The first Pitt sporting event I ever attended was the football season opener in 2000 against… The first Pitt sporting event I ever attended was the football season opener in 2000 against Kent State.

Having grown up in New Hampshire and never having gotten to see a Pitt football game before, I thought it was funny that the other people in the student section were yelling what I thought was “Kent State sucks” during the fight song. It took me about three quarters to figure out what everyone was really saying.

Two weeks later, when the Nittany Lions came to town, I found out why.

I had been to Three Rivers Stadium for Pirates games before, so I had never seen the place filled to capacity. I thought it was great that so many people in Pittsburgh were coming out for a Pitt football game.

Man, was I naive.

While there were some people there to see Pitt, a lot of people were there to see the last game in what has been Pitt’s biggest rivalry. That was apparent for the rest of the season, as the Panthers were unable to sell out the stadium, even against West Virginia.

In fact, it wasn’t until last season that the Panthers played in front of a sellout crowd at home again, this time against the Mountaineers in the 2002 season finale. Between that game and the game against Penn State, the Panthers had, not only their opener at Heinz Field, but also matchups with Miami, Virginia Tech and Texas A’M. Not one of those games was sold out.

This year, with such high expectations for the team and one of the best home schedules in the country, Pitt was able to sell out a couple of games but the atmosphere wasn’t the same.

Why can’t Pitt find a new rival? Why are Pitt fans so obsessed with Penn State that they’ll chant about the Nittany Lions, even when the opponent is Eastern Tennessee State?

There are other options.

West Virginia is the most obvious. The Mountaineers are just about an hour drive down I-79, and the two schools play each other in every sport that both have varsity teams for.

The schools are evenly matched, as well. Each team has won two of the last four meetings in football. The Mountaineers have the edge in women’s basketball, while Pitt holds the advantage in men’s basketball. West Virginia dominates Pitt in wrestling, but the Panthers have bridged the gap in cross country.

Another school that could be considered a big rival is right here in the city. Last Wednesday’s “City Rivalry” against Duquesne was one of the greatest sporting events I’ve witnessed at Pitt.

After watching the women play a hard-fought game at the Petersen Events Center, I scampered down to Duquesne to watch the men play. Had that game been at Pitt, a fair amount of fans would have shown up for it, but it wouldn’t have been a capacity crowd.

But the A.J. Pulumbo Center was overflowing with fans, to the point that, in some places, it looked like the bleachers would explode.

Perhaps the two schools could add to that and schedule both teams to play in other sports over the course of a weekend. Add a trophy to the event, and give it to the school that wins the most games during that weekend. Yeah, it sounds kind of immature, but it could work, although it would be tough.

Pitt and Penn State played each other every year from 1936 until 1992, then played four more times from 1997 until 2000. It will be at least another five years until the two teams can play each other again, because of non-conference scheduling.

During that time span, Pitt will play approximately 30 home games, and at every game – no matter who the opponent – someone will yell, “Penn State sucks.”

Joe Marchilena is the sports editor for The Pitt News, and he would like to thank the Duke for tossing that orange ball at select Pitt football players during last week’s basketball game. Classic!