It also brings up the question, is it still a rivalry if it hasn’t been played in 11 years? Many West Virginia players have scant memories of the game. “Our fans want to play Pitt every year, but at the same time, if we’re only going to do a series, I think it’s pretty cool to have a four-year series, take a break, fill in with some other people and then come back to it.” “For me scheduling out, if I could sprinkle in Penn State, Maryland, Virginia Tech, some other games, that would be beneficial for us from a nonconference standpoint,” Lyons said. With a nine-game conference schedule, there’s only so much room.
WVU FOOTBALL CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT SERIES
A series with Penn State begins next year. Athletic director Shane Lyons wants to keep it going, but also throw in some of those other rivalries. In April, the schools announced the four additional Pitt matchups for 2029 to ’32. Though Brown would love to play the Pitt game every year, he does not want to play multiple nonconference rivalries on the road, as is the case this year. This West Virginia fan on really summed up the long-term cost of conference realignment perfectly.
WVU FOOTBALL CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT PROFESSIONAL
“We’ve got to be careful in this day and age with what makes college football different than professional sports,” Brown said. Oklahoma State quarterback Spencer Sanders offered earlier, “Don’t take it personal, but you went away. “Bedlam is not gonna be Bedlam when they leave the conference.” Oklahoma-Nebraska, another historic rivalry, returned last year as well to great fanfare.Īnd while the return of the Pitt game was a major media day topic for West Virginia, the potential end of Bedlam with Oklahoma’s impending departure for the SEC was a topic just two podiums over from Brown, where Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy sat. West Virginia’s trip to Virginia Tech in Week 4 renews a rivalry that has been played just twice since 2005, including WVU’s win last year. Rivalries are only “back” if they’ve gone away, and the return of the Backyard Brawl is a reminder of what has been lost in college football due to conference realignment over the years - a topic top of mind once again with USC and UCLA’s recently revealed departures for the Big Ten in 2024. But if the Big Ten added schools like North Carolina and Virginia, it could create more opportunities for budding rivalries to form.“Those games are for our fans,” Brown said of this season’s nonconference matchups with Pitt and Virginia Tech, two of the Mountaineers’ longest rivals. While the Nittany Lions will get to rotate through new conference opponents like USC and UCLA, the thought of losing annual games against Ohio State and Michigan has been frustrating to some. Much has been made over Penn State’s lack of permanent rivalry games in the new Big Ten scheduling format. While the prospect of landing North Carolina or Virginia may not be as appealing as adding Clemson, Florida State, or Miami, it would be significant for Penn State football nonetheless. So they watch and wait.” What would this mean for Penn State football? “Neither wants to be overtly destructive or accused of tortious interference…But neither league wants to be a step behind the other. “Both leagues are peering at each other from their respective league headquarters,” Thamel writes. However, Thamel notes that with the ACC grant of rights running through 2036, a power grab from the Big Ten or SEC may not happen for some time. In addition, both North Carolina and Virginia are among the most populous states in the union, which can help with student recruiting for the entire conference. The schools are in contiguous states for both the SEC and the Big Ten, allowing the conferences to expand their geographic footprints without too much extension (not that it matters as much with the new coast-to-coast Big Ten). Thamel explains that the appeal of North Carolina and Virginia is not directly tied to football success. “Outside of Notre Dame, there are no programs that will be as coveted by the SEC and Big Ten thanks to both geography and market,” Thamel writes.
Thamel reports that the Big Ten and SEC are both eyeing the same two ACC schools – North Carolina and Virginia.
After discussing the latest happenings with realignment issues with Colorado, the Big 12, and the PAC 12, the piece moved on to the impending turf war between the SEC and the Big Ten.
This week, Pete Thamel of ESPN wrote a piece covering the latest developments in conference realignment.
Big Ten and SEC both want to add these two ACC schools
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