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Pitt should call JoePa's bluff
Joe Starkey can be reached via e-mail or at 412-320-7810.
Pitt should call Joe Paterno's bluff and agree to play two of three games at Beaver Stadium, if doing so would spark up the dormant, 96-year-old rivalry with Penn State.
To some, that would be tantamount to Pitt admitting it is a lesser program.
Actually, Pitt could make Paterno look small -- smaller than he already looks in clinging to a 25-year-old resentment -- by agreeing to his terms and beating him at Beaver Stadium.
Besides, Pitt is a lesser program on several fronts. Notably, revenue-production, stadium capacity and game-day atmosphere - and there's no shame in that. A lot of schools can't match Penn State there.
Pitt should make a condition that if it wins two of three, it would get home-field advantage in the next three-game series.
If Paterno wouldn't agree to that - and he likely wouldn't - he'd look worse still.
Not that he cares.
Paterno continues to cite Pitt's failure to join him in an all-eastern sports league back in 1982 every time the dead rivalry is broached, as it was this past week during a Penn State alumni event at the Omni William Penn Hotel.
Let it go, Joe.
As usual, Paterno blamed the rivalry's death in 2000 on economics. Penn State needs to play seven home games, blah, blah, blah.
That didn't stop him from putting Syracuse on the schedule. Penn State will play at Syracuse in 2008 and will host the Orange in 2009.
The fact that Paterno was willing to play a different Big East team, on equal terms, was yet another slap at Pitt.
The best way to return the favor?
Go to Beaver Stadium and beat him.
As for those who say Penn State doesn't need Pitt, they're obviously right. Renewing the rivalry would be more beneficial to Pitt.
But I'm guessing the massive contingent of Penn State graduates in Western Pennsylvania probably wouldn't mind, either.
It's also true that Florida International could fill Beaver Stadium just as easily as Pitt could. All the more reason to restart the series. If it doesn't matter who Penn State plays, why not Pitt?
A little cross-state goodwill would be nice.
That won't be coming from Paterno, which is why it's good that John N. Wozniak, a state senator from Johnstown, has pressed the matter. Legislators should get involved. While they theoretically have more important things to do, this should take about five minutes:
Lawmakers: "You guys like state funding, right?"
Pitt and Penn State: "Yes."
Lawmakers: "Then play. You both have an open date in 2010. That seems like the ideal year to kick things off."
Nobody has guts in college football anymore. It has become a sign of status to pack the home schedule with patsies and refuse to play tough road games without reciprocation.
Pitt athletic director Jeff Long should dare to be different, if the politicians won't step in.
People will think less of Pitt for accepting a best-of-three series on Penn State's terms? Well, people aren't exactly raving about Pitt football under any circumstance these days.
The Panthers are 9-12 against Division I-A competition the past two years. Their nonconference home games this season (Eastern Michigan, Grambling State and Navy) figure to play out before rows and rows of empty yellow seats.
The program needs a shot of relevance. Getting a commitment from a stud such as Thomas Jefferson lineman Lucas Nix, as Pitt did the other day, will help.
So would reviving a great rivalry that didn't deserve to die.
