Athletics department needs to schedule stronger teams

The Pitt football team entertains the dreaded Cardinals of Ball St. this weekend.

Another… The Pitt football team entertains the dreaded Cardinals of Ball St. this weekend.

Another September weekend, another MAC opponent.

And when I say MAC, I’m not talking about pimps or burgers. I’m talking about football’s anemic Mid-American conference.

For those of you who don’t know much about the MAC, it is an association of relatively small, mostly Midwestern schools that can’t compete financially with college football’s powerhouse conferences, but have enough support and recruiting clout to remain in NCAA Division I-A.

The MAC usually finishes next-to-last among Division I-A conferences, right ahead of the Sun Belt conference, and chances are good that the MAC will never boast more than two postseason bowl teams each season.

Pitt is, indeed, not in the MAC conference. Which comes as something of a surprise, considering that the Panthers have played seven MAC teams in the last four years.

Pitt is 20-0 against the MAC, which is presumably why it keeps on inviting those trembling MAC foes to come to Heinz Field and get crushed. The only problem with this “easy win” philosophy is that Pitt’s strength of schedule has suffered horribly since the last Pitt-Penn State game as a result.Pitt’s Bowl Championship Series standings, which are calculated by strength of schedule and determine who will play in January, have been abysmal over the last three years. And while schools from much better conferences, like Texas A’M and South Carolina, take on top-20 caliber, non-conference competition annually, the Panthers are content to host teams with names like the Zips and the Golden Flashes.

But Pitt’s affinity for bullying the smaller kids is a problem that it will be forced to fix in 2006. Once the Big East’s two-headed monster of Virginia Tech and Miami heads south for the warmer waters of the Atlantic Coast Conference next year, the Panthers will not be able to get any respect by strictly playing their conference foes and a few laughers. Once the BCS contract expires in 2005, the Panthers’ scheduling strategy will directly affect its national title hopes.

Pitt can’t keep playing two or three MAC teams each year. It’s wimpy, it’s boring and it’s bad business. If the Panthers really want to get respect as a program, and not a one-year wonder, they have to play some tougher non-conference regional opponents. This would be more interesting for the fans, so the Pitt athletic department wouldn’t be forced to sell season tickets for next-to-nothing to sell out Heinz Field. And it would be more interesting for the pollsters, who have the ultimate power in determining Pitt’s national title hopes, and who dropped the Panthers one slot in the Associated Press poll last week despite a flawless, 40-point victory over Kent State.

Why not play a home-and-home with defending national champion Ohio State each year? The Buckeyes are right next-door, and their fans travel extremely well. With both programs on the rise, it would create a nice, important non-conference regional rivalry that would garner national attention.

Obviously, once Penn State gets over itself, the Panthers should renew that rivalry as well, and they should keep playing traditional conference foes Virginia Tech and Miami each year, regardless of any bridges burned. And if you’re going to play a MAC team each year, why not play Marshall? The Thundering Herd are just down the road in West Virginia, and they recruit great athletes year after year.

Throw in a home-and-home with a Southeastern Conference team here and there, and you’ve got a non-conference schedule that would include teams like Miami, Virginia Tech, Marshall, Penn State, Ohio State, Notre Dame and Georgia, a traditional bowl rival for the Panthers. That might sound like a death march on paper, but the Panthers are going to have to do something comparable if they want to stay in the national title hunt when the Big East looks more like Conference USA in two years. More importantly, losing to powerhouses each year builds more character, earns more money and garners more national respect then winning nine games against MAC teams and a weak Big East schedule each season.

It’s great to imagine a day when Pitt will play Ohio State to open up its football season. But until that day comes, bring on the MAC.

Michael Cunningham is a senior staff writer for the Pitt News. It’s a good thing that he’s rappin’, ’cause if it wasn’t for the rappin’ he’d be MAC-in’.