Branding strikes again: what was once known as simply “Pitt vs. Penn State” has been officially retitled as the “Keystone Classic presented by Peoples Gas.”
It’s much less elegant, but it does have a certain ring to it. (Not that I expect anyone to actually refer to it as that).
The announcement was first released on the Penn State website at about 2:45PM today, and was quickly followed up by a similar release from Pitt.
In their statement, Pitt AD Scott Barnes gave a shout out to their new corporate partner:
“We are extremely excited about renewing this great series and grateful to have Peoples Gas on board as a presenting sponsor,”
And hyped the September 10th matchup (that needs no hyping).
“The Pitt-Penn State matchup will serve as a marquee game of the early football season and I know our fan base will be out in full force for the matchup. This has been a great collaboration by the two institutions both in scheduling the game and securing a corporate partner.”
You can read their entire press release on the Pitt website.
Twitter, of course, couldn’t wait to weigh in. The reaction? Lots of “eh” with a little bit of grousing about the whole “sponsorship” thing. The big loser here seems to be Keystone Light beer, which definitely missed the boat on a surefire sponsorship.
