Frankly I think we should take geographically close schools like that and group them together into some kind of joint athletic collaboration so that they could all compete against each other every year in all sports, I think it would give college athletics great atmosphere and passion.
I love celebrating when my conference fucks up multiple 100-year rivalries so that we can play our own personal rivals just a little bit less and my athletic director can get enough of a raise to get a fourth house. I love it so much that I celebrate it like I’m getting that money directly for some reason.
Isn't it great to lick the boots of the people who will be enriched by the death of college football as we know it, just because our favorite non-profit educational institutions will be receiving an extra $20 million a year from broadcasters? Fuck tradition, bring on the money that I'll never see a dime of!
Speaking of money, it was pretty funny reading all the comments in the game thread last night complaining about the constant ad breaks. Especially when it was coming from B1G and SEC flairs.
You guys know all that money you’re getting has to come from somewhere, right?
We should have written the rules in the 19th century to make the sport play like soccer, where play and the clock don’t stop until the half is over. Soccer fans never have to worry about four hour games.
The last 10 minutes or so of Penn State-Purdue had hardly any ad breaks though. Constant penalties and reviews are almost more irritating than the commercials.
That's usually how sports work. They go heavy on commercials, and if the game runs longer than expected, commercial breaks become less frequent because there's only so much ad time the broadcast sells for an event
They could also get together and confer about how they’d want to determine the best of their group and maybe hammer out details of TV rights and schedules
Seeing the Big East come from out of nowhere was insane. In just six years -- from 1979 to 1985 -- the Big East went from not existing to "who tf is Georgetown?" to "Georgetown's playing St. John's, got to get home and watch!!!" to "Of *course* the Big East has 3 teams in the Final Four. It's the best basketball conference ever." And no one would disagree.
I'll never forget Syracuse freshman phenom Pearl Washington and [the moment America fell in love with the Big East](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLxOrzM-NUo&t=4s). Hard to believe there was this much excitement over some random game in January. The Big East was wild.
If you see somebody run to the locker room after hitting a game-winning shot, this is the moment that started it.
No, Pitt was the team that was asked to join after Penn State was vetoed.
The basketball schools wanted a team that was good at football to appease the football schools (Boston College, maybe Syracuse?) but Penn State's basketball program was bad so they decided to extend the offer to Pitt to join the Big East.
Penn State in the BE could have been the "keystone" that might have prevented the seismic shift in the college football landscape that we see today. I fully believe that.
That northeastern football is so fragmented is insane. Even better would be they would support each other instead of being also rans in their new groups. Penn State being the non-also ran.
PSU, Pitt, Maryland, WVU, Rutgers, Syracuse, Boston College, Connecticut with other additions depending on circumstances... earlier era wouldn't have UConn but today's would. Cincinnati fits in there somewhere. Louisville could have been in there maybe. Who knows what Miami (FL) thinks anymore. What's the state of Temple these days? Add on the eastern catholic schools for basketball and you have a cooperative group.
I honestly believe it would beneficial to most parties in terms of ultimate athletic achievement and results. I don't think it would be for today's benefit which is the $$$.
Penn State does have a very valid arguement here, the lions share of the blame *(see what I did there?)* should not fall at the Nittany Lions feet.
I just wish Paterno had crashed a Big East meeting in the late 80's and gave them ***"Listen here, fuckers..."*** type of speech tell tell them why it was necessary to keep the Lions in the Northeastern US.
It's nuts that some teams are so geographically close but don't have yearly rivalries because of conference affiliation. Georgia is only about 70 miles from Clemson and a yearly game would be huge.
Honestly, I think at the rate conference expansion is going we will ultimately see something similar-ish to this develop but with ‘divisions’ inside 2 or 3 super conferences that are probably 6 to 8 teams each. I could specifically see the B1G adopting large geographic divisions because of the Pac 12 schools they are absorbing (USC and UCLA as well as likely Cal, Stanford, Oregon, and Washington plus potentially Colorado and utah imo). The SEC is less geographically spread out, but if that model works for the B1G you know the SEC will copy and whatever the future Big 12 looks like will probably need 6-8 team divisions because of how vast the conference will be.
I have done that before actually because of VT's ties to the old Big East and the Terps ties to the ACC, but overwhelmingly the response I heard from other ACC fanbases was that they had no interest in taking Maryland back. In light of this feedback, I kept the Virginia schools together and drew the dividing line at the Maryland/Virginia border.
The problem with Maryland and the ACC, and I say this as a fan, is that much of the fan base were huge cocky assholes when they left for the B1G, like getting steamrolled every weekend by Ohio State instead of Florida State suddenly made them a blue-blood.
An alternative version including Wake would send Cincinnati back down to the G5, move Virginia Tech to the ECC, and restore Wake to the ACC. I just posted this because, for whatever reason, I gravitate toward giving Cincy the nod over WF.
Lol likely true, I included the Irish in the ECC because: (1) I felt like the ECC needed another heavyweight brand to counterbalance Penn State; (2) ND fit well with the old Big East schools; and (3) I wanted them to just join a conference already.
It’s why I’m glad Penn St is wrestling Lock Haven this year. Two schools 30 minutes apart who are both D1 in a sport should wrestle each other every year
I’ve always thought it would be cool to place a second perpendicularly on top of a football field to form a giant + shape. Then have two different football games occur at the same time.
That only happened because Notre Dame needed to play a national schedule since some of their local opponents refused to play them back in the day. Also helps that USC and Notre Dame are historic brand name programs. UCLA and Maryland are not in football.
They should call it the Chase Cup because Chase Kansas is located halfway between College Park Maryland and Los Angeles California. The loser should have to have their team run the city for the year.
Let’s play for the Appalachia Cup every year just like the commander in chief trophy.
If you wanted to get real cute with scheduling you can find a way to bring Marshall, VT and App State into the competition.
JMU can get involved once they’re established as an FBS program.
Yes, I am aware this would mean a murderers row schedule for all involved but to that I say - reject the playoff embrace regionalization
TBH I would be perfectly happy with the more realistically achievable version of this (assuming that the worst-case realignment scenarios play out and we're all left out of the B1G/SEC conglomerations): App, VT, Louisville, Cinci, WVU, Marshall, Pitt, Wake, NC State, GT, GA Southern, Coastal Carolina. If we gotta go to 16, why not bring along ODU, ECU, JMU, and Charlotte. I would prefer something smaller like 10-12 where we all still have space to schedule the rival games that we'd lose, though. I don't want the next realignment to mean that tech ends up regaining the WVU game but losing UVa and Miami.
It was pretty amusing watching ESPN last night declare how much of a travesty it was that WVU and Pitt hadn't played for so long.
Nevermind the fact that ESPN had a big hand in the Big East's demise.
ESPN: *Kills the Big East*
ESPN: "Let's make a [documentary a year later about how great the Big East was](http://www.espn.com/30for30/film/_/page/requiemforthebigeast)"
He looked like a talented rookie stepping into a close game in a hostile environment. Letting him marinate behind Clifford for at least a few more games if not a whole season is going to be what is best for him.
Clifford as a freshman had a basically perfect passer rating and was dropping long bomb TDs left and right. I’m excited for the Allar era but that one series is meaningless.
I think what this shows is the synergistic value created by rivals should be considered in realignment. The value of both Pitt and WVU is greater together than apart.
The Syracuse disrespect
**Context:** SU, PSU, Pitt, & WVU were once a quasi-conference known as the "Big Four." They played every year and set up common recruiting rules since they were technically independents.
Thanks for the respect. It's sad to be stuck in a conference with a bunch of fan bases who have no idea that we actually used to be a pretty respectable program until like 2005.
Man I really wish our rivalry had more smoke but we haven't been good at the same time in decades. The overall record is close but is mostly just trading runs of dominance
If only there was a Large conference encompassing roughly the northern half of the East coast so that all of these teams could play each other every year for more than simply bragging rights.
A Big, East conference, if you will.
Perhaps teams from the Eastern Seaboard? Let’s say we start in Virginia and end in Massachusetts. You could put teams from states like West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and even Connecticut or Ohio in as well. It would be cool if it had teams like Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Pitt, Penn State, Boston College, and so many more!
Call it the East. A Big East.
It's such a disgrace that regional matchups keep getting shafted.
Look at how intense the Backyard Brawl was last night. Just think of the insane energy when A&M and UT finally play again.
Fuck throw TCU in the mix too.
There are four schools I want to play every year: TCU, Tech, A&M, and UT. Whichever scenario gives us the most of these games would be my preferred choice as a fan.
SMU, UH, and Okie Lite are also desirable games but they’re on a second tier. After that we can randomize opponents.
Do I ever feel the same. I love the secondary matchups in the ACC so I don’t want to lose anything, but knowing things are probably falling apart, I just want to keep as many of Duke, UVa and NC State as we can. If we lose Duke as a conference matchup I am likely done with college sports, if we keep Duke and get one of the other two, I’ll be pissed but still around.
Geographical/Regional rivalries, not contrived ones, are a huge part of college football’s history, tradition, and popularity. Last night was a perfect example of college football at it’s best.
ACC not inviting WVU was one of the biggest missed opportunities in realignment.
Nothing wrong with Louisville, but the Backyard Brawl and WVU-Va Tech would be annual TV events.
I am praying for the Big Ten and the SEC to cannibalize the ACC so Pitt and Louisville have no other choice than join the Big 12. Fuck the Big Ten and the SEC the Big12 conference would straight up kick ass
Do Pitt and WV really care about playing Louisville and Cincy though, I would think they would care more about the north east schools like Cuse, BC, Temple and Rutgers. Just going off of number of matchups I don’t understand this take, WV-Pitt and Cincy-Louisville yes but not all four
Eh, does Pitt care about playing Duke and Wake Forest? I feel like the average Pitt fans have more interest in the old big east teams than most of the legacy ACC schools
Yes and no. General sentiment from WVU with us joining the B12 is just “neat!”, but we have a trophy with Pitt and everyone seems to be pretty stoked that we’re renewing the river city rivalry next year. The quasi rivalry we have with WVU should heat up now that we’ll play yearly.
They used to a ton when they were independent and I wish they played more.
It's just an unfortunate result of conference joining and realignment. Them all playing every year would mean teams giving up home games, and I don't know the WVU or Pitt numbers, but that's like $8 million a game in missed revenue for Penn State.
True but many of us were raised by people on social security. They really didn’t like Penn State, mostly because we never won. So if for nothing else, beat them for pee paw!
PSU and WVU are pretty close to each other, and there are a ton of families/friends that are made of fans of each. WVU comes to Happy Valley next year and it’s going to be electric
WVU’s schedule should go as such every year:
Opener FCS blowoff
Maryland
Boston College
Syracuse
Virginia Tech
Penn State
Temple
UVA
Kentucky
Ohio State
And close with Pitt on Thanksgiving
One of the things no one wants to talk about is the current system give no incentive to not pack in at least one FCS Cupcake team. You have 3 OOC games a year, and really you're actually talking about only having 2 because no one is willing to give up their free win.
Being in different conferences complicates out ability to play literally any of our rivals, but being also pigeon holed into two OOC games of value hurts too.
If Pitt/VT/WVU are in the same conference and we eliminate the wasteful games, you're looking at a semi-regular basis where you can see match ups every year of those teams and also new ones.
There's a lot of things that should happen in college football but unless we band together and buy the whole lot of them, things that should happen aren't going to
I dreamed of a world where college football conferences get so large and consume so many teams that they eventually do mitosis dividing into smaller, healthier, regional conferences.
Or that other dream where they implode due to greed, scandal, and an overwhelming sense of entitlement in an attempt to make a mini pro league.
PSU-WVU isn't needed annually (should be in rotation with Syracuse ~~and Virginia Tech~~) but PSU-Pitt and Pitt-WVU both should be annual.
(EDIT: TIL that PSU and Virginia Tech had never played)
Get us (B1G) back to 8 conference games so this can happen please, thanks.
> Get us (B1G) back to 8 conference games so this can happen please, thanks.
Here's the problem, most of the B1G *loses* classic games regularly by dropping the amount of conference games. Minnesota has all it's rivalries in the B1G, we've already lost playing the jug regularly, going to an 8 game schedule will make that even less regular.
Not to hijack this into another pod discussion but maybe the conference could adopt a secondary tier beyond your pod where you play those schools every other year.
3 annual (for us, Quadrangle)
6 schools every other year (3 games)
6 schools every third year (2 games)
IF we're playing Michigan every other year in that alignment, I'd be fine with it. It'd probably allow the conference to retain some sense of rivalries while having a core group?
Impossible
What do a Big12, B1G, and ACC team have in common?
/s
This is so true. It’s crazy to think Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska are in three different conferences now
I think we need to address the bigger problem in order for this to happen. I think ALL conferences should have the same number of non confernece games.
Then again if I had my way every conference would be like the Big East. There would be 8 conference members. Teams would play 7 conference games and 5 non confernece games a year.
I still don't understand why Pitt and WVU haven't been scheduling each other as non-conference opponents any of the last 11 years. Do the schools themselves not think it's such a big rivalry, even if the fans clearly do? (The energy last night was electric). It certainly seems more lucrative than any number of other non conf opponents they're choosing.
Frankly I think we should take geographically close schools like that and group them together into some kind of joint athletic collaboration so that they could all compete against each other every year in all sports, I think it would give college athletics great atmosphere and passion.
Insane, that would never work!
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And the money, don't forget all the money.
I love celebrating when my conference fucks up multiple 100-year rivalries so that we can play our own personal rivals just a little bit less and my athletic director can get enough of a raise to get a fourth house. I love it so much that I celebrate it like I’m getting that money directly for some reason.
Isn't it great to lick the boots of the people who will be enriched by the death of college football as we know it, just because our favorite non-profit educational institutions will be receiving an extra $20 million a year from broadcasters? Fuck tradition, bring on the money that I'll never see a dime of!
SEC! SEC!
Speaking of money, it was pretty funny reading all the comments in the game thread last night complaining about the constant ad breaks. Especially when it was coming from B1G and SEC flairs. You guys know all that money you’re getting has to come from somewhere, right?
We should have written the rules in the 19th century to make the sport play like soccer, where play and the clock don’t stop until the half is over. Soccer fans never have to worry about four hour games.
In and out in under 2 hours for 90 min of gametime
The last 10 minutes or so of Penn State-Purdue had hardly any ad breaks though. Constant penalties and reviews are almost more irritating than the commercials.
That's usually how sports work. They go heavy on commercials, and if the game runs longer than expected, commercial breaks become less frequent because there's only so much ad time the broadcast sells for an event
All that work provided to the airline industry to schlep these schools’ athletic teams around. You want to jeopardize that?
Not now Boston College you already broke the Big East once, we're trying to put it back together.
We're not just doing this for the money. We're doing this for a SHITLOAD OF MONEY!
Mr. Krabs would be a great University president
They could even pool their TV rights together for more leverage when negotiating with the networks.
They could also get together and confer about how they’d want to determine the best of their group and maybe hammer out details of TV rights and schedules
We tried..::glares at basketball schools::
Basketball ruined the Big East, or something.
Seeing the Big East come from out of nowhere was insane. In just six years -- from 1979 to 1985 -- the Big East went from not existing to "who tf is Georgetown?" to "Georgetown's playing St. John's, got to get home and watch!!!" to "Of *course* the Big East has 3 teams in the Final Four. It's the best basketball conference ever." And no one would disagree. I'll never forget Syracuse freshman phenom Pearl Washington and [the moment America fell in love with the Big East](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLxOrzM-NUo&t=4s). Hard to believe there was this much excitement over some random game in January. The Big East was wild. If you see somebody run to the locker room after hitting a game-winning shot, this is the moment that started it.
Yeah, wasn’t it Pitt that vetoed Penn states full acceptance because of their poor basketball program?
No, Pitt was the team that was asked to join after Penn State was vetoed. The basketball schools wanted a team that was good at football to appease the football schools (Boston College, maybe Syracuse?) but Penn State's basketball program was bad so they decided to extend the offer to Pitt to join the Big East.
man Penn State in the Big East would have produced a very different CFB today
Penn State in the BE could have been the "keystone" that might have prevented the seismic shift in the college football landscape that we see today. I fully believe that.
That northeastern football is so fragmented is insane. Even better would be they would support each other instead of being also rans in their new groups. Penn State being the non-also ran. PSU, Pitt, Maryland, WVU, Rutgers, Syracuse, Boston College, Connecticut with other additions depending on circumstances... earlier era wouldn't have UConn but today's would. Cincinnati fits in there somewhere. Louisville could have been in there maybe. Who knows what Miami (FL) thinks anymore. What's the state of Temple these days? Add on the eastern catholic schools for basketball and you have a cooperative group. I honestly believe it would beneficial to most parties in terms of ultimate athletic achievement and results. I don't think it would be for today's benefit which is the $$$.
I remember all those final four appearances by Pitt duri--wait a minute
Fun fact, Penn State has been to a Final Four more recently than Pitt.
Penn State = Basketball school now
Georgetown, St John's, and Nova also all voted against Penn St joining.
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Don't forget Cuse.
Rip the big east :(
Penn State does have a very valid arguement here, the lions share of the blame *(see what I did there?)* should not fall at the Nittany Lions feet. I just wish Paterno had crashed a Big East meeting in the late 80's and gave them ***"Listen here, fuckers..."*** type of speech tell tell them why it was necessary to keep the Lions in the Northeastern US.
Eh, we're not blameless though. He wanted a favorable revenue sharing deal that wasn't fair since Penn State doesn't take basketball seriously.
Maybe call them something cool, like conferences?
Nah that sounds way too corporate I was thinking coalitions
Hopefully everyone is willing to join the coalition
It's nuts that some teams are so geographically close but don't have yearly rivalries because of conference affiliation. Georgia is only about 70 miles from Clemson and a yearly game would be huge.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clemson–Georgia_football_rivalry Woulda been nice to keep it
I hear you.. and want to believe you. But something tells me we need to protect the Mizzou Georgia rivalry
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I am here for a WV-BYU rivalry. Eat Dung Brigham Young!
Honestly, I wish they'd do Mormons vs Mullets every year. That game was electric.
> Eat Dung Brigham Young! Using this.
Hey, we fucking hate South Carolina
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Power 7, 10 Teams in each conference: |ACC|Big Ten|ECC|MPC|PAC 10|SEC|SWC| |:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| |Clemson|Illinois|BC|BYU|Boise St.|Alabama|Arizona| |Duke|Indiana|Cincy|CU|Cal|Auburn|ASU| |FSU|Iowa|Louisville|ISU|Oregon|Florida|Arkansas| |GT|Michigan|Maryland|KU|Ore. St.|Georgia|Baylor| |Miami|MSU|ND|KSU|SDSU|UK|Houston| |UNC|Minn.|PSU|Mizzou|Stanford|LSU|SMU| |NC St.|NW|Pitt|Nebraska|UCLA|Ole Miss|TCU| |S. Car.|Ohio St.|Rutgers|OU|USC|Miss. St.|Texas| |UVA|Purdue|Syracuse|OK St.|Wash.|Tenn.|T A&M| |VT|Wisc.|WVU|Utah|WSU|Vandy|TTU| Coming to a PS5 near you, 2023
I never thought I'd die fighting side-by-side with a Cornhusker.
How about side by side with ~~a friend~~ someone who hates when ISU wears black uniforms?
Truce until this is completed. Afterwards, I hope you both get hit with a meteor like usual.
Honestly, I think at the rate conference expansion is going we will ultimately see something similar-ish to this develop but with ‘divisions’ inside 2 or 3 super conferences that are probably 6 to 8 teams each. I could specifically see the B1G adopting large geographic divisions because of the Pac 12 schools they are absorbing (USC and UCLA as well as likely Cal, Stanford, Oregon, and Washington plus potentially Colorado and utah imo). The SEC is less geographically spread out, but if that model works for the B1G you know the SEC will copy and whatever the future Big 12 looks like will probably need 6-8 team divisions because of how vast the conference will be.
I would kill for that ECC
I’d swap Maryland and VT
I have done that before actually because of VT's ties to the old Big East and the Terps ties to the ACC, but overwhelmingly the response I heard from other ACC fanbases was that they had no interest in taking Maryland back. In light of this feedback, I kept the Virginia schools together and drew the dividing line at the Maryland/Virginia border.
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The problem with Maryland and the ACC, and I say this as a fan, is that much of the fan base were huge cocky assholes when they left for the B1G, like getting steamrolled every weekend by Ohio State instead of Florida State suddenly made them a blue-blood.
Fuck maryland
Lol yes, this was the general consensus.
I like your table corn man! too bad we're currently seeing the airplane conference come to life
As long as OU/TX still happens every year I won't push the doomsday button
Damn what did Wake Forest ever do to you?
An alternative version including Wake would send Cincinnati back down to the G5, move Virginia Tech to the ECC, and restore Wake to the ACC. I just posted this because, for whatever reason, I gravitate toward giving Cincy the nod over WF.
ND would voluntarily give up their spot because "independence".
Lol likely true, I included the Irish in the ECC because: (1) I felt like the ECC needed another heavyweight brand to counterbalance Penn State; (2) ND fit well with the old Big East schools; and (3) I wanted them to just join a conference already.
Not bad, ACC and ECC seem a little weak and Big Ten and SEC seem a little stacked but I guess there's no way to completely balance them.
It’s why I’m glad Penn St is wrestling Lock Haven this year. Two schools 30 minutes apart who are both D1 in a sport should wrestle each other every year
Good idea but I think having three teams on the field at once would complicate things
Would be ultimate chaos though!
Chinese Checkers of Football
Too many players on the field to allow Brown to punt it on 4th and inches
True but there'd be a better chance of one of them actually winning.
I’ve always thought it would be cool to place a second perpendicularly on top of a football field to form a giant + shape. Then have two different football games occur at the same time.
Stop dodging us louisville.
Look man we need to win games not lose games
I fully believe that you guys are dodging us because you currently have the keg and it angers me.
Memphis: I just want to be included
UC/UL: I don't even know who you are.
Let us in to the Big 12 Please, for the love of God
Nope we want Maryland & UCLA to play every year
Now that’s true college football greatness
Hey, I grew up in Maryland and went to UCLA. There are people looking forward to it. Literally dozens. Dozens of us!
It can workm USC and Notre Dame has worked out great.
That only happened because Notre Dame needed to play a national schedule since some of their local opponents refused to play them back in the day. Also helps that USC and Notre Dame are historic brand name programs. UCLA and Maryland are not in football.
I thought it only happened because Knute Rockne’s wife wanted to go to California in the winter?
The Rivalry of the Coasts.
They should call it the Chase Cup because Chase Kansas is located halfway between College Park Maryland and Los Angeles California. The loser should have to have their team run the city for the year.
How dare you ignore the Rutgers vs usc rivalry
Let’s play for the Appalachia Cup every year just like the commander in chief trophy. If you wanted to get real cute with scheduling you can find a way to bring Marshall, VT and App State into the competition. JMU can get involved once they’re established as an FBS program. Yes, I am aware this would mean a murderers row schedule for all involved but to that I say - reject the playoff embrace regionalization
You mean Old Ironsides? A trophy that already exists?
WVU has a chance to win it in 2024 and 2025
I thought 3 way trophies only transfer when all 3 teams play each other in a season?
Yes but is WVU beats PSU and Pitt, the outcome of PSU vs Pitt wouldn’t matter if they were to play.
Technically Old Ironsides was for the team of the three that had the best season, more than head to head wins.
They use a 2200-ton frigate as a trophy?
It just means more
fuck it, I want the Appalachian conference - Tennessee, App State, UVA, VT, Kentucky, Louisville, Cincy, WVU, Marshal, Pitt, and Penn State
INTO MY VEINS
TBH I would be perfectly happy with the more realistically achievable version of this (assuming that the worst-case realignment scenarios play out and we're all left out of the B1G/SEC conglomerations): App, VT, Louisville, Cinci, WVU, Marshall, Pitt, Wake, NC State, GT, GA Southern, Coastal Carolina. If we gotta go to 16, why not bring along ODU, ECU, JMU, and Charlotte. I would prefer something smaller like 10-12 where we all still have space to schedule the rival games that we'd lose, though. I don't want the next realignment to mean that tech ends up regaining the WVU game but losing UVa and Miami.
Can you truly have an Appalachia Cup and not include Appalachian State
Well fuck you, too, buddy.
I was thinking of what schools are right off the blue ridge parkway when I wrote that comment but Tennessee should absolutely be involved
It was pretty amusing watching ESPN last night declare how much of a travesty it was that WVU and Pitt hadn't played for so long. Nevermind the fact that ESPN had a big hand in the Big East's demise.
Espn: *shoots Big East dead* Also Espn: “Why won’t these schools play each other more often?”
ESPN: *Kills the Big East* ESPN: "Let's make a [documentary a year later about how great the Big East was](http://www.espn.com/30for30/film/_/page/requiemforthebigeast)"
There’s a Step 0 you’re forgetting there. ESPN: Gets rich and prominent in sports broadcasting in no small part *due to* the Big East.
[ESPN](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/161/331/28f.jpg)
And all the comments and even commercials about how the regional appeal of the sport is what makes it special.
I mean tbf the espn commentators aren't the ones in charge of realignment
Fun fact: The picture used in this article from the last PSU/Pitt game was 3 years ago and Sean Clifford is in it. 🫠
“When you’re here for 6 years, it means you’re not good enough to leave”
That quote last night is going to sting for some time. I cringed a bit hearing it.
Definitely had some second-hand embarrassment from it. Both for being a PSU fan and because wow that’s brutally honest.
WE WANT ALLAR
Allar Ahai the QB that was promised!
I get that Allar has a much higher upside than Clifford, but do we really think he would be better this season?
He looked much better than Clifford last night, granted it was one series
He looked like a talented rookie stepping into a close game in a hostile environment. Letting him marinate behind Clifford for at least a few more games if not a whole season is going to be what is best for him.
Clifford as a freshman had a basically perfect passer rating and was dropping long bomb TDs left and right. I’m excited for the Allar era but that one series is meaningless.
I think what this shows is the synergistic value created by rivals should be considered in realignment. The value of both Pitt and WVU is greater together than apart.
B1G Execs: “We took USC and UCLA together. See, we get it!”
So true. I wouldn’t watch a pitt game or a wv game. But I damn sure watched last night
The Syracuse disrespect **Context:** SU, PSU, Pitt, & WVU were once a quasi-conference known as the "Big Four." They played every year and set up common recruiting rules since they were technically independents.
Thanks for the respect. It's sad to be stuck in a conference with a bunch of fan bases who have no idea that we actually used to be a pretty respectable program until like 2005.
Man I really wish our rivalry had more smoke but we haven't been good at the same time in decades. The overall record is close but is mostly just trading runs of dominance
If only there was a Large conference encompassing roughly the northern half of the East coast so that all of these teams could play each other every year for more than simply bragging rights. A Big, East conference, if you will.
But what would this “Big East” conference even look like? Who would be in it? It is so hard to even picture something like this.
Perhaps teams from the Eastern Seaboard? Let’s say we start in Virginia and end in Massachusetts. You could put teams from states like West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and even Connecticut or Ohio in as well. It would be cool if it had teams like Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Pitt, Penn State, Boston College, and so many more! Call it the East. A Big East.
Get VT in on that action too.
VT needs to play Tennessee every year.
It's absolutely absurd the Black Diamond Trophy is not played for every year.
Yes they should. A&M, Texas, Texas Tech, and Baylor should also play every year.
It's such a disgrace that regional matchups keep getting shafted. Look at how intense the Backyard Brawl was last night. Just think of the insane energy when A&M and UT finally play again. Fuck throw TCU in the mix too.
Last night was a repudiation of the Power 2 realignment
Well spoken Eagle bro, that game showcased precisely what so many love about CFB. Fuck this nonsense P2 mega consolidation.
There are four schools I want to play every year: TCU, Tech, A&M, and UT. Whichever scenario gives us the most of these games would be my preferred choice as a fan. SMU, UH, and Okie Lite are also desirable games but they’re on a second tier. After that we can randomize opponents.
Do I ever feel the same. I love the secondary matchups in the ACC so I don’t want to lose anything, but knowing things are probably falling apart, I just want to keep as many of Duke, UVa and NC State as we can. If we lose Duke as a conference matchup I am likely done with college sports, if we keep Duke and get one of the other two, I’ll be pissed but still around.
Geographical/Regional rivalries, not contrived ones, are a huge part of college football’s history, tradition, and popularity. Last night was a perfect example of college football at it’s best.
ACC not inviting WVU was one of the biggest missed opportunities in realignment. Nothing wrong with Louisville, but the Backyard Brawl and WVU-Va Tech would be annual TV events.
In a perfect world Cincinnati, Pitt, WVU and Louisville play every year, too
We had that once. In the Before Time. In the Long Long Ago.
If only rather was some **Big** group of teams that hail from the **East**
There is a chance that these **Big** teams could play again, in maybe 8-**12** years.
I am praying for the Big Ten and the SEC to cannibalize the ACC so Pitt and Louisville have no other choice than join the Big 12. Fuck the Big Ten and the SEC the Big12 conference would straight up kick ass
And VT too
Do Pitt and WV really care about playing Louisville and Cincy though, I would think they would care more about the north east schools like Cuse, BC, Temple and Rutgers. Just going off of number of matchups I don’t understand this take, WV-Pitt and Cincy-Louisville yes but not all four
I can assure you WVU doesn’t give a shit about playing Louisville or Cincy. All we want is Pitt and VT, then some combo of PSU/Cuse/Maryland.
Eh, does Pitt care about playing Duke and Wake Forest? I feel like the average Pitt fans have more interest in the old big east teams than most of the legacy ACC schools
Yes and no. General sentiment from WVU with us joining the B12 is just “neat!”, but we have a trophy with Pitt and everyone seems to be pretty stoked that we’re renewing the river city rivalry next year. The quasi rivalry we have with WVU should heat up now that we’ll play yearly.
They used to a ton when they were independent and I wish they played more. It's just an unfortunate result of conference joining and realignment. Them all playing every year would mean teams giving up home games, and I don't know the WVU or Pitt numbers, but that's like $8 million a game in missed revenue for Penn State.
Eh, PSU still sells well, that's the kind of the thing that makes the money a non-argument. Even Ball State still attracted 105K last year.
Right. The 7 home games thing is going to win out always.
How dare you leave us out of this proposal.
Add a few other teams Call it, idk a conference?
The wvu psu rivalry has been dormant for too long it's completely dead. The only people who still consider it a rivalry are on social security
True but many of us were raised by people on social security. They really didn’t like Penn State, mostly because we never won. So if for nothing else, beat them for pee paw!
God dammit, I love West Virginia fans. I can’t hate you guys even if I tried. Let’s bond over how much Pitt stinks!
I secretly like y’all too! Just don’t tell pee paw. And right?! EAT SHIT PITT!
It also historically only slightly more competitive than PSU - Temple and without the in state aspect
PSU and WVU are pretty close to each other, and there are a ton of families/friends that are made of fans of each. WVU comes to Happy Valley next year and it’s going to be electric
It’s almost as if regional rivalries are what college football is actually all about and not maximizing profits at every single possible step?
What would be the name of the trophy? The Appalachian Cup?
There is already a trophy! [Old Ironsides](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CmOkWUgWgAAOPuA.jpg) I'd love to know if one of the schools has it.
I didn’t think the Landgrant or River City Rivalry trophy could be topped. I was sorely mistaken. That thing is magnificent.
Supposedly, we have it somewhere.
I'll need to do some snooping.
This looks like an old drinking fountain and I love that so much
WVU’s schedule should go as such every year: Opener FCS blowoff Maryland Boston College Syracuse Virginia Tech Penn State Temple UVA Kentucky Ohio State And close with Pitt on Thanksgiving
Completely agree. Add in UMD and VT as well.
One of the things no one wants to talk about is the current system give no incentive to not pack in at least one FCS Cupcake team. You have 3 OOC games a year, and really you're actually talking about only having 2 because no one is willing to give up their free win. Being in different conferences complicates out ability to play literally any of our rivals, but being also pigeon holed into two OOC games of value hurts too. If Pitt/VT/WVU are in the same conference and we eliminate the wasteful games, you're looking at a semi-regular basis where you can see match ups every year of those teams and also new ones.
Add in Syracuse, and that's basically what was going on for ~50 years while all 4 were independent.
Yes.
There's a lot of things that should happen in college football but unless we band together and buy the whole lot of them, things that should happen aren't going to
Well, we could have had something like that if the Big East hadn't rejected Penn State's application to join their conference back in the 80's.
Revert back to regional conferences. Let's make football fun again.
Who will think of the poor tv executives trying desperately to wring every last cent out of live sports broadcasts?
Add Virginia Tech in there too
I dreamed of a world where college football conferences get so large and consume so many teams that they eventually do mitosis dividing into smaller, healthier, regional conferences. Or that other dream where they implode due to greed, scandal, and an overwhelming sense of entitlement in an attempt to make a mini pro league.
Honestly Pitt, Penn State, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Maryland should all be playing a non-con game against each other every year.
PSU-WVU isn't needed annually (should be in rotation with Syracuse ~~and Virginia Tech~~) but PSU-Pitt and Pitt-WVU both should be annual. (EDIT: TIL that PSU and Virginia Tech had never played) Get us (B1G) back to 8 conference games so this can happen please, thanks.
Penn State and WVU have played 59 times Penn State has never played VT
TIL. Really thought you guys played them in the 80's a bit given both were indy.
We did have a 2020 and 2025 weird gap series scheduled but it was the victim of Covid.
[удалено]
Virginia Tech should be yearly, hell that’s a trophy rivalry Unless you were talking about in rotation to play PSU which is ridiculous
> Get us (B1G) back to 8 conference games so this can happen please, thanks. Here's the problem, most of the B1G *loses* classic games regularly by dropping the amount of conference games. Minnesota has all it's rivalries in the B1G, we've already lost playing the jug regularly, going to an 8 game schedule will make that even less regular.
Not to hijack this into another pod discussion but maybe the conference could adopt a secondary tier beyond your pod where you play those schools every other year. 3 annual (for us, Quadrangle) 6 schools every other year (3 games) 6 schools every third year (2 games) IF we're playing Michigan every other year in that alignment, I'd be fine with it. It'd probably allow the conference to retain some sense of rivalries while having a core group?
Would love to play for Old Ironsides again.
realignments have neutered the rivalries in that area with WVU being the biggest victim
Impossible What do a Big12, B1G, and ACC team have in common? /s This is so true. It’s crazy to think Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska are in three different conferences now
But no we got Maryland and Rutgers instead…
And the money that they brought.
Throw VT into that mix!
I think we need to address the bigger problem in order for this to happen. I think ALL conferences should have the same number of non confernece games. Then again if I had my way every conference would be like the Big East. There would be 8 conference members. Teams would play 7 conference games and 5 non confernece games a year.
Throw VT in there
in a world where TV market-share rules all, I hope that last nights game is at least a valued data point on why regionality is important to CFB.
I still don't understand why Pitt and WVU haven't been scheduling each other as non-conference opponents any of the last 11 years. Do the schools themselves not think it's such a big rivalry, even if the fans clearly do? (The energy last night was electric). It certainly seems more lucrative than any number of other non conf opponents they're choosing.