Pitt AD: Panthers won't play road games at non-Power 5 schools
When Pitt takes road trips in the future, the Panthers are only going to be playing Power Five opponents.
Athletic director Scott Barnes said Thursday that Pitt will continue to play teams that aren't in the Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC. It's just that the Panthers will only play them at home.
“We will not continue to play home-and-home with Group of Five schools,” Barnes said on The Fan Morning Show via CBS Pittsburgh. “We will play them at our place as part of our scheduling plan. We will not play home-and-home.”
The stance means the Panthers will likely be disposing of a road trip to Marshall in 2020 and a game against Cincinnati in 2024. But hey, who knows about the Cincinnati game. Maybe the Bearcats will be in a Power Five conference by then. Or maybe we won't even have the Power Five and Group of Five designations for college conferences at that point.
Barnes' stance comes as Power Five conferences have added mandates that their teams play at least one non-conference game against a Power Five opponent per season. And while it makes sense for Pittsburgh, it's a stance that could hurt non-Power Five teams if other athletic directors follow suit with the idea.
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Having a big team come to a non-Power Five team's stadium can be a draw for fans. And an important source of revenue. A widespread adoption of Barnes' idea could create a type of college football class warfare where non-P5 teams struggle to find decent home games to fill their schedules.
Barnes, who arrived at Pitt earlier this year from Utah State, also said that the school would like to continue its series with Penn State. But Penn State games could come at the expense of the renewed Backyard Brawl with West Virginia. Pitt and West Virginia, annual rivals since the teams moved conferences, are starting up the rivalry game in 2022.
Pitt has a series starting in 2016 with Penn State that ends in 2020.
“It looks like that may be delayed until towards the end of that Backyard Brawl series,” Barnes said. “We continue to have conversations. We would, in a perfect world, love to play every year…our desire is to play Penn State every year. Given the circumstances, we have moved forward with adding the Backyard Brawl, and then working diligently again to renew Penn State later.”
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
