I understand that rivalries happen organically and you can’t force them. But I think something great could happen with the Terps over the long haul.

Living in College Park, I certainly hope so 🙂

maybe you should have listed only the top 12

Wow… only 6 games against Maryland? That does seem very low. I actually see them becoming an early rival upon switiching to the ACC. Old Big East coach, close proximity, battling for some common recruits, etc. All the factors are there to start something.

Pitt will only play the Terps in football every 2-3 years (unless both teams make the conf. Title game). I’d much rather the Terps as the permanent “cross-division rival” vs. Syracuse.

Pitt-MD will likely become a very good hoops rivalry though.

The 12-8 record against rutgers is telling on how the big east drug Pitt down to a lower level of football though it did elevate our basketball standing this is why I for one am so excited about the acc it elevates us in all sports

No more than the ACC dragged FSU down. I don’t buy that steve h. Pitt did it to itself. With its horrid period in the 90s and the self-inflicted failing to get over the hump throughout the 2000s.

I’m gonna miss the Big East. UConn, Louville,and Cincy had some potential.

The ACC really botched it when they split Pitt and Maryland. Having been raised in Pittsburgh before going to Maryland and settling in Baltimore I was incredibly disappointed to see that the matchup would only happen every few years in football. It’s a rivalry waiting to happen.

I think VTech is going to be our next big rivalry. We always played them tough when they were in the BE and their fans follow them well.

Record vs Ohio state is bad, but that 70 whatever to zip game should count as 5 losses-never forget watching that debacle.

I have long wondered why Pitt and Maryland did not play more. Somehow they just have not been on each other’s radar. I grew up in Maryland, and the state as a more southern focus. At least in my high school, I was one of just a handful of students to go to Pitt, and only a handful more went to PA liberal arts colleges. Obviously the most kids went to UMD, but 2nd most was Va Tech and then all the VA liberal arts colleges. Despite Pitt’s obvious and intrinsic awesomness (and only about 3.5 hours from the school) more people continue to head south to VT (5 hours). This is a point that continues to irk me, but hopefully the move to the ACC will open some young peoples’ eyes to attending Pitt. I know, crazy, a non-football benefit for the ACC move.

Yea we hurt ourselves, our biggest conference games this year are Rutgers,Louisville, and Cincy next year it will be V tech,FSU, and Miami if you were a 4 star recruit which schedule would you wanna play. we complain about the 4 stars still going to creepy valley it is because of the big time games they play in. Look at the non traditional teams that stepped up in big conf. Northwestern,Wake played in the Orange bowl, Okla state,look how big the ducks are out west,South Carolina. These teams did things to help themselves but conf. affliation is a big part of it to.

steve h,

Why are you trying to pretend the 90s didn’t happen? Pitt was disgustingly bad, not the Big East. Syracuse was really good. Miami was mostly Miami and even re-surged in 2000. VT emerged. Pitt lost to Temple and Rutgers in that time. Pitt then had to rebuild from that. Pitt lost to Rutgers and Temple a combined 7 times in that decade. 7 of the 16 total losses Pitt has to those two teams came in that period.

You might want to say that the reputation of the Big East wasn’t much of a help after the first ACC raid, but Pitt had a lot more to with Pitt’s problems. In fact, Pitt was one of the teams the Big East was counting on to try and restore the profile of the league. Throughout the 2000s, Pitt was expected to be resurgent. 2003, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010. All years where Pitt could have or was expected to be the top team in the conference. All years where Pitt missed its opportunities.

Again, just as FSU failing to take care of business against teams like Wake Forest in the recent years, along with their ending of the Bowden era had a lot more to do with FSU’s problems than the ACC’s rep in recruiting.

I am glad to be leaving the Big East. I am excited for the possibilities of the ACC. I am not, however, going to blame the Big East for Pitt’s failures.

Oh and didn’t FSU play for the national title in 2000 and since then the ACC added V tech And Miami FSU held onto an old coach they hurt themselves

Fun historical review, thanks Chas

after Majors IIin 96, I can remember talk about Pitt actually downgrading the FB program (especially after giving up 72 to the Buckeyes.) This was the 2nd worst era at Pitt behind the 4 straight 1-win seasons starting late 60s (where we actually played at South Bend and Ara Parseghian agreed to letting the clock run in the 2nd half after incompletions and out of bounds plays … pathetic.)

Pitt, with its academic requirements in this 60s, Oval in the 90s and even recently where the coaching staff and recruiting budget were much less than its rivals, has not always placed such a high premium on football … maybe not necessariy a bad thing considering what our friends 3 hours to the east are experiencing.

Some info from yesterday NCAA has a new investigation of Miami and coach Golden’

And the results from the last one have not come in yet the u just cant play bye the rules.

And golden was at penn state in the past right.

Totally agree that we did it to ourselves. The hiring of P. Hackett followed by J. Majors 2nd coming was our downfall. The one good thing Johnny did was bring back the old color scheme which imho makes Pitt one of those few distinctive uniforms in the college world. You know like USC, FSU, UCLA, TX & OSU. Right now I cant tell wheather its ND or Navy on the screen.

I am looking forward to the ACC to renew our rivalries with VaTech, Miami and FSU. Those are programs that we should measure ourselves against. Syracuse is a good rivalry when we both have good teams as we often have in the past. I hope we continue our rivalry with ND and restart the one with the hated school in Central PA.

chas, I totally agree with you about the 90’s and what Pitt did to itself, but i’m talking about now, after this year there will be nobody that has ever played in a national title game. recruits wanna play in big games and have at least a shot of playing for a title there is no chance of that in whats left in the big east, haven’t we lost the last 5 of 6 to rutgers or something like that, we were 20-0 against them before we joined the big east, we have now met them in the middle, despite our own inept hirings and firings being in the big east wil only allow us to go so far in football. If the big east was so great in the 90’s whay are all those teams you mentioned now in the ACC, it is because the competition you play is who you become, thus the success of the basketball program, the big east and has had its part in dragging Pitt down dealing with BB only schools in decision making, ND taking bowl games, the nightmare is over. Pitt hopefully can put that behind them and move to the ACC with a new coach new attitude and better competition helping us help ourselves

in 2001, the BE was the best FB conference period … look it up! And even as late as 06, it had 3 of the the top 12 in the final BCS rankings, but it’s been pretty much downhill since.

The reason the ACC has been able to recuit the BE teams was simply due to money, which in turn is due to a bigger passion of college FB in the southeast than the northeast. The hope here is that the increased passion is infectious to the dispassionate Pitt fans … whom like most of the NFL cities in the northeast, looks at college FB simply as a minor league to the NFL.

Ahhhhh, the sweet melodic memories
of Johnny Majors II !!!!!!!

wbb, you are absolutely correct–again! The NFL has been the chief culprit to college grid ball for the last decades. Sorry to rain on the Steelers, but their ascendentcy has corresponded with the Panthers’ desent. This MAY CHANGE in future years with the rise of pro franchises in Dixie and elsewhere. BUT, PITT MUST FIELD a winner to capture the loyalty of Pittsburgh fans. Can it happen? No question. Just take a gander at the 2012 Pirates. Pittsburgh fans are fickle people. Maybe the Steelers of the ’70’s spoiled them, but facts are facts. The bottom line is WIN AND THEY WILL COME!! Rev. George in Columbus

Rev, your bottom line is looking good.

A corollary: Hire a great coach and they will win.

I’m thinking that Maryland and Pitt not playing in the same division in the ACC may be due to Randy E. and the Maryland AD wanting to minimize the Pitt poaching in recruiting in central MD, DC and northern VA, an area Maryland is trying to establish as its own. It would be nice to have some actual info. on this speculation. Pitt does seem to be getting more on the radar down here. I recently became aware of four families from central Maryland whose kids (not football players) are making college trips to Pitt or are already attending Pitt.

No matter who is across the line of schrimage just,,,,,win, baby win! HTP

It’s interesting/fitting/ironic that we technically have more of a rivalry with Carnegie Tech than all but 3 Big East teams. Great hoops conference, just couldn’t put it all together for football. Adios.

FYI, Wake Forest’s campus (and stadium) is very much like UVA’s, but a lot smaller (only 4,500 students). Winston-Salem is much more developed than Charlottesville, though. It’s amazing that they can actually field a D1 football team.

Maybe Maryland & Pitt didn’t play more (remember the tie in ’86 to open the season for new coach Mike Gottfried and the 8-3-1 83 team’s close loss to a very good Maryland team?) because Maryland had a long-term rivalry (very lopsided) to Penn State and regular games with West Virginia.

In past years Navy a way higher profile than MD. A no-brainer.

in my memory, Maryland was always a basketball school. It wasn’t a doormat in football but it rarely (if ever) won championships … although it did produce an impressive string of QBs in the 80s (Boomer Esiason, Frank Reich, Neil O’Donnell.)

It had recent FB success when it brought in UM alum Ralph Freidgan who had a couple of 10 wins season, yet dumped him after 2010 because he apparently couldn’t take him to the next level. (his replacement, R Edsall didn’t exactly win over the UM faithful this past season.)

UM does seem a naturall ACC rival mostly due to geographic, bet also because it situated near an NFL franchise that is revered by the locals … I guess the other similarity is that it dumped its coach (an alum) who couldn’t meet their expectations.

Well, I’m impressed with the decision to remove the Paterno statue from Beaver Stadium. At least it is a step in the right direction and shows, just maybe,that the University’s administration isn’t in the same state of denial that a large segment of the Penn State faithful seem to be.

agree — I also believe that this decision was made primarily because the NCAA is considering sanctions, and it is a sign to them that there is some contrition from someone up there (up to now, we haven’t seen much)

Everywhere I go Pedo State alum stick up for Paterno and their school, they deny anyone knew anything…they still think the actions were of one deranged man and no one else. Sure and Hitler was the sole and exclusive party to blame for WWII and the Holocost.

It’s time to shut down Penn State football and penalize the University as a whole!

DDAY tomorrow for Ped State – based on the continuing awful behavior and any lack of contriteness by PSU, alums and fans…the NCAA will kill them dead for at least one year!

I foresee the PSU administration restoring the statue in front of the stadium once the NCAA sanctions have been fulfilled. Freeh was right: this is a systemic, cultural problem. And a few sanctions and a few hundred million dollars in penalties will not ever change that.

WE ARE…Arrogant
WE ARE…in Denial
WE ARE…penn state

Certainly no one can argue that the move to the ACC is a good one for Pitt all around. What I don´t get is the disdain for Cincinnati. Like it or not, Louisville and Cincinnati made the Big East a competitive football conference after VT, UM and BC left for the ACC. Their football programs surpassed Pitt, and Pitt has nobody but themselves to blame for that.

I lived in the Baltimore DC area for six years before escaping to Westeern Pennsylvania. UM football just doesn´t have a huge profile in DC. Baltimore just doesn´t seem to be a big football market. Oh, they sell out for the Ravens, but their high school football isn´t that great.

Tomorrow @9AM…

(CBS News) CBS News has learned that the NCAA will announce what a high-ranking association source called “unprecedented” penalties against both the Penn State University football team and the school.

Dan 72, CBS News agrees with you link to cbsnews.com

Penguins Fan, I don’t think there is a big disdain of Cincy or any other of the BE teams that are left behind. I know Rutgers fans can be arrogant and I took exception to remarks made by Lville AD and head BB coach, but overall I believe I speak for many in saying that we wish them well.

What I find interesting is the NCAA is not following their due process and let the NCAA Prez issue the sanctions on his own w/o a NCAA investigation. I guess extreme cases require extreme measures.

Waiting to see what those “unprecedented penalties” are. Oh, based on everything I’ve read on the Sandusky travesty, Penn State still doesn’t get it.
When their whole 2013 recruiting class flees after
tomorrow’s announcement, maybe they will.

i fear that they are saying the penalties are “unprecedented because they have never been handed out without investigation”

OR they may mean something about the actual penalty, if thats the case it makes me think that they wouldnt give the death penalty b/c thats been done before..i get the feeling I think we may be looking at a very long probation with an incredible financial penaltynthat will set up a fund to care for the victims and pay for an NCAA new program to assure this sort of thing never happens anywhere ever again

Joe Schad reports when talking to a “source” psu will not use the death penalty, but penalty will basically be on par

Reports of severe limit of scholarships.

schad said that it could be more damaging long term than the death penalty. a source who found what the penalty was from emmert said it was “extremely harsh”. im looking forward to hearing what it is. its not the dp, my guess is a massive combination of loss of schollies, bowl bans, loss of tv deals, payment for victims etc. hopefully pitt can benefit

Pitt loss to MD in 83 was one of the worst losess. Fralic led the runners 50+ yards and then the Pitt coach calls for a pitch out that was a fumble.

Former BE teams should challenge the NC/Greensboro ACC mentality.

Frank MD

“We’re not…Penn State.”

I’ll be the first to admit I was completely wrong. I could not imagine the NCAA offering any major punishment or judgement until the trials. So curious to see what is done…

The PSU students and alum still do not apparently get it. They spent the morning taking pictures with the statue and chanting “WE ARE…”. They are still in total denial even aftef the Freeh report. Call shows have people saying”jopa (no caps intentionally) never sent any e-mails”. I have known for years to be careful what I write in E-mail at work, as even if miscontrued can come back to bite you. jopa was not dumb, a hypocrite-yes, a probable cheater-yes, and enabler-yes, a supreme egomaniac-definitely. Should the “death penalty” be invoked,no. Cripple the football program severely for several years financially,i.e., take that revenue and put it into a fund to pay for the monetary damages that we the taxpayers would otherwise be “on the hook for”. Limit scholarships for football, cut recruiting budget severely, limit coaching budget, and divert gate reciepts. When the win/loss record slides then maybe the PSU faithful will start to get it.

Although I believe that a death penalty of at least 5 years is warranted, some other severe penalties could work to change their culture. Maybe limit scholarships to 10 per year for 10 years, play all their games on the road and no participation in conference revenues for the same time.

The NCAA might be on to something here. One of the considerations for not imposing the death penalty is because of the collateral damage to the genuine innocent parties such as the schools scheduled for a home game with PSU this year. It sounds like they are going to economically destroy the sports infrastructure. So they will still be allowed to field a football team, but no doubt it will dwarf the competition talent wise. Recruting will fall off the table as they will be bowl ineligible. Who cares if you have 106,000 self indulging cultists cheering for you six times a year. (Yes I said SIX, because PSU will no longer be in position to dictate the home and home advantage with other schools). That program is finished. This is the ultimate scarlet letter. Penn State no longer connotes anything favorable whatsoever and will not come close to doing so for decades to come.

AND NOW I think this is finally a Pitt issue lol. I mean believe me I like talking about the Penn State scandal, it’s just that I knew that’s all I would hear from all media outlets, so I was hoping The Blather would be a sort of safe haven. Anyways, based on what the NCAA is saying, it looks like we may be having an upper hand in recruiting in the coming years, maybe even this year. Time to step up our game and become THE University of Pittsburgh, na mean?

NCAA is reportedly about the come down hard on Penn St. with “unprecedented” penalties which are on par with the “death penalty” but short of an actually “death penalty”

According to ESPN “The penalties, however, are considered to be so harsh that the death penalty may have been preferable, the source said”

Announcement coming at 9:00 AM Monday

link to espn.go.com

Chas Reed we need a new post abought all that is comeing down at penn state they had a decommit last night so they are down to 13 commits now .

There will be more decommits and player transfers. Their team will be decimated. That is the objective. Fans will become demoralized. That is the objective. Football will cease to become the most important thing on campus. That is the objective. Pitt needs to drop them on Tuesday. That would be the right thing to do.

Ped State will still out recruit us.

My prediction penn state to lose 40 scholarships
over the next 3 years and 3 years with no bowls.

Reed or Chas what is your take on the NCAA violations set for tomorrow??????

Marco that is what i want to know they must not be home or they would have put up a post bye now.

My question is this only the first set of penalties with more to come or will these sanctions be it for their program?

And on another front Aaron Berry arrested again in Harrisburg for a second time this summer. You really have to wonder how so many of Dave’s recruits were and still are such idiots…we never saw this with Walt’s players!

Chryst needs to be on the phone now, word is these penalties are going to cripple psu worse than smu by the time it’s all said and done.

in this case, it seems that this is a Dtroit Lion phenomenon … what is this, the 5 or 6th Lion that has been arrested in the offseason?

john, chryst has already been recruiting several of their commits. im sure johnson, nelson, and issah are among those

And who was the Lions GM…M-squared?

My guess is 5 years of no bowls which would kill recruiting for at least 3 years. And scholarships cut in half for same period. It quite possibly could be longer if the early reports are true on how harsh the penalty’s are going to be.

PSU needs to rebrand itself…change uniforms and logo..do what Pitt did when it tried to change it’s losing ways…new uniforms, new colors, new logo etc..instead of Penn St they should call themselves Pennsylvania State University Nittany Lions.

Eddie Cameron, the namesake of Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke was first an assistant and then the head football coach at Duke back in the 30s and 40s. He eventually became the AD and is credited as a founder of the ACC. He was from Irwin, PA and I suspect his strong ties to the area had a lot to do with Pitt playing Duke 6 years in a row back in the day.

Pennsylvania Educators Denying Ominous Preditory Happenings Insisting Lax Instutional Accountability Unequivably … or just P.E.D.O.P.H.I.L.I.A. U.

Just heard an interesting suggestion to help pacify the nitters who are upset about the statue removal.

They can relocate the statue to the paterno library. It would be a reminder to the students to be quiet.

a shame they had to remove the statue… they could have simply turned it around so it looked the other way…

Those of you from the business and political world…a word of caution.

When the NCAA publicizes that PSU will “wish” they had gotten the “death penalty”, it is a preview to a slap on the wrist because the NCAA is a gutless and could not pull the trigger on the death penalty and wants everyone to think they are tough when they are spineless!

CNN reporting fines in excess of $30M plus loss of scholarships and post season bowls.

Getting away from the Penn State sanction talk for a minute, Miami is being investegated by the NCAA for more recruiting violations that occured on Golden’s watch. I imagine he may be second guessing his decision to pass on the Pitt job for Miami. I happen to like the guy we have now. Even if he’s laid back, “low key” recruiter.

Justinian i have been posting that abought miami for 2 days no one wants to talk abought that hope you have more luck than me geting feed back on that subject.

Pitt should back out of the two-year contract to play Penn State. Pitt should not be associated with Penn State in any way.

To think that Penn State thought they were too good to have Pitt as a rival! A rival should be someone you dislike, yet respect. There can be no respect now.

Any lost revenue wouldn’t happen for 4 years anyway. There’s plenty of time to fill those spots on the schedule.

Even though this would be just a symbolic penalty by the NCAA, I would not be surprised, in the least, if the NCAA had Penn State forfeit all wins that occurred after the cover-up was initiated. This would lower the boom on Penn State’s football historical perspective forever. When their record is reviewed in the future, even decades from now, it will always jump off the page that Penn State had NO wins for over a decade. The memory of this awful cover-up debacle will then always be remembered because the answer to that question of continuous losing seasons will be obvious from this time forward.

Anyone catch the link on the right side here of Kevin Harper kicking those field goals? Maybe if he kicked in a game with a garbage can over his head, or dressed like a hoopie instead of a uniform, he would be moer acurate in a game!

Well stipping Paterno of victories going back to 1998 changes the all – time record between Pitt and PSU to 42-48-4.

[…] have noted the complete lack of vitriol and hatred. Despite Syracuse being Pitt’s (tied for) 3d most played opponent in football. And the fact that they will have the #3 spot all alone in a few years when ND starts rotating on […]