without overburdening their schedule. Let me first say that I am not one who longs for Pitt-PSU to be an annual event. Those days seem long gone and part of the appeal in 2016 (which was great) was the fact that the two schools hadn't played in more than a decade and a half. With that said, I do want to see the schools continue to play one another, just not every season. Hence, this plan.
I came up with this idea several years ago - before the 2016 renewal - but never posted it here despite intending to every year since the renewal. I've mentioned it to several people, and all seem to like the idea. Anyways, I think it works and could be a beneficial thing for all three schools.
The plan is simply for the three schools to play one another, round-robin style, every year, alternating home-and-home. This would mean that each matchup would occur once every three years and each school would host a particular matchup once every six years. It would also mean that once every three years a team would be playing neither of the two. This schedule is not so frequent as to get old, but often enough to maintain a sense of regularity and anticipation to it. It would also provide each school with some scheduling flexibility as it would preserve traditional rivalries with two schools but require a game only two out of three years, the third year allowing for the scheduling of another OOC opponent.
The Plan also allows for some modification. If the above schedule seems to cramp the style too much of a particular school (PSU, of course) which desires greater scheduling flexibility, more home games or more cupcakes, the round-robin could occur over 4 years, meaning each school would play a game in two of the four years and each could schedule other opponents two out of the four years. It could even be extended to once every 5 years, etc. The idea is to have a regularly scheduled game with the two schools, but spread out over enough years that it is not played every year while allowing enough scheduling flexibility to serve the schools' other scheduling needs.
I know this will never happen, but it seems like a sensible approach and could preserve the traditional, long-standing rivalries between these three schools even though all three now belong to three separate conferences.
I came up with this idea several years ago - before the 2016 renewal - but never posted it here despite intending to every year since the renewal. I've mentioned it to several people, and all seem to like the idea. Anyways, I think it works and could be a beneficial thing for all three schools.
The plan is simply for the three schools to play one another, round-robin style, every year, alternating home-and-home. This would mean that each matchup would occur once every three years and each school would host a particular matchup once every six years. It would also mean that once every three years a team would be playing neither of the two. This schedule is not so frequent as to get old, but often enough to maintain a sense of regularity and anticipation to it. It would also provide each school with some scheduling flexibility as it would preserve traditional rivalries with two schools but require a game only two out of three years, the third year allowing for the scheduling of another OOC opponent.
The Plan also allows for some modification. If the above schedule seems to cramp the style too much of a particular school (PSU, of course) which desires greater scheduling flexibility, more home games or more cupcakes, the round-robin could occur over 4 years, meaning each school would play a game in two of the four years and each could schedule other opponents two out of the four years. It could even be extended to once every 5 years, etc. The idea is to have a regularly scheduled game with the two schools, but spread out over enough years that it is not played every year while allowing enough scheduling flexibility to serve the schools' other scheduling needs.
I know this will never happen, but it seems like a sensible approach and could preserve the traditional, long-standing rivalries between these three schools even though all three now belong to three separate conferences.
