If you’ve ever wondered whether the college football world is paying attention to the Pitt-Penn State rivalry on a national scale, wonder no more.
Their Week 2 matchup this season Sept. 8 at Heinz Field has been selected as ABC’s Saturday Night Football game of the week, kicking off at 8 p.m. on the national network. The third installment in the four-year renewed series will be the final one played in Western Pennsylvania for the foreseeable future, but at least it will be under the lights and broadcast for the whole country to see.
Making Pitt-Penn State a night game seemed likely when the Pirates announced last month they were moving their 7:05 p.m. matchup with the Miami Marlins that day to 1:05 p.m. It will be a new prime-time feel for an in-state clash that kicked off at noon and 3:30 p.m. the past two seasons.
This will be the first time the two have met in a night game since a 7:30 p.m. start on Nov. 14, 1987, when the unranked Panthers shut out the No. 15 Nittany Lions 10-0. This also will be the latest kickoff between the two since a 9 p.m. contest the day after Thanksgiving in 1976, which the top-ranked Panthers won on ABC to set up their Sugar Bowl against Georgia en route to being crowned national champions.
It’s not as if the crowd that will descend on Heinz Field this time around needs any more priming; Pitt and Penn State have circled each other in recent months and even years regarding the long-term likelihood of the series, with Nittany Lions athletic director Sandy Barbour last week essentially tabling talk of future showdowns until after 2030 at the earliest. Pitt clearly wants to keep the matchup alive more than Penn State, and this season will be the Panthers’ last chance for a long time to come out with bragging rights on their home field.
When the Nittany Lions came to town two years ago, 69,983 fans squeezed into Heinz Field to make it the biggest crowd for a sporting event the city has ever seen. As the sun sets on the North Shore this Sept. 8, more and more folks likely will try to find their way into the building by kickoff, though the cheapest tickets currently on StubHub.com are going for almost $170 in the upper deck.
In 98 previous meetings, Penn State holds a 51-43-4 edge on Pitt, including a 33-14 victory last season at home at Beaver Stadium. The Nittany Lions figure to come into this year’s tilt as a top-10 team, and shouldn’t have much trouble getting past Appalachian State in Week 1. Pitt will be coming off a season opener against Albany.
The Saturday night game on ABC in Week 1 will be defending national champion Alabama against Louisville in Orlando, Fla., and the week after Pitt-Penn State will be Ohio State against TCU in Arlington, Texas.
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This story has been updated with the correct date of the teams’ most recent primetime game.
Brian Batko: bbatko@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrianBatko.
First Published: May 16, 2018, 1:50 p.m.