I've come to the conclusion that I don't think Penn State should play Pitt.

[fairgambit]

Do you think PSU wants out of conference games with those kinds of teams. We tried Alabama and they thumped us twice and would do it again. Is that the kind of exposure you want? I think the Pitt game comes at the right time for this program that is hopefully on the rise. It will be competitive and will attract attention because at one time it was one of the best rivalry games in all of college football.

Yes. To be the best you must play the best. Lots of teams lose to Alabama. Others win, and reap their just rewards. Either way, the game means more than playing Pitt. It's not like we would play them tomorrow, and if the game is set for 6 or 7 years from now, we should be should be competitive. If we are not, who the hell cares who we play.

 

[Ten Thousan Marbles]

I don't think either of your programs "need" each other. But nothing beats a rivalry game, and outside of Pitt who is PSU's rival? Embrace the series and have fun with it. JMO...

Yeah. This is the Michigan Man line. I got that this week from a Clarion grad who is a Michigan fan. LOL.

 

[jferretti]

Yes. To be the best you must play the best. Lots of teams lose to Alabama. Others win, and reap their just rewards. Either way, the game means more than playing Pitt. It's not like we would play them tomorrow, and if the game is set for 6 or 7 years from now, we should be should be competitive. If we are not, who the hell cares who we play.[/QUOTE]

This makes my point. Since we are not competitive with top teams, this game comes at the right time. I recommend sitting back and enjoying the game instead of handwringing over "who benefits".

 

[Ten Thousan Marbles]

Let's not forget that back in 2012, Pitt fans cared little about the well being of PA when they were clamoring for the death penalty for PSU. There are also tons of obnoxious Pitt fans who feigned concern for Sandusky's victims, all the while acting gleeful about their new trash talking opportunities.

.

This.

 

[john4psu]

We don't want to play Pitt because we fear it might expose us as not that superior. With the parity in college football nowadays, teams like Pitt can now beat very good teams ala Pitt beating #1 ranked wvu at the end of the season in like 2007 or something.

It is no win for us because if Pitt beats us they gain a lot. If we win, we gain nothing because we have already created this idea that we are more superior and most buy it.

So you're suggesting that we should play weaker or stronger teams than Spitt?

 

[jferretti]

[

Let's not forget that back in 2012, Pitt fans cared little about the well being of PA when they were clamoring for the death penalty for PSU. There are also tons of obnoxious Pitt fans who feigned concern for Sandusky's victims, all the while acting gleeful about their new trash talking opportunities.

Why do you care what Pitt fans think or say? Does it really matter? Fans do and say stupid things. That is why Alabama fans were printing up t-shrts for the USC game chiding them for O.J. Simpson for pete's sake. Who the hell cares? One way to shut up obnoxious fans is to beat their team. I think what drives all the Pitt angst is the fear of failure. That is what makes a game

 

[Go M&B]

Yeah. This is the Michigan Man line. I got that this week from a Clarion grad who is a Michigan fan. LOL.

Has nothing to do with being a Michigan man. Has everything to do with being a college football fan.

 

[fairgambit]

Sorry, I just don't agree. When you schedule a series you generally can't project the strengths of the two teams in the years the games are played. You do know, however, that playing Alabama, or Notre Dame, will have more of an impact than playing Pitt. If this is just about winning games, lets confine all our out of conference games to the Kents of the world. All that aside, there has been some talk from both Athletic Departments about possible future games. Count me as among those opposed.

 

[jferretti]

Why do you care what Pitt fans think or say? Does it really matter? Fans do and say stupid things. That is why Alabama fans were printing up t-shrts for the USC game chiding them for O.J. Simpson for pete's sake. Who the hell cares? One way to shut up obnoxious fans is to beat their team. I think what drives all the Pitt angst is the fear of failure. That is what makes a game

 

[Woodpecker]

I got the impression that this discussion was about whether to continue playing Pitt after the 4 game series is over and not whether we should enjoy tomorrow's game

 

[jferretti]

I got the impression that this discussion was about whether to continue playing Pitt after the 4 game series is over and not whether we should enjoy tomorrow's game

I believe the arguments in support of playing Pitt tomorrow, next year and for the years beyond apply. And I think the Pitt game at the Beav would outdraw by a wide margin every other "who cares" game we have been fed a diet of recently.

 

[Fox Chapel Lion II]

Do you think PSU wants out of conference games with those kinds of teams. We tried Alabama and they thumped us twice and would do it again. Is that the kind of exposure you want? I think the Pitt game comes at the right time for this program that is hopefully on the rise. It will be competitive and will attract attention because at one time it was one of the best rivalry games in all of college football.

Harvard and Yale at one time was the best rivalry game in all of college football. Now? Nobody cares. Times change. When we were major independents, of course you play Pitt.

And for benefit? There are maybe three teams in America who would NOT take a thumping from Alabama. So what? Who would NOT jump at the chance for a home and home with the Tide? Hell we played them with Rob Bolden at QB. Life went on, didn't it?

We are slowly signing guys from Georgia and North Carolina. We're aggressively going after prospects in Florida. If there is a guy down South who is thinking about us, which is better? Playing USC on coast-to-coast at 3:30 or playing Pitt? We'd be better off with a home and home with Louisville or Cincinnati or Kentucky - there are a lot of players in the Ohio Valley that we have not been killing it with. We have some momentum with Clifford - capitalize.

We beat Pitt and it helps us in the WPIAL. We already get a lot of players from the WPIAL. Pitt gets a lot too. Always have, always will. There are excellent prospects in Western PA, but it's not 1960 anymore. Not nearly as many as there used to be. You have to spread your wings a little.

 

[Woodpecker]

I believe the arguments in support of playing Pitt tomorrow, next year and for the years beyond apply. And I think the Pitt game at the Beav would outdraw by a wide margin every other "who cares" game we have been fed a diet of recently.

See, that's just it. This should not be measured by how it compares to home-only games against lesser opponents. It is a home-and-home and should be compared to other teams that could be scheduled as home-and-home. Some of us feel that we can do better; you think playing Pitt is the best possible. We simply disagree.

 

[fairgambit]

I believe the arguments in support of playing Pitt tomorrow, next year and for the years beyond apply. And I think the Pitt game at the Beav would outdraw by a wide margin every other "who cares" game we have been fed a diet of recently.

No one is suggesting playing Temple, or Kent, is a good idea, but while Pitt is better than the Owls, how excited would our fan base be if Alabama, or Notre Dame, or Florida State were coming to town? You can have the Panthers if you want. Give me a big name team in a game that has some national impact.

 

[psu00]

Has nothing to do with being a Michigan man. Has everything to do with being a college football fan.

I get what you're saying but there's other factors in play. First is the big ten decision to go to 9 conference games. Not good IMO as it limits these out of conference match ups (as now there is only 1 slot for a home/ away series).

Then there's the desire to play other P5 teams and add some variety and exposure for Penn State outside of the Midwest. PSU fans and alumni, by far, are not located in the Midwest and we have no ties to that area traditionally. (IIRC there's more PSU alumni in Florida or North Carolina alone than in all Midwest states combined). So why limit Penn State to forever play in the Midwest and Pittsburgh only?

Then there's the irrational deeply held hate from a significant section of the Pitt fanbase. It goes far beyond your typical rivalry banter and dislike. It's hard to explain fully to outside posters.

 

[Go M&B]

I get what you're saying but there's other factors in play. First is the big ten decision to go to 9 conference games. Not good IMO as it limits these out of conference match ups (as now there is only 1 slot for a home/ away series).

Then there's the desire to play other P5 teams and add some variety and exposure for Penn State outside of the Midwest. PSU fans and alumni, by far, are not located in the Midwest and we have no ties to that area traditionally. (IIRC there's more PSU alumni in Florida or North Carolina alone than in all Midwest states combined). So why limit Penn State to forever play in the Midwest and Pittsburgh only?

Then there's the irrational deeply held hate from a significant section of the Pitt fanbase. It goes far beyond your typical rivalry banter and dislike. It's hard to explain fully to outside posters.

Totally get your first point. When ND cancelled our series I was happy. It gave us the opportunity to play major programs from around the country. More exposure, more experiences. ND and two lower tier programs isn't appealing to me. Would much rather sprinkle in Alabama, Florida, va tech, etc.

 

[SR108]

They benefit from Penn State, not the other way around. Plus many of them are just obnoxious. Let them wallow in anonymity and mediocrity forever.

I have no problem playing them, and it would be OK if it did develop into a true rivalry like it once was in the 70's and 80's, however, with only three non conference games, I would rather play a power from the SEC, ACC or Pac 10. (If we ever get to where we are capable of in terms of the program)

 

[Fox Chapel Lion II]

No one is suggesting playing Temple, or Kent, is a good idea, but while Pitt is better than the Owls, how excited would our fan base be if Alabama, or Notre Dame, or Florida State were coming to town? You can have the Panthers if you want. Give me a big name team in a game that has some national impact.

Fair I went on a rant about this the other day. It's my soapbox so I can't shut up about it. There is some kind of arrangement between the B1G and the MAC. Most everyone in the B1G plays a MAC each year in a home game. Everybody has a slappy, including teams like Michigan State, Rutgers, Iowa, Maryland etc all disgracefully playing 1-AA. (I can't wait till that nonsense is pemanently banned). Temple of course is intended to be our slappy - obviously it does not always work that way. Could be worse - could be Maryland playing AT FIU tonight. Yuck-o.

Everybody with self-respect also has a BIG-TIME home and home with a power program. Wisc-LSU. Nebby-Oregon. Michy State-ND. OSU-Oklahoma. Michigan-Colorado. Even NW-Duke is a decent matchup. That's what you want. MAC and slappy at home every year, big timer on a home and home, and 9 conf games. And no 1-AA bullshite.

Those games are not easy to get because a lot of your peer big-time competitors also have room for only one good non-con. And you want to spread it around for interest, excitement and recruiting. That's why Oklahoma and Ohio State are 1-1 and not a 10-year deal.

After the Pitt series we have 6 good years locked in with WVU, VT and Auburn. That's a good schedule. MAC is what it is, some of the slappies are terrible even by slappy standards. Moving forward we need to do better.

 

[hlstone]

They benefit from Penn State, not the other way around. Plus many of them are just obnoxious. Let them wallow in anonymity and mediocrity forever.

I think Pitt should be played every year, but I think it should be a 2 for 1.

Pitt benefits financially more than PSU for this series. PSU will pack their house with 20k people. That is over $200k. What do they bring to the table? Maybe 5k fans? We don't need Pitt. We need 2-1 or 1-0 programs. PSU football pays for the entire sports program.

PSU mens basketball breaks even
PSU wrestling is close to breaking even
PSU ice hockey might be close, I don't know.
The rest of our sports lose money.. Get rid of Pitt, unless they do 2-1

 

[psu00]

Totally get your first point. When ND cancelled our series I was happy. It gave us the opportunity to play major programs from around the country. More exposure, more experiences. ND and two lower tier programs isn't appealing to me. Would much rather sprinkle in Alabama, Florida, va tech, etc.

Exactly. Your 2 rivals are both in conference so the only real issue for Michigan was to play ND every year or mix up the OOC schedule.

Penn State is in a different boat because their 'rival' is out of conference. So- it's either play them every year (and forget any other P5 games) or play the Alabama, Miami, Auburn type teams and not play Pitt every year.

If we went back to 8 conference games it would be better for OOC match ups through the country. Then the debate around here would be in trying to get Pitt as the last game of the year which I'm sure the big ten would fight every step of the way.

 

[fairgambit]

Fair I went on a rant about this the other day. It's my soapbox so I can't shut up about it. There is some kind of arrangement between the B1G and the MAC. Most everyone in the B1G plays a MAC each year in a home game. Everybody has a slappy, including teams like Michigan State, Rutgers, Iowa, Maryland etc all disgracefully playing 1-AA. (I can't wait till that nonsense is pemanently banned). Temple of course is intended to be our slappy - obviously it does not always work that way. Could be worse - could be Maryland playing AT FIU tonight. Yuck-o.

Everybody with self-respect also has a BIG-TIME home and home with a power program. Wisc-LSU. Nebby-Oregon. Michy State-ND. OSU-Oklahoma. Michigan-Colorado. Even NW-Duke is a decent matchup. That's what you want. MAC and slappy at home every year, big timer on a home and home, and 9 conf games. And no 1-AA bullshite.

Those games are not easy to get because a lot of your peer big-time competitors also have room for only one good non-con. And you want to spread it around for interest, excitement and recruiting. That's why Oklahoma and Ohio State are 1-1 and not a 10-year deal.

After the Pitt series we have 6 good years locked in with WVU, VT and Auburn. That's a good schedule. MAC is what it is, some of the slappies are terrible even by slappy standards. Moving forward we need to do better.

Agreed. We do need to do better. Despite the hit we took over Sandusky, we are still program with a national following. Our TV ratings attest to that. We should be able to sit down with any school (USC, Texas, LSU) and at least have a meaningful talk about future games. On the low end, we should not have future schedules that include Georgia State, Buffalo, and Kent State again (sigh). Sandy needs to get it done.

 

[doctornick]

I am not suggesting we think that way, but fans at those schools do. Right now I don't think we have a true rival in the Army/Navy, or Auburn/Alabama, or USC/UCLA sense. Pitt is just another school on the schedule. Pitt people may feel otherwise, but most Penn State fans I know do not. I would rather beat OSU, Michigan, Nebraska, or MSU, than Pitt. I would rather play Notre Dame, or Alabama, or LSU, or USC, or Texas, rather than Pitt.

My experience as well. You have some very vocal people from PSU who feel differently and whose obsessiveness with talking about playing Pitt tends to skew the prospective online. The reality is that the significant number of Penn Staters who are indifferent about playing Pitt aren't spending time even thinking about them beyond it being just another game on the schedule, but they obviously aren't going to be on here constantly talking about how they don't really care about playing Pitt (and when they do express that opinion, it gets lambasted as "saying you don't want to play Pitt just means you hate them so much that you want to avoid them out of spite" or some nonsense).

I'm way more excited about the recently scheduled games against Auburn than I am about playing Pitt. Heck, I'm more interested in the future games against Va Tech and WVU than Pitt, as they are at least more novel opponents (the gap between games vs WVU is quite a bit longer than the years between the Pitt games).

 

[Lion84]

Pitt brings nothing to the table overall for us - I wish we never scheduled this series but with that being said they have more to lose than us tomorrow since they are favored and everyone has picked them to win. They know just as Rutgers did two years ago that this is their one shot before we leave them in the review mirror and they return to their place in irrelevance where they are most accustomed.

 

[McNit2]

In 1985 - in the heat of the Auto-immune Deficiency Syndrome, a President of a Pitt frat ran around the field prior to kick off at the PSU-Pit match-up at Pitt Stadium with a banner that read "Joe has AIDS". For him to get access to the filed - let alone carry such a classless sign - says that he received the green light from someone in authority.

I can only imagine the chicanery tomorrow.

I vote to cancel the series - does PSU no good and only benefits people like that kid with the banner.

I'm trying to reserve judgement. Because I can't fathom that a small majority of pricks (Pitt fans who post on their site) represent the whole. I'm not going to the game but if I was 1) I'd be sure to stay in a pack of my PSU buddies and 2) I'd still watch my back. Because personally the first Pitt fan to disrespect me when it comes to what that monster did I would LOSE IT on them! In a heartbeat.

I don't care what you opinion is pertaining to Coach Paterno and the Sandusky situation. The fact that they are selling and buying shirts saying "Joe Knew" is a total lack of class directed at our Univsersity as a whole. It's just as bad as, if not worse, then what that Rutgers fan did (flag at his tailgate) when we played them. At least with Rutgers it was only one (1) individual.

Honestly, sometimes Pitt fans are so bad that I almost feel they love... L!O!V!E!... the fact that what this monster did was tied to Penn State and that their only regret is that there weren't more victims.

No matter what the outcome, I'll be interested in hearing from those of you who did go to the game and how you were treated. Either way... be careful.

 

[HazletonLion]

I think Nebraska is more of a rivalry, too bad they are in another division would rather see us play Nebraska guaranteed every year and drop one western opponent from the schedule. We play Purdue, Iowa,and Minnesota one of those could be dropped for Nebraska. Their fans are pretty cool.