This season, the Pitt Panthers football team took a trip to Akron.
Last season the Panthers ventured to play FIU.
While opponents from smaller schools usually end up in victories for most Power 5 Conference FBS teams, don’t expect the Panthers to make many more trips like that in the future.
“We will not continue to play home-and-home with Group of Five schools,” Pitt athletic director Scott Barnes told “The Fan Morning Show” on Thursday. “We will play them at our place as part of our scheduling plan. We will not play home-and-home.”
Staring soon, Pitt will only play road games against teams from the Big XII, Big Ten, SEC or Pac-12 teams as part of a home-and-home series. That is opposed to scheduling home-and-home series against the Group of Five conference teams composed of the MAC, AAC, Mountain West, Sun Belt, and Conference USA. The Panthers could continue to play those teams at home, but will not make the road trips there any longer.
Pitt already has a pair of road games scheduled against Group of Five Conference teams-Marshall (2020) and Cincinnati (2024).
In the past decade or so, the Panthers non-conference schedule has been better than the other local team, but there is still room for improvement and Barnes is taking the right steps.
That doesn’t mean they will completely load up the non-conference portion of their slate, as they have some tough battles looming ahead, but Barnes is looking for steady improvement and the right mix.
“It has to do with creating the momentum you need,” Barnes said. “You don’t want to overschedule. We’ve got crossover games coming up with the Clemsons, the Florida States. You’ve got Notre Dame in the mix. So, you want to have a chance to bring some balance and a bit of breathing room.”
Many Pitt fans would quickly ask how that impacts the future of games against Penn State and West Virginia.
With the Penn State series ending in 2020 and the Backyard Brawl renewed, it may be tough for Barnes to fit the Nittany Lions on the schedule every year, but it is something he is pushing for.
“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.”
Either way, fans of the Panthers will know that Barnes is working on adding some quality opponents to the Pitt schedule in the foreseeable future.
Photo Credit:Pitt Athletics
