Like it or not, the whole conference supremacy crap that goes on forces us to pull for teams that at times we wouldn’t cross the street to spit on them.

Having said that, West Virginia absolutely humiliated the Oklahoma Sooners with a 20 point win, 48-28. I admit it. I was cheering for them. If for no other reason, then the whole Big East bashing crap goes away for another year.
Everyone was picking against them — for good reason.

The only downside, and I heard it near the end of the game, the excuse/revisionist history will be that Pitt beat WVU because Pat White got hurt early in the game. White wasn’t playing well when he got hurt.

Seeing Owen Schmitt  break down on national TV actually moved me. Well, except for the whole, “I love this state,” part

And I’m talking about myself.

I’m going to Morgantown.

Yes, Pitt is 4-7 and WVU is 10-1, and the game has opened with Pitt as a 28 to 28.5 underdog.

Yes in WVU’s last game they whupped up on UConn 66-21. A UConn team that humiliated Pitt 34-14.

Yes history isn’t helpful either. Pitt hasn’t beaten West Virginia under Coach Wannstedt, lost by a combined 90-40 in those two contests, last won in Morgantown in 2001 and is 2-5 in Morgantown in the last 7 games.

I have no sane reason to go. I have little hope of actually expecting a win in this game. Most likely it will be cold and potentially wet.
Nonetheless, I’m going.

I’m going because there is a chance to see history.

-100th Backyard Brawl (Pitt still holds a 59-37-3 advantage despite an 8-15-2 record over the past 25 games).
-WVU is either going to play for the national championship or have their dreams destroyed by a huge underdog that happens to be their most hated rival. I have the opportunity, so why not be there.
-Morgantown potentially burning in an orgy of couch fires and a series of meth lab explosions around and outside of the city with either result.
-A game that will have a huge impact on the pressure/confidence in Coach Wannstedt from the fans going into 2008.
Finally, and most importantly I’m going because 10 years ago I went down to Morgantown with a group of friends on something of a whim, and had my interest and love of Pitt restored.

The previous 5 years had me completely out of touch with Pitt athletics. I had left the area and the team sucked so there was very little news about the team making it outside of the Pittsburgh area. Especially in those pre-internet days.

I had been paying a little closer attention that season after moving to Youngstown. I watched and enjoyed the Pitt upset of Miami that Thursday night in some generic sports bar in Boardman after begging a bartender to give me one TV for that rather than the Pirates game.
I went down with friends, mainly to get drunk and have some fun.  We accomplished the drunk part — and then some.

[Brief aside. The original plan for the group was to grab a couple hotel rooms in town and go out in Morgantown -- just for the hell of it. Somewhere in the course of the game we just decided that it would be best to go back to the 'Burgh and not waste money in Morgantown. Then, as we had to wait for traffic to thin and for one of our group to reach the point where he was no longer going to be puke risk in the car, it became just go out for a couple beers near the apartment we were all crashing. By the time we got back and the emotional and physical drain in full effect it just became have a beer in the apartment, watch the highlights on TV a few times and crash. That was 10 years ago. It's only gotten worse with time.]
What also happened was seeing the greatest game I ever attended. A triple-OT 41-38 win. Certainly the most enjoyable.
It completely brought the joy and hope back in that one game. I committed that night to season tickets with one friend who’s loyalty and attendance never waivered in all his years. Been holding since.

I guess, I’m hoping that there might be a chance to have a little faith restored.

…at least for a week.

With LSU’s 3OT loss to Jeff Long’s Arkansas team on Friday, the BCS Championship picture has become much clearer. The newest BCS rankings look like so:

1. Missouri 11-1
2. West Virginia 10-1
3. Ohio State 11-1
4. Georgia 10-2
5. Kansas 11-1
6. Virginia Tech 10-2
7. LSU 10-2
8. USC 9-2
9. Oklahoma 10-2
10. Florida 9-3

Our Panthers have a very rare opportunity on Saturday — the ability to knock a team out of the title game simply by beating them. Too bad actually beating them won’t be too simple.

If either Mizzou or WVU lose, Ohio State will back into the Championship game. The chance of Missouri losing to Oklahoma in the Big XII conference championship is very possible. That would mean Ohio State plays WVU for the title. What about Pitt beating the Mountaineers? Dan Shanoff says no way.

If BOTH Missouri and West Virginia lose… well, that’s just not happening.

Did you see what West Virginia did to the next-best team in their conference, when WVU realized they had to impress the nation? They hung 66 on them.

They ran up the score, because they knew they had to, in order to silence any doubt spread from, say, Columbus. Those ‘Eers are one cut-throat bunch of s.o.b.’s; they ain’t losing to Dave Wannstedt with a trip to the national championship game on the line.

Since the Backyard Brawl starts at 7:45 and the Big XII game starts at 8:00, there won’t be time to know if Missouri wins or loses though. That means Buckeye Nation not only roots for Oklahoma, but also for Pitt. Other teams hoping that both OU and Pitt win are Georgia, Kansas, LSU, and Oklahoma themselves.

Pitt hasn’t had this many fans in a long, long time. We gladly welcome all of them — maybe someday they’ll come help us fill Heinz Field to more than 35% capacity.

Tom Dienhart at The Sporting News has ranked coaches in BCS conferences compared to other coaches in the conference and then compiled a list of all 66 BCS conference coaches. Dave Wannstedt checks in at #6 of 8 coaches in the Big East.

6. Dave Wannstedt, Pitt. Wanny finally looks like he’s home. Of course, he is, coaching at the school and in the town that forged that crooked grin. He knows defense, and he has infused talent into the program. But it’s time to start delivering the goods with West Virginia, Louisville and Rutgers stealing the headlines. Pitt is a proud program that ALWAYS should be good.

I can agree with Rodriguez at the top of the list but having UL’s Steve Kragthorpe at number three in the Big East makes no sense to me. The guy has yet to be on the sidelines of a BCS team as head coach (previously the head coach at Tulsa in C-USA) and apparently the following got him higher on the list.

Plus, he’s a swell guy who has the right priorities.

One spot in front of Wanny at #5 in Cincinnati’s new head coach, Brian Kelley. A guy who went only 19-16 at Central Michigan in three years. I’m not saying these two coaches won’t be a success but Dienhart is purely guessing that these coaches are going to be something special. It’s also questionable how guys like Kragthorpe and USF’s Jim Leavitt (#2) are ahead of Greg Schiano who is at #4.

He then threw together (seeming literally) a list ranking ALL of the BCS coaches from 1 to 66. Wanny checks in at 45th.

Most of the comments left on the article are left by people completely disagreeing with the rankings, and one of my favorites was this one.

Man, what an easy way to make a living. List all the BCS coaches and put numbers beside their names.

Are y’all taking applications?

Seemingly, that’s what he did. There are so many over and under rated coaches on that list that it’s hard to count them all. Missing by a few spots is forgivable but some of them seem to be way of base.

(h/t Mondesi’s House)

So Ron Cook puts the fact that Pitt and other teams that go 6-6 will be going to a bowl at the top of his outrage list for college football. Something that everyone has been well aware since it was announced that they were going to 12 game seasons in CFB and there are just way too many bowls.

Looking for it…

Looking for it…

Searching…

Nope, can’t find the outrage. Can’t work up a lather. Hell, I’m having a hard time working up a lather about the other sins he lists:

Penn State going to the Outback Bowl — big deal. It’s a Big 11 tie-in bowl and that’s where they landed in the pecking order. Why does that make them undeserving? Compared to who else in the conference? They may get creamed by LSU or someone like that, but that doesn’t make them “undeserving” so much as point out how top heavy the Big 11 was. Non-BCS bowls are about money and what schools and conferences can bring the most fans for the games. The Big 11 has among the largest fanbases and has historically traveled to bowls well.

Potential Michigan-tOSU rematch for the BCS National Championship. Wait? You mean the BCS is screwed up? Damn, I thought the system was fine. Again, old news.

It’s the feigned outrage in the column that amuses me. These are old complaints wrapped up in an attempt at mouth-breathing anger. Don’t necessarily disagree with them, but spare me the weak emotional effort.

I noted for AOL that it might be in the best interests of the Big East and the SEC to downgrade Boise State in the coaches poll, so that they don’t get a BCS bid. Especially after UConn’s Randy Edsall all but admitted that sort of thing goes into considerations in voting.

An old WV columnist seems to think that the Big East has already taken advantage of having 4 BE Coaches voting and now needs to get the rest of the Coaches convinced.