With WVU as Pitt's No. 1 rival, it's time Panthers officials tell Penn State to take a hike in all sports

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

By Bob Smizik, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Not that he's asking for any, or needs any, but here's some advice for Jeff Long, Pitt's athletic director.

Now that the Pitt-West Virginia athletic rivalry has climbed to heights it never has reached before in its more than 100-year history, it's time to put an exclamation point on this compelling and fierce competition between the two Big East Conference schools.

It's time to tell the world just how important these football and basketball games against the Mountaineers are to Pitt. It's time to tell the world that West Virginia, 60 miles away and in the state we love to make fun of, is Pitt's No. 1 rival.

There's only one way to emphasize that point, and that is by telling the world there no longer is a shred of a rivalry with Penn State, the university still perceived by many as Pitt's top rival.

In short, it's high time Pitt publicly told Penn State to get lost.

Whether it wants to admit it or not, Pitt still has the look of the No. 2 team in the state and as a team that needs Penn State to draw a good crowd in football.

Long quietly could communicate to Penn State that he wants no further athletic competition between the two schools. But that wouldn't be sending the necessary message. A public statement would be the best way to handle this.

Long could say something like this in a message to his Penn State counterpart Tim Curley:

"We've attempted for a long time to resume the football series with Penn State. We think it's a great natural rivalry. It was one of the best in college football, and fans throughout the state want to see it played. We've tried for years to get Penn State on our schedule on a home-and-home basis. Most recently, our coach, Dave Wannstedt, reached out to Penn State when he took the job in an attempt to rekindle the rivalry he once played in. His overtures were rejected.

"That being the case, we want to let it be known that we have no interest playing Penn State now or in the future. This is my opinion and also the opinion of chancellor Mark Nordenberg.

"One more thing. Because our non-conference basketball schedule has been criticized for being too soft, we are taking immediate measure to rectify that. Effective immediately, we are eliminating Penn State from our schedule. We want to find a more competitive rival to fill that slot."

The Pitt-West Virginia rivalry deserves that much.

Pitt vs. West Virginia has a chance to be something Pitt vs. Penn State never was -- hotly competitive in two sports in the same conference.

Sure, most of us have wonderful memories of football games between Pitt and Penn State that had national-championship implications. The vast majority of those games came during the Johnny Majors-Jackie Sherrill era, which lasted nine seasons and ended more than 20 years ago. Too often, it has been the case of Penn State dominating Pitt. Basketball games between the two schools, even for the brief time they both competed in the Eastern Eight, were yawners.

Pitt-West Virginia is so much more. The rivalry, always intense, has been heightened in recent years by two factors. For one, the conference rivalry has escalated the importance of the games. In football and basketball, Pitt and West Virginia repeatedly have played crucial games the past several years. For another, the absence of Penn State has put more significance on the football game. If Pitt were still playing Penn State, it possibly might diminish, the Big East games.

West Virginia's basketball win Monday against Pitt was just another in a long line of outstanding and important games between the schools. The Mountaineers started to come into their own last season with two huge wins against Pitt, which helped set the stage for their memorable runs in the Big East and NCAA tournaments. Until that point, they had clearly been behind Pitt in the Big East pecking order.

In football, it seems every time the teams play a major bowl bid is at stake. And that could be the case again when they meet in November.

It's great stuff, and it's a rivalry that needs to be accentuated.

As for Penn State, they've fallen so far off the consciousness of at least young fans that the Pitt student section no longer includes a derisive verse about the Lions in their version of "Hail To Pitt."

If Joe Paterno wants to hold a grudge, and that's what this is about, let him. But let him hold it with no leverage. Pitt doesn't need to be waiting for Paterno to get over the fact it rejected his plan for an Eastern all-sports conference in the early 1980s and instead joined the Big East, which then was only a basketball league.

Maybe if Paterno realizes no one cares about his grudge, he'll get over it.

That's definitely one difference between having West Virginia as a rival as opposed to Penn State.

But there's always the Big East title.

While I admit to missing the Penn State--Pitt rivalry, most people at Penn State just don't care anymore. If they don't want to play us in other sports... fine. There are plenty of other teams. I think we only play them in men's and women's basketball and baseball and softball. Maybe women's gymnastics? Big Whoop.

What I find amusing is that even though the article is supposed to be about a Pitt--WVU rivalry, the writer can't resist putting in jabs at PSU. If he wants to take his ball and go home and pout, let 'em. Like replacing 1 game a year in 4-5 sports is a big deal for Penn State. That's really showing us who's in charge.

It's also ironic, considering sPitt rejected Penn State for an eastern ALL SPORTS conference, and now that we don't play them in football like they want, they want to reject us again. sPitt wanted a piece of our football revenue but didn't want to share their successful basketball revenues with PSU. So now Penn State is in one of the premier ALL SPORTS conferences, while sPitt is stuck in a basketball conference that is trying desperately to catch up and be that eastern all sports conference Penn State wanted in the first place.

I love this line: "In short, it's high time Pitt publicly told Penn State to get lost." Huh? He makes it sound like we're chasing after them, trying to schedule games. They're the ones chasing us to schedule football games. This is like asking a pretty girl to dance with you, getting rejected, then telling everyone you didn't want to dance with her anyway. Not that I would ask a girl to dance, but you get the analogy. Oh, and we did offer them a 1-1 series in football, that they rejected. They wanted a 10 year series or nothing. In case they haven't looked at our schedule, none of our out-of-conference teams have anything near that.

We have nothing to gain from playing sPitt in football anymore. Wanny wants it, in hopes they can beat us, and get some inroads in recruiting, since it's been so long since sPitt football has been relevant on the national scene (it's probably been since the mid to late 80's). I understand he's been recruiting well this year, but he needs all the help he can get turning that program around.

"Whether it wants to admit it or not, Pitt still has the look of the No. 2 team in the state and as a team that needs Penn State to draw a good crowd in football." sPitt needs PSU, Notre Dame and WVU to draw a crowd... most tickets are bought up by the opposing teams fans, not sPitt. And the kicker... when Pitt sold tickets to Penn State fans for the most recent Penn State games at Pitt, they forced them to buy tickets to their game with Temple as well. Talk about desperate for revenue. They did the same thing when they played Notre Dame.

I thought Pitt--WVU already was a big rivalry... the Backyard Brawl. And since you're in the same conference, you get to play each other. Trust me, no one at Penn State looks at sPitt as our main rival. If sPitt still does, after all these years, it sounds like they're having abandonment issues. Perhaps that would have been a better topic for a newspaper article.

So, what is the point of this article? Oh, to bash Penn State 'cause sPitt can't get it's own way. What's really amusing, if you think about it, is that since sPitt can't hook their football wagon to Penn State, they're now trying to hook it to WVU. Maybe they should just try getting their own horses. That way they could fill more than half of their rent-a-stadium.

[ March 01, 2006, 08:36 PM: Message edited by: Penn State ]

One thing..

Pitt absolutely DESTROYED Penn State in recruiting in Western PA this year. It wasn't even close either.

Overall, Pitt had a better class than PSU by acccording to some recruiting resources.

While WVU & Penn State has been the better program in the area over the last 20 years, Wanny has injected some life into the Pitt Program. Whether that translates into a victory on the firld is still an uncertianty.

All sad to see one of the great rivalries disappear like that. And that's why Penn State could use Pittsburgh once again.

Penn St. has been in the Big 11 for almost 15 years now....who is their big in conference rival? Do they have one?

Better yet, what Big 11 school considers Penn State to be its big rival?

Fact is, no school in that conference will ever be able to create a rivalry, a hatred, a storied history like Pitt did.

Pitt has moved on and found a new partner in WVU, sad to say PSU hasn't been able to do the same.

By contrast, the other Eastern schools are paying the price of not heeding JoePa's vision of an all sports conference. Though in defense of them, back in the 80's college hoops was the fast growing money making entity with the Big East being example A of that. Now it is the opposite.

I am in agreement with that. Penn State is hurting for a big time rivalry game. The Big 10 was pimping Michigan State & PSU, however that never materialized. PSU has been average to awful most of the last 5 to 6 years with exception to two years ( this past season and 2002 I believe).

That being said, Pitt & WVU in the backyard brawl has turned into a fierce rivalry.

While it took Eastern football a decade to recover without PSU playing, you are starting to see a re emergence of Eastern football pride by WVU, Pitt, Rutgers, & UCONN. If Syrcuse gets it together which they should, The Big East will absoutely captivate the NorthEastern market like it did in basketball back in the 80's.

We all know how PSU fans go crazy with the mentioning of Eastern fotball and their name is excluded. Just as the Big East rejected PSU in the 80's, the Lions have found a home. While only a fool ( some of this board know this word) would state the Big East didn't make a mistake, only a fool wold realize PSU is fish out of water or in a certain Cane fan's scenerio refugee off raft in its geographic relationship to the Big 10 schools.

While Eastern football's stock is going through the roof, PSU looked very good last season. The big question is does Joe Pa and the program having staying power as the programs around him grow in recruiting, money, and interest.

Ummmmmmmm... that's three things, not one.

I would like to see any major/reputable recruiting resource (no, a Pittsburgh newspaper does not count--they still have a burr up their butt about Penn State) that thinks Pitt had a better recruiting class than Penn State. I will say Pitt was ranked in the top 20, but Penn State's was ranked top 5/6. I'll take getting destroyed in Western PA if it means a top 5 class. We went out of state to get the players we needed, and destroyed Maryland.

Until Wanny starts winning, the jury is still out on Pitt. We had 5 bad years. We think we've righted the ship, and are moving in the right direction. How many bad years has Pitt had in the last 20 years? They still gloat that they won the last game over us... and then talk about how we've sucked the last 6 years. Gee, so you beat a team that sucks? There's a feather in your cap.

Almost every major program has gone through some down periods... see Oklahoma, USC, Texas, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Alabama as examples in the past 15 years alone. They turned it around, so I'm not sure why people think Penn State can't. I guess because our turnaround is with the same coach. Well, JoePA may be stubborn, but he also isn't stupid, and he doesn't like to lose. He has made major changes in the coaching and the way the team is run, to adjust (belatedly) to the times.

He also removed his son (JayPa) from the recruiting coordinator position, putting it in the hands of someone (Mike McQueary) who has handled it very well. And, they've changed their recruiting strategy, again to adjust to the times. They used to lock up verbals very early... often in a kid's junior year. Then the schollies were gone, and you couldn't go after anyone who had a breakout senior year. More importantly, the trend has been for the top players to drag out the recruiting process, and hold off on announcing their school choice until late (after we had already maxed out the schollies we had to offer). A few years ago Penn State began holding off on many offers, and going mano a mano for those top players. It's a gamble, but a calculated one that so far has paid off the past few years.

I don't think next year is an 11-1 year again, but I also don't expect a losing season. And I have a feeling, from what I've heard, that we will be better than most people expect. Now 2007, on paper... we already have a red circle on that season!

[ March 02, 2006, 08:46 PM: Message edited by: Penn State ]