Pitt Vs. Penn State: New Blood = Renewed Rivalry?

by CardiacHill on May 7, 2025 10:00 AM EDT in Pitt Football

Pitt and Penn State are all set to play in 2016 and 2017 - that much we know. Now, Penn State's new coach says it should be an annual thing:

"I would love to see that game played on an annual basis," O’Brien told the Tribune-Review on Friday. "I have a tremendous amount of respect for (Pitt coach) Paul Chryst and their program, and that’s a great rivalry. For the fans of Pennsylvania to be able to see that game every year, I think that’s pretty neat."

So we're again at the same place - is there room for Penn State on the schedule every year?

Sadly, probably not. In the Big East, Pitt had nothing but space on the schedule since they played only seven conference games. With five openings for non-conference games, we've seen almost everyone under the sun: Miami, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Iowa, not to mention the usual I-AA squads and MAC teams. I, for one, will miss that much flexibility in the schedule. Pitt was really able to not only schedule some quality teams, but also a few guaranteed wins along the way.

In the ACC, though, Pitt won't have nearly as much room, as we've discussed ad nauseum. And when you throw in the fact that Pitt has really made Notre Dame a priority, things get even tighter if the Irish are going to be an annual opponent. And, oh yeah, there's that whole Backyard Brawl thing to consider - though, Pitt has seemed lukewarm when that topic's been broached.

With only three non-conference games and the need for at least one or two lesser foes, it's pretty easy to see that there's no chance Notre Dame, Penn State, and West Virginia can all be annual opponents.

I've thrown out the idea before that Pitt should rotate the three on some regular schedule, but that would also depend on the availability of the other schools - each of which have their own opponents they'd like to schedule as well. Personally, I'd like to see one less ACC game to allow teams four non-conference games.That would open things up a bit. But if that doesn't happen, I'd lean towards wanting to see Pitt go the route of two cupcakes and one of the three aforementioned teams each year. The downside to that is that Pitt will only have a home game with each team every six years.

I doubt that would be the popular opinion, but with a more difficult schedule in the ACC as it is, I'd prefer to make the non-conference a little easier.

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I agree

about the 9 game conference schedule. It doesn’t leave much room open for flexibility in the non-conference scheduling as we have discussed before. They should go back down to 8 game conf. schedules.

That said, with only 3 out-of-conference games, I think 2 of those 3 every year need to be either ND, WVU, or PSU and the other game a cupcake. Pick your poison. People say they need at-least 2 cupcake games. However, you are guaranteed to play Duke and Cuse every year and possibly Wake Forest, and those are 3 cupcake games right there, so there will still be plenty of cupcakes on the schedule. As Pitt fans, we should want the most exciting games as possible on the schedule.

by PittGuy on May 7, 2025 10:08 AM EDT reply actions

It's about getting home games

The schools want to have 7 home games each year and they don’t want to have to go out an buy additional games, so I don’t think the 8 game schedule is going to be a possibility. The athletic departments prefer having 9 of 12 scheduled and minimizing the need to pay to have MAC and FCS schools come to town.
Unfortunately college football is a business and playing 2 schools in a home and home series on an annual basis is a bad business model. It would mean every other year you could only have 6 home games.

by twink on May 7, 2025 1:01 PM EDT up reply actions

We Need to Play Penn State Every Year

I can’t agree with your blog post. We need to play Penn State every year if that option is available to us. That’s our biggest rival and I don’t care how we do it - we need to squeeze them onto the schedule. If that means giving up the ND game then so be it. Most people won’t agree with me on this but I personally would have rather kept the Backyard Brawl than the ND game and I sure as hell would prefer Penn State to ND.

At the same time, I don’t think we need two cupcake games. I’m OK with having both Penn State and ND on the schedule. Although it would be a tough schedule (arguably the toughest in the ACC) winning those games raises the profile of a program. Playing those games to some degree even raises the profile of the program. I’m not a fan of how the other schools like to pack their schedule with cupcakes and I don’t like Pitt doing it either.

by NDL on May 7, 2025 12:06 PM EDT reply actions

And really

common guys…Duke, Wake Forest and Syracuse and even to an extent Maryland as of late are all cupcakes. I would say two of those three big boys (ND, WVU, or PSU) “NEED” to be played every year.

On previous posts, we have already have the argument on which ones should be played. Personally, I say ND and WVU, but I would be fine with any combination of the two.

by PittGuy on May 7, 2025 1:25 PM EDT up reply actions

Cupcakes

Yes, those teams aren’t very good, but Pitt’s problem is that they’re in the Coastal division. They only one they’ll be playing every year is Duke. Wake, Syracuse, and Maryland are all in the Atlantic. I believe that Pitt gets Syracuse every year as their cross-over rival, but will not play the other teams every year.

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by CardiacHill on May 7, 2025 6:43 PM EDT up reply actions

Exactly

that is 2 guaranteed cupcakes every year in Duke and Cuse. And once every three years, you will get a third cupcake in WF or Maryland (most years). So, that is 3 to 4 cupcake games every year. The other two non-conference spots can be taken up by ND, PSU or WVU. It would be sweet if we got 2 of those 3 every year.

by PittGuy on May 7, 2025 8:39 PM EDT up reply actions

Penn State

If Pitt were to only play one of the three each year, I agree that it should be Penn State. But I don’t think Penn State will commit to doing that and I also think there’s value in playing teams such as West Virginia and Notre Dame. I agree that ND clearly isn’t the rival to Pitt that the other two are, but playing the Irish is a huge coup. It’s not only a guaranteed national TV game, it’s also a big recruiting tool. Local players may want to suit up against WVU or Penn State, but everybody wants to play Notre Dame.

The two cupcake thing to me comes down to this: Like it or not, but unless Pitt gets significantly better, they’re going to be headed for a bunch of seven and eight win seasons in the ACC (sometimes worse). Facing teams like Virginia Tech, Virginia, Miami, and Georgia Tech is a big step up from the likes of South Florida, Louisville, UConn, and Rutgers. Pitt hasn’t even been dominant over those teams and will now be facing a tougher schedule. The game, in the end, comes down to wins and losses and if big time programs can schedule two cupcakes, I don’t see any problem with Pitt doing that.

Fans don’t want to hear that because they’d often rather see their team play top competition than win games, but I’ll take the extra win each year.

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by CardiacHill on May 7, 2025 6:41 PM EDT up reply actions

No WVU

PSU and ND in that order. By playing WVU you help them gain exposure to Pa recruits. Now that they are in the Big 12 with no Florida schools, recruiting is going to dry up in the sunshine state. If they lose Fl and Pa where will they recruit ? WVU burned a bridge in Fl by canceling their game with Fl St, there will be no future games there, and So Fla won’t want to schedule WVU with the way they departed the Big East.

by PittACCfan on May 7, 2025 6:32 PM EDT reply actions

PA Recruiting

I think that’s a fair point about gained exposure to PA recruits, but they’ll always get some of those in my opinion. There are always going to be PA recruits that prefer a more rural campus that can’t get into Penn State. West Virginia is a nearby alternative if they still want to play close to home.

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by CardiacHill on May 7, 2025 6:46 PM EDT up reply actions