I see the arguments for both sides of this issue. Sweet Caroline is a pretty lame song and it clearly belongs to the Boston Red Sox in a sporting context. However, it is also one of the few things Pitt football does that legitimately consistently gets people excited. All of those points are inarguable.
The problem with nearly all of the replacement suggestions is that they are not a clear step forward. The whole point of Sweet Caroline, and the reason why people like it, is because it gives Pitt fans an opportunity to show their allegiance to the team by shouting, “Let’s go Pitt!” Therefore, any replacement song must also give people that same opportunity.
Please stop comparing this to Renegade and the Steelers because they are used for entirely different purposes. On the surface, I can see the connection. However, in reality they’re very different. Also, the cultures of Steelers fans and Pitt fans, though they somewhat overlap, are not the same and should not be casually conflated.
I certainly wouldn’t mind a new song in the mix as a complement or even as a replacement. However, it has to be a clear step forward and none of these suggestions meet that standard. If it doesn’t have an opportunity for fans to participate with a, “Let’s go Pitt” or a “Hail to Pitt,” or something in that vein, then it’s a complete nonstarter because it ignores the reason why it is so popular among certain segments of the fan base in the first place.
I will say this though. I do like the idea of borrowing European soccer traditions — or even MLS traditions if they’re cool — and implementing that here, not as a replacement but maybe as a complement to what is already happening. Pitt is just weird enough culturally that they might take to something like that in a way that say, Alabama or even Penn State fans would not.
In soccer, they do so much chanting and interactive stuff that it’s fun and I could definitely see some of that silliness working here too in limited doses.
I don’t have anything in mind per se, and I am not intimately familiar with all of the European soccer chants and traditions. However, that definitely seems like a rich pipeline of opportunity.
