Pitt and Penn State played for the 100th time in the 2019 football season, and the final time for the foreseeable future, as the teams have no future meetings scheduled and both have schedules that are mostly full through the middle of the next decade.
On Friday, Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour was asked about the future of the rivalry in a press briefing before the Nittany Lions play Memphis in the Cotton Bowl.
She said the prospects of it being resumed aren’t totally dead, but it’s not a front-burner issue for the Lions at this time.
“I certainly wouldn’t say it’s dead,” Barbour said. “I would say it’s not something we’re talking about right now. We’ve got a Power Five game scheduled out for a number of years. But I certainly wouldn’t say it’s dead.”
Since the Big Ten moved to a nine-game conference schedule, Penn State has played just one non-conference Power Five game each season. PSU has Virginia Tech scheduled for 2020 and 2025, Auburn in 2021 and 2022 and West Virginia in 2023 and 2024.
“With us playing a nine-game schedule and them playing an eight-game schedule, it’s a different proposition for us than it is for them,” Barbour said.
Pitt has typically played two Power Five non-conference opponents. They’ll play Notre Dame in 2020, 2023 and 2025, Tennessee in 2021 and 2022, West Virginia in 2021-25 and Wisconsin in 2026-27.
It seems that the soonest realistic date for the rivalry to resume would be 2027, representing a six-year gap between games. The teams went four years without playing between 1992 and 1997 and 15 years between 2000 and 2016.
These ADs can make whatever excuses they want, but if they were smart, they’d play this game every year and they would make it the last game of the season — just like all the teams from southern states do. I’m not saying this to be critical of either PSU or Pitt, but moreso about football in Pennsylvania in general. It’s no surprise that we have two teams from the southern US playing for the national championship again. The college game (and everything that goes with it like traditions and rivalries) isn’t valued the same here as it is in… Read more »
Screw them and their unbearable fans. Play the teams that want to play Pitt and don’t view it like they’re doing Pitt a favor.
Couldn’t have said it better. Hail to Pitt.
These ADs can make whatever excuses they want, but if they were smart, they’d play this game every year and they would make it the last game of the season — just like all the teams from southern states do. I’m not saying this to be critical of either PSU or Pitt, but moreso about football in Pennsylvania in general. It’s no surprise that we have two teams from the southern US playing for the national championship again. The college game (and everything that goes with it like traditions and rivalries) isn’t valued the same here as it is in… Read more »