IMO, it's Georgia Tech. Some other schools are decent matches, but Georgia Tech is the clear best match.
What football team (NCAA) best resembles Pitt?
- Thread starter VincePITT
- Start date
Cincinnati may be the basketball program that most resembles Pittsburgh. I couldn't really come up with too many other ideas on the b-ball front (Temple? Georgia Tech again? Tennessee? Those latter 2 really seem like stretches .....)
I can’t think of another program like Ped St that allowed a pedophile to roam their campus and led to firing their football coach and then being baby sat by a former politician.
I will keep trying but that is a tough one!
I will keep trying but that is a tough one!
Not sure how that's relevant to this discussion ... but fair enough. Keep looking.
Penn isn't a "state" school. Great on-campus FB stadium, though....if a bit "dated".
Any comparison to a non-P5 school is either a flat out flame or incredibly self-loathing. That means no Cincinnati, USF, SMU, Houston, Temple, etc.
Also, comparing Pitt to urban schools that don't have NFL teams doesn't work. That means no USC, UCLA, Ohio State, Louisville, etc.
Similarly, comparing Pitt to state universities that happen to be located in major cities just doesn't work. Washington and Minnesota are relatively similar to each other but they are not terribly similar to Pitt. California, Arizona State and Maryland are also in that realm.
This is very simple. It's most comparable schools are Georgia Tech, Miami, and Boston College (in that order). Others that are kind of similar (on that level) are Northwestern, TCU, and Stanford. When the NFL returns to Los Angeles, then USC and UCLA can reenter that conversation.
Also, comparing Pitt to urban schools that don't have NFL teams doesn't work. That means no USC, UCLA, Ohio State, Louisville, etc.
Similarly, comparing Pitt to state universities that happen to be located in major cities just doesn't work. Washington and Minnesota are relatively similar to each other but they are not terribly similar to Pitt. California, Arizona State and Maryland are also in that realm.
This is very simple. It's most comparable schools are Georgia Tech, Miami, and Boston College (in that order). Others that are kind of similar (on that level) are Northwestern, TCU, and Stanford. When the NFL returns to Los Angeles, then USC and UCLA can reenter that conversation.
When The New Yorker does it, it's sort of soft.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaeresis_(diacritic)
Great list, Cap'n. While there are some state universities that are located in NFL cities (Minny, UWashington, ASU), one cannot really compare them to Pitt - their alumni base and following is, by definition, state-wide.
Pitt can only be compared against that smallish cadre of schools that are urban-based AND must compete against NFL franchises (or, at least, have pro-sports franchises). GATech and The U are, therefore, probably the best analogs. Miami has an infinitely superior recruiting base... but Pitt is a bigger university.
SMU and TCU are smaller, private and religious schools that happen to be located in the DFW metroplex. Pitt has a higher upside given our size vs them.
UCincy is a solid comparison but their heritage (in spite of their getting the better of Pitt in the 2000's) can't compare to Pitt's... and the fact that they'e in the AAC after the P-5 musical chairs ended is further disadvantage.
Houston is another good analog but like Cincy, they simply don't have much heritage in spite of being in football hotbed. Temple is, well, Temple - an exercise in futility.
Finally... UCLA, USC, Stanford are decent comparisons... but in LA there is currently no NFL team. UCal has a stadium that even looked like Pitt Stadium but again, it (unique among the Cal system) IS the state-wide university.
In closing, Pitt has as difficult an organic circumstance as any school that is trying to play big-time football in the country. We have heritage, an incomparable list of great individual players, and a decent recruiting base. But we are also hemmed-in by the largest football program in the northeast/mid-Atlantic (that is also the state's university), WVU (a small-state, state school with a passionate following) and, to a degree, Ohio State and UMaryland. Not to mention one of the most fabled and probably the most passionately followed NFL franchises (with whom we share a stadium) and NHL and MLB franchises that are excellent. Oh, and we're the smallest metro area with (3) pro franchises.
I've long argued that conferences should be amalgams of similar-circumstance'd schools. The Big East was largely the best such alignment for Pitt... but it needed Miami and VaTech to be strong enough to survive and - as we know - the dunces in Hartford weren't visionary enough to keep it all together. Water under bridge... but that's my 2 pennies
Georgia Tech is the answer because its a state school with a larger alumni base than Miami or Boston College which are private schools with smaller alumni bases.
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