Penn State at Fault for Keystone Classic not being Renewed

We’re all of course looking forward to the big rivalry game with our friends from Happy Valley this weekend. And yes, as much as some of those friends may refuse to admit it, it is a rivalry. Having the Panthers and Nittany Lions play again the last few years after a decade and a half hiatus has been great for college football in the Keystone State. The first matchup in 2016 was of course a raucous affair at Heinz Field that resulted in a dramatic Pitt win. The game had ramifications stretching the rest of the season as Penn State went on a surprise run to win the Big Ten Championship Game, but were locked out of the College Football Playoff, likely due to their loss that September afternoon on the North Shore. Penn State got revenge the next year when the Panthers went to Happy Valley, dominating from the get-go despite Pitt keeping it close into the second half. Though the current series is currently knotted at only one game apiece, it’s already halfway over. When Athletic Director Heather Lyke took over at Pitt in 2017 she quickly opened a dialogue with Sandy Barbour, her counterpart at Penn State, about scheduling more games between the two schools. This culminated in Pitt presenting a formal proposal to Penn State about a new 4-game series beginning in 2026 this past April. Lyke stated though, that Pitt wouldn’t wait on a response from Penn State indefinitely. This proved to very much be the case when Pitt scheduled a home-and-home with Wisconsin for 2026 and 2027 in late May. This was likely worked out in response to Barbour announcing that they weren’t looking at putting Pitt back on their football schedule until after 2030, despite the fact that it could have easily fit in the late 2020’s. This brings up the main point, though there are legitimate challenges in trying to fit Pitt on their schedule, the imminent end of the current series and the fact that no future games are scheduled is Penn State’s fault.

Penn State does have more obstacles when it comes to non-conference scheduling than Pitt, due to the differing conference schedules. As mentioned above, Pitt plays only 8 conference games as a member of the ACC. This makes it easier for them to schedule more marquee non-conference opponents while hitting the 7 home games that Power 5 teams aim for every year. Basically, this means Pitt can schedule home-and-homes with 2 separate Power 5 teams simultaneously, staggering them so one is played at home while the other is away, and hit the desired number of home games by scheduling two “buy games” against lower level teams. This exact formula was the one Pitt followed in the last two years though it backfired with Pitt going 1-3 in those games. Maybe it’s for this reason that Pitt appears to be backing away from this model, with 2022 being the next year that they have two Power 5 opponents on the schedule in one season. Even that year they play both of these opponents, West Virginia and Tennessee, in Pittsburgh. Regardless, the point remains that Pitt has much more scheduling flexibility than Penn State, though having Notre Dame on the schedule 8 times in the next 18 years throws in a wrench from time to time. In contrast to Pitt, Penn State has a 9-game conference schedule that gives them much less flexibility when it comes to scheduling non-conference opponents. Additionally, the odd number of conference games means that every other season Penn State has 4 home games and 5 away games in Big Ten play. Because of this, in those seasons, Penn State needs to play their entire non-conference slate at home in order to hit 7 home games. For Penn State, those are odd years, which is why in the current series, Pitt goes to Happy Valley those seasons. This means Penn State’s scheduling philosophy has been to only schedule one Power 5 team in non-conference play per season and set the games up so that they play said game on the road in even years. The other two games every season would be “buy games” against non-Power 5 teams giving them 10 total Power 5 teams on their schedule, with 5 each home and away. It would lay out like this:

Comments that Sandy Barbour has made in the past are in line with this philosophy. In 2016, after Penn State missed out on making the College Football Playoff that year, she said, “I still believe that you’ve got to [schedule tough games], and it’s been proven out in other places. It was proven out with Ohio State getting in, so it has gone both ways. We’re going to stick with our philosophy from a non-conference standpoint of one Power 5 [opponent].” Fitting in with this philosophy, after Pitt falls off of their schedule after next season, the Nittany Lions play Auburn, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia once each home and away until 2025.

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