I was listening to the radio on the way home from work last night and I couldn't believe my ears. Pitt and Penn State will actually play eachother in football in 2016 and 2017. It will be a home and home with the first game played at Heinz Field.
According to the Pope of college football, Beano Cook, Penn State had an opening on its schedule after Miami opted out of their two-year deal with the Nittany Lions.
The Pitt fans that I've talked to are pretty excited about it. I know I am. The only thing I regret is that it won't happen for five seasons. On the other hand, Penn State fans have been spewing their usual bs: "It's just another game to us." "Pitt needs Penn State more than Penn State needs Pitt."
If you really think a Pitt/Penn State contest is just another game, you're either in denial, full of crap, or just plain ignorant to the history.
Well, if Pitt is "just another game" for Penn State, it's one of several. The one thing JoePa hasn't been able to find in the Big Ten is a natural rival. Ever go to a party and you feel like you really don't fit in? They might deny it, but that's probably how Penn State feels in the Big Ten. Yes, the Nittany Lions are passionate about their rivalries with Michigan and Ohio State, but those two schools are really only interested in eachother. Yes, the Michigan State game has become the forced end-of-season rivalry, but again, MSU is probably more interested in its battles with Michigan and Notre Dame. Now that Nebraska has joined the Big Ten, they're trying to create a Penn State/Nebraska rivalry. And the same arrogant Penn State fans who say that the Pitt rivalry is a thing of the past are trying to justify the convoluted Nebraska rivalry by citing some exciting games between the two schools dating back to the 80's and 90's.
Maybe the Penn State fans get their arrogance from the school's athletic director Tim Curley who didn't seem to be nearly as excited about the renewal of the rivalry as Pitt AD Steve Pederson. Curley said he didn't see the two schools playing beyond the 2017 season. He acted almost as if Pitt was just another school that he contacted to fill the scheduling void.
The fact that it will be the first time the two programs meet on the gridiron in over a decade and a half is criminal, but to not work towards trying to make it a yearly-event is an injustice to college football. The rivalry never should have stopped in the first place, and if wasn't for the grudge that Joe Paterno had against Pitt, it probably never would have.
As I said, I'm excited. I don't know what the college football landscape will be like in five years, but I hope both Pitt and Penn State are good so the hype will be intense. Actually, I hope Penn State is in the middle of a 4-56 slide and Jay Paterno is the head coach and Pitt kills them in both games by a combined score of 120-3.
That's how I feel about Penn State football. Whatever animosity that exists between Pitt and WVU fans, it's ten-fold between Pitt and Penn State. And that's what makes a great college rivalry.
So, Penn State fans, you can continue to walk around with your blind-arrogance and state your usual bs about the game not meaning anything to you--although you guys are also saying that the game at Heinz Field will be mostly PSU fans even though they supposedly don't care--but Pitt has always been your best dance-partner and they always will be no-matter how long you go between dances.
It's just too bad we have to wait five years to dance a couple of numbers.
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