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Football Penn State / Syracuse to play home and home series

I'm also in the minority here who believes that a rekindled rivalry with Pitt would be great for the state of PA in general. The PSU-Pitt rivalry in the 70s and early 80s was legitimately one of the better rivalries in the country. Who is our rival, exactly? It's sure as hell not Ohio State. It's not Maryland/Rutgers. Michigan State is more focused on Michigan. And so on. No, we don't need an arch-rival, but rivalries are great for fans, the players, and the game itself.

For those who claim that giving them a chance to beat us puts us as risk, I have two responses: (1) they beat us in 2016, and yet the trajectory of our program continued to rise, and (2) if we're that afraid of not being able to win that series, then we have problems.
There is no fear, and Paterno tired of Pitt's ever increasing extortion. To hell with Pitt.
 
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The one constant in life is the play Pitt posts. The second constant is me coming on here saying no one cares about Pitt outside western PA. It gets worse when Pitt has their one good year in 10 to 15 years. And if PSU is a little down at the same time, still worse. If Pitt so badly needs a PA opponent, play Temple. Both produce about the same NFL talent, East PA vs west PA. Perfect. I will try to ignore all the play Pitt posts that will come up, but will probably not be able to and post something stupid like this just to fit in.

About as constant as the "no one cares about Pitt" posts juxtaposed with the constant discussion of Pitt around here :)

Clearly people on PSU boards care. Pitt comes up all the time.

If the reason for not playing them is to deny them the opportunity to win a game, just man up and say that. A few people here have done so. We seem to be hiding behind a silly argument that we don't have the room given our other OOC teams we're lining up. Clearly that argument holds no water.

But then again, perhaps we should stop losing 4+ games before we start scheduling legit OOC teams.
 
About as constant as the "no one cares about Pitt" posts juxtaposed with the constant discussion of Pitt around here :)

Clearly people on PSU boards care. Pitt comes up all the time.

If the reason for not playing them is to deny them the opportunity to win a game, just man up and say that. A few people here have done so. We seem to be hiding behind a silly argument that we don't have the room given our other OOC teams we're lining up. Clearly that argument holds no water.

But then again, perhaps we should stop losing 4+ games before we start scheduling legit OOC teams.
Pitt legit?🤣
 
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About as constant as the "no one cares about Pitt" posts juxtaposed with the constant discussion of Pitt around here :)

Clearly people on PSU boards care. Pitt comes up all the time.

If the reason for not playing them is to deny them the opportunity to win a game, just man up and say that. A few people here have done so. We seem to be hiding behind a silly argument that we don't have the room given our other OOC teams we're lining up. Clearly that argument holds no water.

But then again, perhaps we should stop losing 4+ games before we start scheduling legit OOC teams.
Honestly, I don't think anybody on this board or Pitt's knows what goes on behind the scenes and why we don't play, yet we have a lot of people who pretend they do,
 
Yeah, it's not a profitable series in that sense. No doubt about it.

But is Syracuse? Temple? WV's stadium holds a whopping 60,000+. What does that series do for us? I'd argue nothing, other than almost guarantee a win over a program 30 years past its prime.

If we're not going to schedule Pitt (because it's neither profitable nor wise to give them a chance to beat us), fine. But let's man up and schedule real teams. If we're going to use the "we don't have room for Pitt because we're scheduling big time programs" excuse, then let's actually do that.

The trend in CFB is to produce more big time OOC matchups. All the Big Ten powers are already on board. We're lagging behind. And for those who want to avoid those kinds of games for the sake of protecting our W-L record, I'd argue that playing in those games makes us tougher come conference play. To say nothing about how such games boost our national profile.

But if we're content being the big dog on the east coast by beating up on Syracuse, Temple, and West Virginia.......okay.
My post was purely about playing Pitt. Had nothing to do with the OOC scheduling. I agree we should be playing a far better selection. Auburn was awesome. Would love to play Texas and would their arrogant asses again. Some west coast teams. The current selection is embarrassing.

And as soon as Pitt has a consistently decent team.....and actually fills their little stadium.....then would love to play them again. Was at the last Pitt home game and the excitement in the air was palpable. Sold out stadium with probably another 50,000 in the lots tailgating during the game. Probably the most anticipated non-Whiteout game in a decade. Would be great to play them every few years.....if they earn it.
 
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Honestly, I don't think anybody on this board or Pitt's knows what goes on behind the scenes and why we don't play, yet we have a lot of people who pretend they do,
True. All I have to go on is what Franklin said in 2019 re: no room for Pitt b/c they wanted to focus on big time OOC matchups instead.
 
About as constant as the "no one cares about Pitt" posts juxtaposed with the constant discussion of Pitt around here :)

Clearly people on PSU boards care. Pitt comes up all the time.

If the reason for not playing them is to deny them the opportunity to win a game, just man up and say that. A few people here have done so. We seem to be hiding behind a silly argument that we don't have the room given our other OOC teams we're lining up. Clearly that argument holds no water.

But then again, perhaps we should stop losing 4+ games before we start scheduling legit OOC teams.
I agree with you. There are people on both sides who seem to care way too much about a tradition that died in 80s or 90s. It is 2022. Just let it go. If I must play the old Eastern teams (Pitt, Cuse, WV, BC, Temple, etc), I would schedule them for two games and then see them again in 10. They are all interchangeable. So maybe it’s Cuse’s turn. See Pitt in 10.
 
My post was purely about playing Pitt. Had nothing to do with the OOC scheduling. I agree we should be playing a far better selection. Auburn was awesome. Would love to play Texas and would their arrogant asses again. Some west coast teams. The current selection is embarrassing.

And as soon as Pitt has a consistently decent team.....and actually fills their little stadium.....then would love to play them again. Was at the last Pitt home game and the excitement in the air was palpable. Sold out stadium with probably another 50,000 in the lots tailgating during the game. Probably the most anticipated non-Whiteout game in a decade. Would be great to play them every few years.....if they earn it.
May I ask why attendance would be a criteria for renewing the series? Only ask because unless it’s Notre Dame, Penn State, or West Virginia, we will never sell out Heinz Field. There’s no shame in admitting that it’s too big for our fanbase, that’s just who we are. If we keep winning like we did last year, I could see us averaging about 55,000, though.
 
May I ask why attendance would be a criteria for renewing the series? Only ask because unless it’s Notre Dame, Penn State, or West Virginia, we will never sell out Heinz Field. There’s no shame in admitting that it’s too big for our fanbase, that’s just who we are. If we keep winning like we did last year, I could see us averaging about 55,000, though.
Because attendance is critical for funding the program and even more critical to recruiting. If we help them fill the stadium it helps Pitt in both ways. Why would we......should we.....help a rival and competitor for in state players and money?

And it is compounded by the way Pitt manipulated ticket sales. You couldn’t buy a single ticket to the game at Pitt but had to buy season tickets. Huge boost in ticket sales, revenue, and in bragging about how many season tickets they sold.....even though a substantial number were sold to Penn State fans.
 
Because attendance is critical for funding the program and even more critical to recruiting. If we help them fill the stadium it helps Pitt in both ways. Why would we......should we.....help a rival and competitor for in state players and money?

And it is compounded by the way Pitt manipulated ticket sales. You couldn’t buy a single ticket to the game at Pitt but had to buy season tickets. Huge boost in ticket sales, revenue, and in bragging about how many season tickets they sold.....even though a substantial number were sold to Penn State fans.
That’s a fair argument. I also did not attend any of the latest Penn State-Pitt games, so I can’t attest to the season ticket sales.

At the end of the day, I’m just glad Pitt will have a real rivalry game on our schedule again; didn’t matter to me whether it was Penn State or WVU. I would’ve loved to see the Nittany Lions fill that void, but it’s obvious your leadership isn’t interested in it. Nothing wrong with that, you guys just have different priorities.

I think the re-emergence of the Brawl likely ends the in-state series barring a cataclysmic change in the college football landscape.
 
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Its clear that we play Temple to help our recruiting of Philly kids. Pittsburgh used to be the talent hotbed in PA, but its definately Philly now.

I remember going to a Syracuse @ PSU game years ago pre upper deck. Somehow they convinced the Orange to get passed up the stands like the Lion. Mistake. The freshman section won the cheer off. The Orange made it about half way then disappeared. Then the Orange head popped up and was passed up to the top and over the the stadium wall.
 
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