yeah the schedule is stupid. PSU and ND ok but then two gimme's. Basically Pitt should play one P5 school who is a name opponent if possible(TN qualifies in a couple of years as would the obvious wvu,psu etc etc) 1 P5 who is typically bad(illinois,purdue etc etc) in years that ND isn't on schedule. 2 patsies, ideally the patsies are regional say kent st(miami OH) and youngstown(villanova). Basically the OOC should be setup to guarantee at least 2-2 and preferably 3-1 most years. People are going to bitch when Pitt goes 6-6 or 7-5this year but they could have easily been a 8 or 9 win team with proper scheduling.
OOC
- Thread starter steelcurtain55.
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This is the part of Pitt fans i hate. No matter if you like it or not or if they like it or not. Penn St is Pitt's main rival, and Pitt is Penn State's main rival. You can say you are over it and they could say they are unrivaled, but the facts remain that those two schools are rivals period. They both recruit many of the same players especially in region, and large % of each students body applied to both schools. To sit here and type that they are not our rivals and they state we are nor their rivals is so beyond stupid.
In a dream world Pitt, Penn St, WVU, ND, and even Syracuse would all be in the same conference so there would be no hiatus in those games and we could still schedule OOC as we please.
One other thing, for those complaining about our schedule being too tough. Sorry way to many easy games in conference to not play a tough OOC. For those who complain about our record, sorry that is not because of tough scheduling. It is because of negligence from the AD office for too long and not producing the results that Pitt should have been producing. Hell last year there was no reason to lose to Cuse, VT, and especially North Carolina. Pitt does it to themselves on the field, not in scheduling.
In a dream world Pitt, Penn St, WVU, ND, and even Syracuse would all be in the same conference so there would be no hiatus in those games and we could still schedule OOC as we please.
One other thing, for those complaining about our schedule being too tough. Sorry way to many easy games in conference to not play a tough OOC. For those who complain about our record, sorry that is not because of tough scheduling. It is because of negligence from the AD office for too long and not producing the results that Pitt should have been producing. Hell last year there was no reason to lose to Cuse, VT, and especially North Carolina. Pitt does it to themselves on the field, not in scheduling.
Why play the Illinois, Purdue, Rutgers, etc teams? It means you have to go on the road another year AND they do nothing to attract fans when you play a home game. Plus, we have a lot better chance of losing.
exactly. Imagine 2016 and suppose albany was a home game the week after an emotional PSU win instead of going on the road to play OSU. So we get a breather, get another win and have a ton of confidence heading to the road to play UNC. Maybe we have the energy to stop them in the heat/last drive instead of failing. I think the PSU/OSU combo took its toll in the 4th quarter against UNC. So then we are looking at a potential 10-2 season instead of 8-4 by swapping out OSU for Albany.
No, it is definitely both. It is idiotic to play the OOC schedule we have set up, especially with the fanbase we have. The only way we are filling (or coming close) that stadium is by playing WVU/PSU/ND or winning A LOT. Playing a series against Oklahoma State is one of the dumbest scheduling decisions of all time. You increased your chances of losing by an enormous amount and you draw essentially no additional fans. Then you lose and your perception drops and you draw even fewer fans moving forward.
yes, Pittsburgh is a pro town. They could care less that Georgia or some other traditional power was in town. What they do understand is a playoff chase. So if the Coastal was in play for the last home game against Miami or UNC, Heinz would be nicely filled and have more energy than any other "national" P5 OOC game.
So why not play the games OOC that give you the best chance to be in the playoff hunt and be higher in the rankings? OSU does none of that.
I'm fine playing OSU if PSU wasn't on the schedule. With PSU already scheduled, adding OSU was stupid.
Pederson scheduled Oklahoma State because he wanted to piss off Ollie Luck, WVU AD. Instead of scheduling WVU, they scheduled a different Big 12 team
It doesn't matter what the reason is or seems to be, it was an awful decision.
As mentioned, ND isn't our choice anymore, that's an ACC deal. At least its one that benefits us economically.
I'm not sure why a lot of your list like USC, Michigan, Texas, LSU, Florida, or Georgia would ever agree to a home and home against Pitt. They don't schedule that way. Unless you're saying you'd be fine with a road only game against them.
Sometimes! It's definitely more expensive and complicated than a lot of fans seem to realize. Even easy wins don't come cheap (and it's not like we always beat MAC teams, sadly.)
It doesn't matter what the reason is or seems to be, it was an awful decision.
Yeah, it doesn't seem too add up to much of a profit potential to me either... At a VERY simplistic level, even if they increase season tickets for the 7th game by an average of $25 x 40,000 tickets, only then do you recoup the $1M in gross revenue. I imagine single game sales are near negligible for a Miami OH matchup with all the Stubhub resale options. I won't pretend to know any real details of the school's game day vendor arrangement, nor any game day operating costs on Pitt's books. It seems the margin can't be huge.
I have to go to Fort Collins every year for work and CSU campus is spectacular. I’d be hard pressed to name one that is as nice honestly.
i think I may be the only person that didn't like that campus. I was there a few times, didn't see their stadium, was doing a job fair there on their student union. I know Speca here called me out for not liking it.
I'll tell you what is a surprisingly really nice campus, from their hockey arena, to their student union and campus in general? Uni of North Dakota. of course it's so damn cold there that they have underground tunnels connecting the buildings but im telling you, it really is quite nice. funny because the campus of North Dakota St is not even an hour away and it's a dump, from the fargo dome to the whole campus.
You are making an assumption that I haven't seen expressed by more than couple of random posters, that Pitt fans don't think Penn State is Pitt's rival.
I think where you are getting confused is when Pitt fans admit they are ready to move on.
In case you haven't heard, PSU doesn't want to play the rivalry game. It's not up to Pitt. Because of that fact, I have come to the realization that it's time to move on.
That doesn't mean that Penn State isn't considered Pitt's rival.
It takes two to tango, and Penn State doesn't want to dance. Time to move on.
Its clear that certain schools have been doing this for awhile. I thought psu always did this just to get pervert Joe enough wins to set the mark, but they have continued to do it. And who can blame psu, wisky, even unc has done it... you end up 9-3 or 10-2. You start with3-0 or 4-0, your kids moral is high, everyone thinks they are good, then some conference foe kicks you in the teeth and you lose, but you get re-energized cause then you are 4-1 and still have a great year. It is way worse being 2-3 and knowing your season is already not going to be a great one. Most colleges make more money on the shoe contracts anyways than an extra 10k in fans for a game will make you.
Then we need to win more. Rivalries are largely created through two situations:
1. Geographic proximity. Bama-Auburn. FSU-UF. Texas-OU. Etc.
2. Constantly playing in meaningful games and being the dagger for the other teams hopes due to those games. This is how ND has largely built up some of their best rivalries. Miami in the 80's. USCw. Michigan. Two really good to elite teams. Playing each other in games that have national implications. Clemson-Bama has kind of developed this lately, meeting in three straight playoffs and the issue of whether Dabo will jump to Bama when Saban leaves kinda being in the background.
We don't really have this natural geographic proximity with other teams in the Coastal. We aren't natural rivalries of Duke or UVA or Miami or somebody. Which means we need to win a lot more, so we're frequently playing VT or Miami in games that are for the Coastal.
