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Friedlander: College football needs old-school rivalries like the Backyard Brawl and Virginia-Maryland
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The Atlantic Coast Conference has become an “All-Coast Conference,” expanded beyond recognition. The old Big East is dead and gone, victims of the opening round of conference realignment.
But for at least a few hours Saturday, long-time devotees of both will have a chance to take a nostalgic trip back in time to the glory days of their respective leagues.
It’s not actually Rivalry Week. That doesn’t happen until the end of the regular season.
But with 2 games on the schedule matching former conference cousins separated by divorce, maybe we can refer to this as Reunion Week.
It will sure feel like old times when Pitt and West Virginia renew old Big East hostilities at Acrisure Stadium in their traditional Backyard Brawl. Emotions will be running just as high in Charlottesville for the border war between former ACC rivals Virginia and Maryland.
At least it will among the fans.
For the players, many of whom were in middle school the last time their teams played on an annual basis, it has taken a history lesson from their coaches to capture the spirit of the thing.
“We’re educating the team on the rivalry for those who don’t know,” Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi said. “I told them a story about rivalries back when I was at Michigan State. Every year there’s a different flavor to a rivalry. This game this weekend, this is why you play football, this is why you coach football. This is it.”
Both ACC teams are at home and are 2.5-point underdogs, according to FanDuel sportsbook. Pitt-WVU is scheduled to kick off at 3:30 pm on ESPN2. UVa-Maryland is the 8 pm game on ACC Network.
States: OH, MD, LA, KS, NY, TN, NJ, PA, IN, IA, IL, WV, MI, CO, VA, AZ, CT
The games will be a lot of fun to watch because rivalries are part of what makes college football so great. But they’ll also be accompanied by a twinge of sadness in the knowledge that they might not happen again for a long time.
The Cavaliers and Terrapins played every year from 1957-2013, when Maryland bolted to the Big Ten. From 1972-1987, the Terps reeled off 16 consecutive wins. UVa won 17 of the next 24, including 9 in a row. The renewed the series last season — Maryland won — but aren’t scheduled to play again after their home-and-home series ends on Saturday.
Pitt and West Virginia have played more than 100 times, including almost every year during the 20th Century. The annual battle ended after the 2011 game, when Pitt joined the ACC. from Any future meetings between the Panthers and Mountaineers are just as much in doubt after next year’s rematch in Morgantown.
No matter how much everyone involved wants them to happen.
“It’s a series that needs to be played,” WVU coach Neal Brown said during his weekly news conference on Monday. “It’s important. I think Pitt wants to play it. We want to play it. … It makes sense for us to play the game – close proximity, great TV audience, fans on both sides are excited about it.”
Watch #WVU HC Neal Brown, LB Trey Lathan and WR Traylon Ray and others preview the Backyard Brawl https://t.co/VnefhWWh1M
— West Virginia on SI (@SI_WVU) September 9, 2024
Those factors make just as much sense to Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi, UVA’s Tony Elliott and Maryland’s Mike Locksley. The problem is that nothing about college athletics makes sense anymore.
There’s no justification whatsoever for decisions that have the Panthers and Cavaliers regularly traveling cross-country to play conference opponents in California more frequently than historic rivals located within 2 ½ hours from home.
But here we are.
And it’s not just an ACC issue. Shifting conference affiliations have also spelled an end to Bedlam, the series between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State that dated to 1904, and the Civil War between Oregon and Oregon State.
The Ducks and Beavers play their final game in their long-running series on Saturday in Corvallis.
Because the landscape of college athletics continues to change, the chance of future reunion games such as those being played this weekend could diminish with each passing year. Especially once the power-4 megaconferences give in to the inevitable and go to 9-game league schedules.
The situation involving Pitt and WVU became even more complicated Monday when the Panthers’ respected athletic director Heather Lyke was relieved of her duties.
It was an unexpected plot twist few saw coming.
Here’s Pat Narduzzi answering the one question he took regarding Heather Lyke and her support of him, including signing him to a contract extension following the 2021 ACC Championship season. pic.twitter.com/pEHUXPPEn9
— Amanda Godsey (@AmandaFGodsey) September 9, 2024
Lyke was named the 2023 AD of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and was the ACC’s representative to the NCAA Division I council. Though no official reason has been given for her dismissal other than a statement by Chancellor Joan Gabel stating that Pitt needs “a new vision and a new leader,” published reports suggest the move was made because of fund-raising and NIL concerns.
What the “new vision” will look like is yet to be seen. But it will be weeks, maybe months before Pitt’s new athletic leadership is in place and can start making decisions about the program’s future.
While the situations at UVa and Maryland are much more stable, the lack of substantive buzz from either school about renewing their football relationship suggests that the current home-and-home is a one-off.
So even if you’re not a fan of any of the schools involved, it would be worth your while to tune in on Saturday and savor the moment. Because it might be a long time before you get another chance to experience 2 of the best rivalries in college football.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
