Badger Badger Badger Badger: Pitt Vs. Wisconsin In The Works

You've got to hand it to the athletic department. Pitt has had some pretty marquee games on the football schedule recently. We have our series with Notre Dame. In the past decade, we've played teams like Iowa, Michigan State, Texas A&M, and Nebraska. We're playing Utah this season and we have upcoming games against Virginia Tech and Penn State. News out of Madison is that Wisconsin AD Barry Alvarez (a Pittsburgh native) wants to start a series with the Panthers.

I'm all for this. I'm glad that our athletic department is willing to schedule games against marquee opponents and we're getting home and home series out of them (looking at you folks in State College). Now, looking at Pitt's upcoming non-conference schedules, we look pretty booked until 2015 at the earliest. But, Wisconsin is planning a home and home with BYU in which the second game will take place in 2015. Then, Pitt is playing Penn State in 2016 and 2017 so I'm not sure if the athletic department is willing to schedule two Big Ten teams and Notre Dame for the 2016 and/or 2017 out of conference schedules. So, don't plan on this game actually being played anytime soon. However, it's encouraging that Pitt is not taking the Rutgers approach for non-conference games and scheduling powerhouses like North Carolina Central, Ohio, and Army.

And on top of that, West Virginia was placed on two year's probation and will lose scholarships. Today is a good day for Pitt fans.