STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Penn State and Pitt are scheduled for two more games in their current four-year agreement, but could an extension of the football series be on the horizon?
Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke, in an interview with CantonRep.com this week, said Pitt has a contract "very close to being done and being sent to Penn State to extend the football deal." Lyke also said continuing the series is a "huge priority" and "necessary."
“As I’ve said many times before, I have strong appreciation for the history and tradition of the Penn State-Pitt series," Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour said in a statement to DKPittsburghSports.com Thursday afternoon. "Since Heather’s arrival at Pitt we’ve had conversations about the series. We (Penn State) have to determine how any possible future games might fit with our other scheduling requirements and objectives.”
While the current agreement runs through the 2019 season and Penn State has open non-conference scheduling spots in 2020 and 2021, both Lyke and Barbour planned to talk about the game since Lyke was hired at Pitt.
The game has been beneficial financially for both sides. Last year's game at Heinz Field was played in front of a sold-out crowd of 69,983 and this year's matchup in Happy Valley resulted in 109,898 tickets sold. That game in Beaver Stadium was the second-largest crowd for Penn State this season behind the Lions' White Out game against Michigan, which attracted 110,823 people.
Penn State's non-conference schedule has been a point of contention, especially earlier this season when the Lions climbed as high as No. 2 in the AP Poll. The argument was that their soft non-conference schedule with Akron, Pitt and Georgia State would do them no favors in a push to try and make the College Football Playoff. Of course, losses to Ohio State and Michigan State have since derailed Penn State's national title hopes, but Barbour said last spring the Lions want to have a marquee non-conference game on the schedule once every six years. She also said playing Pitt every year wouldn't fit Penn State's scheduling model.
“At the most I don’t see playing Pitt every year because we’ve got one Power-5 slot and we’ve got some thoughts around some other regional opponents as well as a major intersectional, you know, home-and-home every six years, once every eight years a home-and-home,” Barbour said last May during the Coaches Caravan. “Playing Pitt every year doesn’t fit in that.”
Penn State has a game at Virginia Tech already on the schedule for 2020 -- plus two open non-conference spots -- and also has Ball State and Auburn on the schedule in 2021, plus an open spot. With scheduling done so far in advance, there's no way of telling whether or not the Hokies, Tigers, Nittany Lions or Panthers will be national contenders in 2020 and beyond. But should Penn State work Virginia Tech and Pitt into the schedule in 2020 that could potentially help the Lions avoid a soft non-conference schedule.
Pitt's future schedule includes games with Richmond, Marshall and Notre Dame in 2020, as well as a game at Tennessee in 2021. With Tennessee and West Virginia on the schedule in 2022, there of could be some future flexibility with working Penn State in during the 2021 or 2022 seasons.
Keep in mind the Nittany Lions still have a home game against Virginia that still must be scheduled. Penn State and Virginia played in 2012 but haven't set a date when that home-and-home can be completed.