To be fair, the Big Ten and SEC sholdn't agree to a home-home with any ACC or Big XII school. If that's the request they can schedule each other and G5 programs willing not to take a return trip making the Big XII and ACC even more irrelevant.
Football Should Pitt / PSU bring back their series? Narduzzi chimed in.
- Thread starter Richie O
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If Pitt could have managed to win one or two extra games in the 4 game series that ended in 2019, this whole conversation and outlook could be completely different.
It would have reignited the series, IMO. But PSU won the last 3 games, two of them decisively, with only the last one reasonably close at the end.
It would have reignited the series, IMO. But PSU won the last 3 games, two of them decisively, with only the last one reasonably close at the end.
A 2-1 @ PSU would still be a boon (financial and otherwise) for Pitt. They are just to proud to concede this.
And Penn State football on TV draws infinitely more eyeballs than Pitt. So yes, decisions come and go with times.
Perennial top 25 team?! Let’s make sure clearing 7-5 is a regular occurrence and then talk…
Respectfully, I think the “can’t sell out” argument is a little disingenuous because it ignores any context. We play in a 70,000-seat stadium and were 35th in FBS last season in average attendance (54,710). That’s pretty good.
We don’t really have an attendance problem anymore, it’s more of a perception problem. But, when you rent instead of own, beggars can’t be choosers, you know?
Finishing in the Top 25 in each of the last two seasons has us moving in that direction. This season will be big for us because if we can make it three in a row, 2024 is looking promising as well. That’s great for a program like our’s.
How? If we can agree to a long-term home/home with WVU that would net us the exact same home attendance, why would a 2-1 with less home games be a “boon” for Pitt?
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Then play WVU. PSU isn't the one begging to play Pitt.
Top 25 argument is nonsense because you play in the worst division in power 5 football. Even the conference championship year is skewed by the fact you played no one other than a down Clemson at home with a 40 year old qb (and you barely managed to beat them 27-17), and then beat Wake Freaking Forest, only to lose to MSU. Let's not blur reality here. Look at your schedule this year. Outside of ND in South Bend, your schedule is hot garbage. Funny, too, as Pitt fans carry on this myth that PSU plays no one.
Look Mrs. Narduzzi this back and forth has been fun, but 54,710 average attendance? I think you misread the line entry, it said “total annual attendance”. Or truthfully 70,000 - 54,710 = 15,290 average attendance. Hell, people that I know that attend Pitt home games use megaphones to communicate with their nearest seat occupier.
Respectfully, Pitt currently has as many ranked teams on our schedule (3) as Penn State does. I also think it’s ironic that you call Pickett a “40 year old qb” despite Sean Clifford being in college longer than him.
I do have a lot of respect for the Big Ten; in fact, you likely played in the toughest division in football prior to the B1G going divisionless.
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I look at the weight of those ranked teams. Michigan, OSU, and Iowa are larger landmines than UNC, Duke and FSU any way you slice it. I also believe you have to take into account the entire schedule, because attrition matters. The rest of your schedule stinks. I have zero respect for ACC Coastal and firmly believe PSU boat races everyone in that division the past 4 years, even the Covid year.
I am not taking massive credit for Sean Clifford. You are the one pumped about your past 3 years. PSU underachieved in my opinion and yet still got to a Cotton Bowl and Rose Bowl with him.
At the end of the day, there are about 50 reasons why the game is no longer played, the least of which is that PSU is scared to play Pitt like the morons on the Lair love to bleat.
Pitt needs the PSU game, PSU doesn't need the Pitt game. It is that simple.
I do think you make a fair point on the scheduling, although I’m sure you meant #13 Notre Dame instead of Duke.
But c’mon, man. We don’t “need” Penn State. We would like to have an annual rivalry game on our schedule; WVU wants to play us, PSU doesn’t. I’m fine with renewing the Brawl and not playing Penn State again, and it appears that the feeling is mutual.
If you truly believe Pitt had 54,000 asses in the yellow seats for each game, I have a beachfront condo in Kansas I can sell you.
Pitt's attendance is woeful save for 1 big game per year. What is amazing to me is the number of rabid Pitt lunatics there are in Allegheny County, a stone's throw away from Heinz, and they bark and bark and bark every August, then are nowhere to be found come the end of September.
Then why are you here, brah?
As an aside, I already conceded Notre Dame as a good game on your schedule.
BUt you had WVU as the home opener. Followed by Tennessee at home. Two easy sellouts. Without those two your average was probably below 40,000. And from a lot of pics actual attendence is around 25,000.
What can I say, I like talking football. I converse with fans on the national board, Tennessee board, SMU board. Heck, we were invited down to Orlando to sit in one of those little endzone cabanas that UCF has because I interact with them, too. The only site that gives me trouble is this one, although your posters on the national board are great.
Again, I think it’s disingenuous to pick and choose which games count. That’s the whole point of an average. If we average 50,000+ again this year, will it not count because of the Florida State game?
You are the one being disingenuous cos you are using 2 games to skew numbers in an attempt to cover for the piss poor live following yinz display year in and year out at the rest of your home games.
Maybe this board doesn't "give you trouble", maybe just maybe you do not like hearing what we have to say compared to gloss-over happy talk with a few UCF traveling fans.
Lest we also forget about how you lot carry on in western PA over PSU, acting mostly like a past lover.
Not sure what in this thread is giving you trouble. What you really seem to be saying is no one here agrees with what your are putting forth in regard to alleged perennial top 25 status and bogus attendance numbers.
The point was that you rarely sellout or even hit above half. By playing at Pitt, we guarantee a sellout that you can bring recruits to make am impression. Can’t do that with 25,000 with Duke, Wake, and several others.
Worse, Pitt made fans buy ful season tickets to artificially inflate its numbers and fill its coffers. No reason for us to do so.
If Pitt became a major power with major power fan support I would love to play them again. It was a lot of fun jawing with all the Pitt fans all summer. The game at the Beav was electric with a huge crowd.
But we shouldn’t be a patsy and get jobbed like we did last time.
They didn’t even sell out the Tennessee game. It was mostly full but there were still plenty of empty yellow seats.
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Respectfully, five of our six home games had an attendance of over 50,000 last season. Our lowest-attended game was 45,000 at the home finale against Duke. If you wanted to use the median figure, it’d pretty much be the same as the average.
Again, a lot of these comments such as “rarely hitting above half” are either not backed up by the numbers or are misconceptions from pre-Covid.
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You believe the attendance figures the Pitt Athletic Department puts out. I will believe my own eyeballs when I drive by the rent-a-stadium on fall Saturdays and wonder if a game is being played because the upper deck is empty.
Come on, it is a running joke on here about Pitts attendance. They claim 56,000 and someone post a picture with maybe 20,000 in the seats, in the 3rd quarter.
Second quarter vs Duke. 45,000 my ass. Yinzers had 16,000 people there. Just go to YouTube and watch second quarter highlights with the punts. No one was there.
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Well that picture should end any discussion about attendance numbers.
Come on man, even you don't believe what you're saying. If you see the empty seats, you know the truth. Pitt has been lying about ACTUAL Attendance for years.
The standing joke goes as follows:
Some schools count people in the seats.
Some schools count tickets sold.
AT PITT, they count tickets printed.
I think with the conference schedule we are going to see there aren't ever going to be any deals above 1 for 1. Just the nature of the conference game.
Remember if you want a ticket to see PSU or any other Top team play at Pitt you are forced to buy a season ticket to get the good games. On individual game ickewts for the good games.... They then count tickets sold as attendance not bodies in the stands. Pitt the Typical bush league team with an over inflated sense of worth......
45,000 is about 60% capacity of a 70,000-seat stadium. That looks as if a little more than half of the seats are filled, so that figure seems right to me.
Genuine question here: why is Penn State so hung up on attendance? It seems like every conversation circles back to it. I’ve been around a lot of fanbases and none of them talk about attendance that much, aside from FSU with Miami or USC with UCLA. At least WVU has a few other jabs they use on us.
For me its the fact that Pitt requires anyone looking to buy a single game ticket for a PSU/Pitt game is forced to buy a season ticket just to see this game. Using the much larger PSU fan base in Pittsburgh to supplement their ticket sales for other less interesting games is BS. That game was always a sell out, so the use PUS/ND fans to support their lack of student and fan support.
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The game is dead because the rivalry is dead. If you are under a certain age, PSU fans I know don’t care about playing Pitt. The older fans need to let it go, but they won’t.
What’s sad is that it absolutely should’ve continued into the 90s and beyond if the Big East had the foresight to invite Penn State. If the BE’s football conference starts a decade earlier, they probably get Florida State and South Carolina as well. Suddenly, they’re in a position to be the ones poaching the ACC, not the other way around.
Who knows, maybe they’re the first league to have a conference championship game and get a conference cable network. Maybe neither of that happens and the Big East blows up anyways. Always thought that was an interesting hypothetical.
Yep but both sides were short-sighted. PSU got the better of it though in the big.
Bro, you were the one on this thread who brought up the bush league attendance figures after you brought up macro level factors, to which the response was you are full of crap. I didnt bring up attendance. You lost all credibility by stating that picture indicates a half filled stadium. There's nobody freaking there. The Penguins draw better at PPG than on 95% of Pitt games, it is just a fact. No one with eyeballs would say the stadium is half full.
Attendance is relevant to this conversation because the whole reason Pitt wants the rivalry is so they can stay relevant and require season ticket purchases for the PSU game. It is garbage and PSU isn't here to fund your team.
You want other jabs? How about Pitt has beaten PSU approximately 8 times since the 1960s. Pitt is 2-8 over last 10. The last game at Heinz was an embarrassment. Pitt does nothing for PSU. It is a lose-lose as far schedule. Psu wins no one cares, PSU loses it is the end of the world. That speaks volumes about Pitt's stature nationwide. PSU gets nothing financially from it when there are more lucrative, symbiotic deals with teams like Auburn, Alabama, Notre Dame, etc. It's over. Move on. You aren't changing minds.
Agreed. Money aside, I’ve always been impressed with how well Penn State succeeded in the Big Ten since joining. Very few programs who switched were better off post-realignment. Miami, Virginia Tech, and Nebraska are a few that come to mind; they were similar calibers as PSU but have struggled mightily since.
Like I said before, I come here to talk football. Not here to change minds. Good luck against WVU.
They play 8 games this year with zero interest. None. Meaningless. ZZZZ.
Pitt would be a huge improvement.
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