In a different college football universe, Saturday’s Pitt game could have been much…

Senior running back Ray Graham opened the scoring for Pitt with a 78-yard touchdown run. The Panthers went on to defeat Gardner-Webb, 55-10.

Bobby Mizia, Senior Staff Photographer

In a different college football universe, Saturday’s Pitt game could have been much different.

In that alternate world, Heinz Field likely would have been teeming with fans anticipating a crucial conference matchup between the Panthers and a group of talented Horned Frogs from Texas Christian University.

Had TCU not backed out of its agreement to join the Big East last year, the No. 17 team in the nation would have provided a formidable foe for Pitt on this day.

Instead, Pitt (2-2, 0-1 Big East) dominated mismatched Gardner-Webb (0-4) in front of a tame crowd of 36,452 as the Panthers cruised to an easy 55-10 victory.

But don’t blame Pitt or Gardner-Webb for Saturday’s unexciting showdown between the Panthers and the amusingly-named Runnin’ Bulldogs.

Blame the ever-changing landscape of collegiate athletics, where money, wins and bowl eligibility matter more than the spirit of competition.

If, at the end of the season, today’s victory helps Pitt earn a lucrative bowl bid, every penny of the roughly $475,000 that the University sent to Gardner-Webb will have been worth it.

Such is the reality of college football.

In the same season that Oklahoma State and Florida State both scheduled mediocre Savannah State and humiliated the Football Championship Subdivision school 84-0 and 55-0, respectively, this game actually appeared to be an evenly-contested football game for almost an entire quarter.

Then Ray Graham decided he wasn’t allowing the Panthers to let this game turn into a repeat of their embarrassing upset loss against Youngstown State earlier this month.

Following a Gardner-Webb missed field goal, the senior running back sprinted 78 yards on the next play to open the scoring with authority.

“That was a big play,” first-year Pitt head coach Paul Chryst said after the game. “It seemed like it got us going a little bit, but we can’t wait for something like that – we got to take it to them.”

After the teams traded field goals, Gardner-Webb fumbled a kick-off, and the Panthers took advantage of the mistake when freshman running back Rushel Shell pounded in his first career touchdown to extend the lead to 17-3.

From there, the contest resembled the forced, scheduled-last-minute football game that it really was.

Both teams struggled with the strong wind on special teams. The officials whistled numerous plays dead because of confusion and made several questionable calls. And even the fans in attendance seemed restless with the day’s tedious proceedings.

It wasn’t pretty, but the Panthers found a way to steadily bolster their advantage as the game progressed.

The only unit that found any sort of rhythm or consistency was the Pitt offense.

Apart from a Graham fumble just before halftime that Gardner-Webb returned 65 yards for its only touchdown of the game, the Panthers’ offense moved the ball with ease, tallying 623 total yards — the most Pitt has recorded since 1997. And by the end of the game, Pitt’s 55 points marked the most the team has scored since 1999.

Most of that yardage stemmed from the arm of vastly-improved quarterback Tino Sunseri, who passed for 344 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. Sunseri has silenced many of his critics in the past two weeks, finding his groove in Chryst’s balanced attack.

And in the third quarter on Saturday, the redshirt senior passed legendary Pitt running back Tony Dorsett on the program’s all-time offensive yards list.

“That’s pretty cool,” Sunseri said of the achievement. “Mr. Dorsett is one of the best players to ever play this game. I give a lot of the credit to the [offensive linemen] for working and to the receivers for running the right routes.”

To follow up two disappointing defeats with two resounding victories is an impressive achievement for Sunseri and the Panthers.

But with this team appearing to finally reach its full potential, expectations among Pitt fans will rise in the weeks leading up to must-win conference matchups with Syracuse and Louisville.

Because in reality, the Big East is an extremely winnable conference. And TCU’s absence definitely has something to do with it.