West Virginia would like to get Pitt, Virginia Tech, Virginia, and Penn State on their future football schedules, WVU Director of Athletics Oliver Luck told the Bluefield Daily Telegraph.
“I would love to get Pitt back on the schedule, I would love to get (Virginia) Tech back on the schedule, I would to get UVa back on the schedule, another school that we used to play a lot, and even Penn State,” Luck said. “Is that possible? Well, it takes two to tango, but I think the good news is we will see some stronger non-conference schedules as we go forward.”
The comment came as Luck was discussing the need to strengthen their non-conference schedules in preparation for the College Football Playoff.
“My sense is that all the so-called power top-5 conferences will be upgrading their out-of-conference schedules. Luck said. “I think there is a trend toward upgrading that out-of-conference schedule and I am starting to see that and hear that from talking to other AD’s.”
When West Virginia moved to the Big 12 Conference in 2012, the Mountaineers left behind perhaps their fiercest rivalry – the “Backyard Brawl” with Pittsburgh. Now that the two schools are in different conferences, they will have to find a way to get the series started again.
Other hindrances to the game for West Virginia are that they play a tougher conference schedule now and they only have three non-conference games each season.
The return of the “Backyard Brawl” is certainly something that Pitt and WVU fans and most college football fans would like to see. The Mountaineers won the last meeting in 2011, but still trail 61-40-3 in the series that began in 1895.
West Virginia and Virginia Tech used to play for the Black Diamond Trophy, but haven’t faced off since 2005. WVU leads the series 28-22-1. Both schools used to be in the Big East, but the rivalry game fizzled out after Virginia Tech joined the ACC in 2003.
If the two schools do meet sometime soon, it will likely be at a neutral site rather than a home-and-home series. Luck made that suggestion in 2012 just prior to WVU facing James Madison at FedEx Field.
“In my discussions with (Athletic Director) Jim Weaver, our only opportunity to play a Virginia Tech might be this kind of game because they are not really interested in a home-and-home,” Luck said.
As far as West Virginia’s history with the Virginia Cavaliers, the two have only played 23 times. In their last meeting at the 2002 Continental Tire Bowl in Charlotte, the Cavaliers trounced the Mountaineers 48-22. Prior to that game, the two hadn’t met on the football field since 1985.
The final school that Luck mentioned he wants to add to their future schedules is Penn State. The two schools have met 59 times, but not since 1992 when the Mountaineers fell to the Nittany Lions 40-26 at home.
Right now, West Virginia has full non-conference schedules through 2016. And those schedules feature defending national champion Alabama, BYU, and yearly foes Maryland and East Carolina.
If the Mountaineers are going to add Pitt, Virginia Tech, Virginia or Penn State, it will most likely be after the 2016 season.
View Comments (60)
Gee...VT isn't interested in a home and home? Maybe because their players had to duck 2 liters filled with urine and batteries the last time they played there. Keep it classy Morgantown.
Miami had many things including a garbage can hurled at their cheerleaders over the years and the Canes said they would never play in Morgantown again. Miami leads that series 16-3 by the way before anyone starts crazy talk of being afraid.
Funny, now many of those guys live in trash cans... so we were just preparing them for life.
Miami still plays football ??
WVU almus live in trailor parks
West Virginia ever played football?
Undoubtedly some epic football games, but the criminal behavior by the WVU 'fans' is equally epic. I don't know why anyone would schedule WVU; particularly for a game in Morgantown!
i agree.... VT would rather play easy games like James Madison... oh wait
Too funny !
I was thinking that WVU played James Madison last year and the game resulted in hundreds of innocent sofas were torched after the game in Morgantown.
First of all, those kinds of claims are wildly exaggerated and are just regurgitated because it puts WVU in the place they want them to be. Secondly, any incidents like that happened 10-20 years ago. Grow a pair and play us in Motown on a saturday night.
Why would you want to play in Detroit? Are you afraid of Morganton too?
Wildly exaggerated? Ten years ago?? Hardly.
The Charlestown Daily News, CBS Sports and half the other newspapers in the country reported on the aftermath of the LSU game a year and a half ago where a car with 4 LSU fans leaving the Puskar stadium parking lot was attacked:
"Smith also confirmed that her daughter was in the car and is 22 weeks pregnant. The rock that was thrown through the window to start the incident landed in the pregnant woman’s lap. After three men dragged her husband from the vehicle, the beating didn’t stop until the woman began screaming that she’s pregnant.
The man suffered a broken nose, a crushed eye socket and a fractured frontal bone in the middle of his forehead.
The pregnant woman suffered bruising on her arms, legs and shoulders; fortunately, their unborn child was unharmed."
And you wonder why no one wants to play down in Morgantown?
Jamie, I'm tired of having bottles, cans, spit and beer lobbed at me by these WVU morons, just because I'm a fan of the other team. People aren't afraid to play the team, they've just had enough of the jackasses that follow WVU. As far as this criminal behavior getting better in recent years, you're just plain WRONG. A friend of mine had his RV destroyed at the last game in Morgantown (2011) by a mob of WVU 'fans', because it had a Pitt logo painted on the side. It will never get better, as long as the WVU fans are ignorant enough to dress their toddlers in T-Shirts that read, "Eat Sh!t Pitt." (Observed just last year, at a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game.) As Graham Nash sang, "Teach Your Children Well."
Pitt will renew the rivalry with Penn State, in place of the one with WVU; it's heated, but the fans on both sides know how to control themselves.
Hold the phone!!!!!!!! You might want to take the earplugs out and the blinders off!!!!!!! Bashing occurs on both sides!!!!!! Little angels my!!!!!!! Wake up!!!!!!
I understand that this year WVU will be playing both William and Mary on the same day. WVU could have had games with FSU in 2012 and 2013...but they chose to basically cancel the series to keep a games like Marshall and William and Mary, Georgia State James Madison.
I am sure all of those teams listed by Oliver Luck are quite aware of WVU choosing to cancel the FSU series to play the powers houses listed above. It might take a while to get past that decision.
Good point Tom.
Yeah, I saw that on TV as the urine and batteries were being tossed at the cheerleaders *sarcasm*. Look, urfinished, you can lie all you want but people with common sense know that if that really happened, it would have been all over TV and the internet, but nice try.
@JBM......you're forgetting one important fact about the LSU story. It also stated that the attack had nothing to do with the game and that the attackers were not fans of WVU.
Oh please. Jim you can try to spin it all you want. Both the Charleston newspaper and the CBS Sports blog noted that the incident happened in one of the WVU stadium parking lots. And you want everyone to believe that some random gang of nonWVU fans roams the WVU parking lots to attack visiting fans after the game? Of course I'm not sure how you could be so sure that the attackers weren't WVU fans since no one was ever arrested by the WVU or Morgantown police.
How's this "spin" for you? "The mother-in-law of the man who was injured confirmed that the four individuals who were assaulted were LSU fans, although there was nothing on the vehicle identifying it as being fans of the school. “It was just a random act of violence,” Helen Smith, the mother-in-law, told the paper."
It's funny how all of the fans from the Big 12 that came to Morgantown over the past year had nothing but praise for the WVU fans.
I live in CA but have family in WV and have gone to probably a dozen games in Morgantown between 1986 to 2000 and heard these horrible stories but never saw anything remotely bad from the fans. I am sure some of these things happened but overall it seemed to be a pretty good crowd.
I live in the state of WV and trust me those claims of couch burning and trash throwing is not a lie! Now granted after the beating that WVU took their first year in the big 12 after they thought they was coming in and going to own it might change some of the fans attitudes. But we shall see how things are from now on. I may not be a WV but I know their fans are at least way better then bama fans who try and rape passed out guys and girls of rival teams.
I dont have a problem playing in WVU. I love the rivalry. Im a Pitt fan, so there hatrid is all in good fun. I went to a few games in morgantown. The fans hated me, and my group but again all in good fun. I did get hit with a full unopened can of beer (Miller Lite) walking in to the stadium throw from 20 or so feet away,. which was perfect because I didnt get hurt, and I needed a cold one. Some WVU fans actually got a kick out of if. We did have to have a police escort out to the gate post game.