93.7 The Fan is reporting that Pitt AD, Heather Lyke, has sent a contract to be reviewed by PSU to extend the series post 2019. Who knows whether or not PSU accepts the deal, but I think they will.

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Since I can't figure out how to edit... Here's a link from PSU: http://onwardstate.com/2017/11/08/pitt-a...eing-done/

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I doubt they accept it as annual, but think 4 or 6 years out of 10 is likely.

The problem with the annual out of conferences series for the Big Ten, Big 12, and PAC-12 is most want 7 home games, but also have 5 road conference games every other year. To make that work, you only have one out of conference home and home to work with. Adding a 2nd one means giving up a home game (6 for a year).

I think Penn State will want to continue to play Pitt, but also think they are going to want to get some other big games scheduled without loosing the 7th home game. The compromise there will be that they play about half the time.

(11-08-2017 09:21 PM)ohio1317 Wrote:  I doubt they accept it as annual, but think 4 or 6 years out of 10 is likely.

The problem with the annual out of conferences series for the Big Ten, Big 12, and PAC-12 is most want 7 home games, but also have 5 road conference games every other year. To make that work, you only have one out of conference home and home to work with. Adding a 2nd one means giving up a home game (6 for a year).

I think Penn State will want to continue to play Pitt, but also think they are going to want to get some other big games scheduled without loosing the 7th home game. The compromise there will be that they play about half the time.

Or do like the ACC and SEC have done and play a bunch of neutral site games.

Expansion/realignment has been bad for some but sanity is returning to college football.
Oklahoma and Nebraska are scheduled in the future, now if we can work on series like Kansas/Missouri and Texas/Texas A&M, the sport can mean something to traditional fans again.
Carolina even found a way to get Wake Forest (106 games total, but only 3 in the last 10 years) back on it's schedule more often by playing the Deacs as a non-conference opponent.

(11-08-2017 09:21 PM)ohio1317 Wrote:  I doubt they accept it as annual, but think 4 or 6 years out of 10 is likely.

The problem with the annual out of conferences series for the Big Ten, Big 12, and PAC-12 is most want 7 home games, but also have 5 road conference games every other year. To make that work, you only have one out of conference home and home to work with. Adding a 2nd one means giving up a home game (6 for a year).

I think Penn State will want to continue to play Pitt, but also think they are going to want to get some other big games scheduled without loosing the 7th home game. The compromise there will be that they play about half the time.

That's going to be hard to do. On the years when you have 5 conference road games, all of your OOC games will have to be home games.

They could have Pitt at home on the years when they have 4 conference home games. That would give them a fixed schedule of 5 home games every year. They can get a home only for #6. Yes, that only leaves 1 game to work with. They could try for a 2nd home only but if they can't find one, they would only have 6 home games once every 4 years.

If Penn State declines she should send the contract to West Virginia. Pitt should play one or the other every year.

I'm starting to think we should just play a bunch of cupcakes OOC until we get some confidence in this program.

(11-09-2017 11:49 PM)ndlutz Wrote:  I'm starting to think we should just play a bunch of cupcakes OOC until we get some confidence in this program.

I’d rather play Penn State than receive false hope because Pitt was playing crappy teams.

I agree with Shannon though, if PSU declines, screw them and play WVU every year.

I don't think it's false hope. We've struggled beating cupcake teams in the past.

I think we need to start at that level and show we can consistently beat those teams and then win some ACC games to build the program. For now, at max, I think we should be playing 1 power five school.

We've got to start somewhere.

(11-10-2017 09:38 AM)ndlutz Wrote:  I don't think it's false hope. We've struggled beating cupcake teams in the past.

I think we need to start at that level and show we can consistently beat those teams and then win some ACC games to build the program. For now, at max, I think we should be playing 1 power five school.

We've got to start somewhere.

In 2 years Pitt is .500 vs. Penn State, so that's not the problem.
Pitt is 0 for 2 against Oklahoma State - a team they shouldn't have scheduled IMO.
Pitt if 0 for 5 against UNC - the REAL head-scratcher.

Beat UNC and replace Okie St with a cupcake and voila!

Last year with our best team under Narduzzi, we squeaked it out against Penn State and lost a nailbiter to Oklahoma State. We wound up with 8 wins, in part because we beat Clemson which nobody thought was possible.

Had we of scheduled 2 cupcakes in place of Oklahoma State and PSU, we would have likely got 8 wins, and if we still beat Clemson we're a 9 win team more solidly and easily than we were taking the path we did.

I understand the mentality that my philosophy is wimpy. I agree that it is but I also think it's smart at this point in Pitt football history. We need to start building something. We're a bad program. I think the way to do that is to get Ws, get noticed, get recruits, and ultimately schedule more difficult matchups afterwards.

I wanted to play PSU every year prior to this year. At this point, because of their superiority complex and Franklin's comments after the game they can take their ball and go home.

I think there’s a balance to be struck between fattening up on cupcakes and over scheduling as we have done for years now.

You can play Penn State out of conference or you can play Oklahoma State, but playing two Top 10 teams is a very tall task. Who else is doing that in their out of conference schedule?

Next year in our OOC, we are playing Penn State again, Notre Dame and UCF. Again, that’s a very curious choice. What do we get out of traveling to Orlando other than a likely loss?

I think you would be hard-pressed finding another program anywhere that is going to play a more challenging OOC schedule than the Pitt Panthers in 2018.

I am all for challenging yourself but you have to be smart about it or your coaching staff is going to soon be fired.

(11-13-2017 08:41 PM)Dr. Isaly von Yinzer Wrote:  I think there’s a balance to be struck between fattening up on cupcakes and over scheduling as we have done for years now.

You can play Penn State out of conference or you can play Oklahoma State, but playing two Top 10 teams is a very tall task. Who else is doing that in their out of conference schedule?

Next year in our OOC, we are playing Penn State again, Notre Dame and UCF. Again, that’s a very curious choice. What do we get out of traveling to Orlando other than a likely loss?

I think you would be hard-pressed finding another program anywhere that is going to play a more challenging OOC schedule than the Pitt Panthers in 2018.

I am all for challenging yourself but you have to be smart about it or your coaching staff is going to soon be fired.

Yeah, I can almost understand both Penn State and Notre Dame... but then why UCF?

The other thing is that these schedules are made far in advance, so usually you're looking at what teams are doing today and thinking they will be of similar quality later in time. Penn State sort of throws a wrench in our plans because they were scheduled late and there was no way we were not going to take them on the schedule.

I'm sure Oklahoma State was scheduled far in advance of that and also wasn't a top 10 team at that time.

My point still stands, though, wimpy as it may be - I think Pitt should play a bunch of cupcakes to get the extra wins at this point. Once they show they can clean up on that front, they should reach out to P5 schools to play for marquee matchups at least once a year. If they absolutely can't help themselves, they should play one marquee P5 team per year.

I'd like for Penn State to continue the Pitt series semi-regularly. With only three non-conference games available, it typically leaves just one P5 opponent on the non-conference schedule each season. I don't want it to be Pitt every year unless PSU were to start scheduling two P5 schools but that seems unlikely.

In the years Penn State and Pitt are playing each other, I'd like to see it fall on the last week of the season as it used to be.

(11-09-2017 11:49 PM)ndlutz Wrote:  I'm starting to think we should just play a bunch of cupcakes OOC until we get some confidence in this program.

You don't get it. Pitt is the cupcake.

(11-23-2017 06:13 PM)vabearcat Wrote:  

(11-09-2017 11:49 PM)ndlutz Wrote:  I'm starting to think we should just play a bunch of cupcakes OOC until we get some confidence in this program.

You don't get it. Pitt is the cupcake.

Bad program right now? Yes. Cupcake? No.

(11-23-2017 06:13 PM)vabearcat Wrote:  

(11-09-2017 11:49 PM)ndlutz Wrote:  I'm starting to think we should just play a bunch of cupcakes OOC until we get some confidence in this program.

You don't get it. Pitt is the cupcake.

If Pitt is a cupcake...what does that make Cincy?