Reacting To: What A Rivalry Is All About

I didn't have time to get into it yesterday, but I'm realizing this morning that I might have lead some people to believe that I agree with everything that guy said. I don't. First let's look at one of the most disturbing quotes I've read in a long time:

"My decision to go to Penn State was brutal.

My Penn State teammate Nick Haden and I laugh. We were cheering for Pitt half the time on the sidelines during our first Pitt-Penn State game."

What the fuck? You were cheering for Pitt?!? It's one thing to cheer against your own school, but against your own team?

This is a credibility killer for me. He then goes on to say he "has a love for both places", but seeing as he now coaches at Pitt, I'm not buying it. He has one love, Penn State sounded a lot more like a good looking affair to me than a mutual wife (you know, if fandom was polygamy).

He then goes into a THON-like "it's for the kids" speech which seems a little sappy, but I understand where he's coming from. It does, in fact, hurt the national exposure of PA football and, as a result, makes it harder to keep kids in state. Maybe more kids go to Pitt than would have otherwise, but a hell of a lot more top prospects would go to Penn State as well. In Ohio and Michigan there is a pride factor that comes into play when a recruit is making a decision. There is a local team. Penn State is losing some of that feeling. Staying local is more a geographical concept than one of identity.

Now there are practical issues with the rivalry, ones that make the upside for Penn State look rather dull. For the record I'm torn. We don't have much to gain, but Pitt does. We don't need to do them any favors. At the same time, how many OOC games have we played that would have been more fun than Pitt? Nebraska, maybe, but definitely not Oregon State, Boston College and Syracuse. Even the Notre Dame series was a major disappointment.

I guess I'm just saying I could use a rival.