down times, Wannstedt, etc.).
And spare the comments about not having an interest in continuing the rivalry because most of you want to according to the poll (and I would bet most WVU fans would too, despite citing lack of competition as reason for not wanting to play Pitt anymore).
Simply put
I hate Pitt (love the Steelers, Pens, and Buccos)! I absolutely hate that part of Pittsburgh called Oakland. In my heart, Pitt is a school that has a severe identity crisis in the best city in America. To me, it doesn’t epitomize the city at all. I hate it. (Did I make myself clear?). I truly feel that Pitt fans have turned into more of a “wine and cheese” crowd ala 3/4 of the universities in the ACC and feel this shift has steadily occurred over the past 20 years.
I love beating Pitt…at anything. We once had a charity walk in my academic department and I remember personally turning it into a competition and wanting to beat my Pitt counterpart, which I did. (How sad!) I can’t imagine NOT beating Pitt. I can’t imagine not hating them. My hatred would start to wane (like it has Penn St….Once hated them as much, if not more, but now I’m indifferent to that school).
Hating, in this case, keeps me healthy! And Pitt is the perfect medicine.
I’m on a mission to spread the word to as many ears as possible to keep the Backyard Brawl in football (it will remain in b-ball) on AT LEAST an every other year basis. However, if I have my way it will be EVERY year.
And that
(other than wins and losses) is the truest sense of a rivalry
Manager of Cardiac Hill - SB Nation's Pitt Panthers blog
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A better poll
I think the better question would be of the three teams most likely to be an annual rivalry, Penn State, WVU, and Notre Dame should Pitt face every year.
To be honest
I’m not sure what it is for me. Penn State is personally at the top of my list, but I have a really hard time picking between WVU and ND. I have reasons for wanting both … if you held a gun to my head, I’d say WVU 2nd and ND 3rd.
Manager of Cardiac Hill - SB Nation's Pitt Panthers blog
Follow us on Facebook at CardiacHill and on Twitter at @PittPantherBlog
Exactly
the question that should be asked since only one of them can realistically be played, since 2 of the non-cons every year will have to be cupcakes.
Man, it is a tough one. You could make a great argument for any of the 3 honestly. If a gun were put to my head, I would say in this order: ND, WVU and then Penn St.. I might change my mind tomorrow though and reverse it.
All are valid choices
You could make a case for each of the three schools, for me I’d say Penn St would be number one. I remember the first game I went to as a kid was the 48-14 loss to them and I’ve hated them ever since, growing up that was always the biggest of rivalries. Second would be ND, since they always bring the national audience and when you beat any Notre Dame team it’s always a big win. Remember in 09 it was ND game that brought the Saturday night ABC prime time stage to Heinz Field, and that was one of the best atmospheres I remember for a game. WVU would be third, and while I always gotten up for the games with them it’s just never had quite the same feel as the other two.
It is funny
because I did not start becoming a Pitt fan at all until 2006 when I first when to school at Pitt (came from out of state). And to be honest, since Pitt has never played PSU since then, I could never really understand Pitt’s hatred towards PSU. I just can’t relate to other Pitt fans in this manner.
The thing is, this same thing will happen towards WVU if they don’t play them in football anymore. People will just start to feel indifferent towards the school – even more so than PSU probably because WVU is not even in the same state.
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