Penn State really shouldn't play Pitt

[Crimson's Ghost]

It was probably the condecensing tone of your post.  Telling someone who was at the game (and almost every game for 13 years for that matter) that the stadium was 70% Notre Dame fans when it simply wasn't the case. Asking why Pitt plays their Spring Game in a high school stadium, even though it was at Heinz. 


My guess was 16K, might get to 20K which is a third of the stadium. There's just numbers of season ticket trends through the years to suggest That there will be around 45,000 Pitt fans at least in the stadium. I'm not really pulling that number out of thin air. 


Maryland playing in Baltimore was a neutral site game, this is actually our home stadium so the 50/50 crowd is really wishful thinking. 52-16, 50-18, somewhere in there is more logical. 


But it doesn't really matter at the end of the day, but I can see why Penn State fans have directed the talk here and not the game they are 9.5 underdogs in. 

[abpk2903]

I can see why Penn State fans have directed the talk here and not the game they are 9.5 underdogs in. 

Well played...
I am not sure how Vegas has settled on this line and it kind of makes me nervous as a Penn State fan. Vegas usually knows something more than the average fan knows and I gotta think the money is coming in on the Penn State side for a 9.5 point spread. More often than not, the side that the money comes in on loses the game. There is (IMO) no way that more money is being put on Pitt right now giving Penn State a touchdown and a field goal to start the game.   

[El-Moldo]

Here is the problem with assuming. I did NOT say all 10,000 would be Pitt fans. I said the Pitt game at Beaver Stadium would be a sell-out. Whether All 10,000 would be general football fans, Pitt fans, or NIT fans, it would BE A SELLOUT!!! Not as easy to poke holes in theories as you think, is it.

[SFB14]

I don't think there is any way that the PSU/Pitt game is a 50/50 split as far as fans at the game are concerned. I am a PSU fan who bought Pitt season tickets for this year and I know of at least 5-6 other people who have done the same thing. However, I think the math that Crimson used earlier is sound and will turn out to be pretty accurate. I would be very surprised if the amount of PSU fans at the game exceeded 15,000-18,000. That is still a substantial number for a road game but the crowd will be overwhelmingly pro-Pitt. I am friends with several Pitt fans and have Pitt graduates in my family and each and every one of them is very fired up for this game, much more so than PSU fans I've talked to in my admittedly small sample. I'm sure the Pitt fans in attendance will be very charged up on 9/10.

As far as the back and forth about the two programs you can go point-counter point all day but at the end of it they are both mediocre programs within the grand scheme of college football and even their own conferences. To be perfectly honest if I was the PSU AD I wouldn't play Pitt because there isn't a lot of upside to it, but for football fans in the state it sure does make it interesting. I know that PSU fans have used the attendance hammer for years on Pitt fans (I'll admit to doing it to my brother in law only because I know it drives him crazy) and from now until probably forever Pitt fans will come back at PSU fans with Sandusky. Going back and forth with one another is part of what makes rivalries fun although I find the rhetoric leading up to this game to be over the top for my liking.

As for the game itself, my family will be there tailgating with other family and friends (both PSU and Pitt grads/fans) and hope it'll be a great day. Hopefully the atmosphere won't turn ugly with all the rhetoric taking place although I'm not sure that'll be the case, not just at Heinz but in HV next year. I try to look at things reasonably and doing so Pitt has the home field, experienced QB, and a very talented/experienced OL and terrific RBs so I think they should be the favorites and should probably win. When they go to Beaver Stadium the next year it'll be PSU with the home field, experienced QB, and many returning players on both lines so I'd think they would be the favorite to win then.

[El-Moldo]

Good post. What is the upside for PSU to play Pitt? They should continue to play Temple at home 2 out of every 3 years, along with a MAC team at home, and then once in a while a home and home with Central Florida, UVA, Syracuse, etc etc. That's enough to bring 'em to Beaver Stadium.

[El-Moldo]

Took a quick gander at PSU's schedules for 2017-2019. What's the upside for PSU to play Pitt? Looks to me like Pitt SAVES the non-conference part of their schedule in those years. Along with Pitt, PSU has Akron and Georgia State at home in 2017, Appalachian State and Kent State at home in 2018, and Idaho and Buffalo at home in 2019. Pitt at least adds some respectablilty to their schedule in those three years.

[GoldenRamsFAN]

Lol after playing bowling green Akron Toledo and Marshall they should Kent state? Cmon you can't tell me Pitts nonconference is any better then penn state. When's the last time you played anyone decent out of the conference?!

[Crimson's Ghost]

Pitt's non-conference schedule was considered among the best in the country last season. Two of the teams they played went on to BCS Games. 

Pitt is playing preseason top 20 Oklahoma State on the road right after Penn State this season. 

So it is better than Penn State's and it is almost every year. 

[GoldenRamsFAN]

Are you crazy?! It's almost as bad as their nonconference basketball schedule! And ok state is the best team you have since a bad ND team got whooped up on.

[Crimson's Ghost]

I don't think I'm crazy.