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for a resumption of what was once one of college football's biggest rivalries. Penn State and Pitt first met in 1893 in the first game ever played at the rechris- tened Beaver Field. Prior to their entry into the Big Ten, the Nittany Lions played Pitt 92 times, more than any other team in the program's history. Since the end of the Eastern Independent era, the Lions have faced the Panthers only four times, most recently in 2000. The once-annual series will resume in September 2016 when the Lions visit the Panthers in the first of four games, and Pitt is hoping those games lead to even more. As Nar- duzzi told reporters at Atlantic Coast Con- ference media day, Pennsylvania football fans have been clamoring for a resumption of the series. "If they could have that game 12 weeks out of the year, they would vote yes to do that," he said. If there is an outcry among Pennsylvania football fans, it's partly because the grudge between these two programs isn't just historical. Although they haven't played in 15 years, there's at least as much tension between Penn State and Pitt right now as there is between the Lions and either Rut- gers or Maryland. It was Franklin, after all, who came out swinging at his intro- duction in January 2014, pledging to "dominate the state" in recruiting. While he didn't name names, that certainly sounded like a shot across Pitt's bow. And he has since made good on that pledge, signing 11 Pennsylvania prospects this past February, including two players who had previously committed to the Panthers. The in-state haul bolstered Penn State's 2016 recruiting class and touched off a couple of Twitter skirmishes between Nittany Lion coaches Herb Hand and Josh Gattis and their Pitt counterparts. All of that off-field sparring will add some spice to Penn State's visit to Heinz Field next year, but what happens after the 2019 game at Beaver Stadium is an open question. While Pitt has lobbied for more games, Barbour has been non- committal about extending the series. "I've heard a lot of different things about what playing Pitt would mean to the Penn State community, and I'm not sure frankly that we agree on it," she said. "That will play a role in what we do down the road. Obviously, Coach Franklin and I need to crack the schedule. We have a K I C K O F F I S S U E Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi told a re- porter recently that the Panthers' rivalry with Penn State is "bigger" than the Backyard Brawl, his team's historic, hot- ly contested and currently on-hiatus se- ries with border rival West Virginia. Narduzzi's comments sparked a debate among fans of both Pitt and Penn State about the chances of a full-fledged revival of the once-an- nual intrastate rivalry between the Panthers and Nittany Lions. But for Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour, any decision to extend the se- ries beyond the four games that will take place between 2016 and 2019 must take into account more than just popular de- mand. Meeting with reporters at Big Ten me- dia days last month in Chicago, Barbour said she's only had a "brief conversa- tion" with new Pitt athletic director Scott Barnes. It does appear, however, that more serious discussions will fol- low. "We've got a big puzzle in looking at our nonconference scheduling," she said. "We'll see where that fits in. We've agreed to talk, and we'll see where that goes." Under the Big Ten's new scheduling directives, teams will play nine confer- ence games beginning in 2016. In addi- tion, at least one of their three noncon- ference games must be against an op- ponent from a Power Five conference, and games against Football Champi- onship Subdivision opponents are for- bidden. As Barbour noted, there are competing interests at play in the formulation of nonconference schedules. Coaches want winnable games, while fans want mar- quee matchups. "Every football coach any [athletic di- rector has] has ever worked with wants to guarantee to the best of their ability – there are no guarantees – a win in the nonconference season," Barbour said. "James [Franklin] said it today on the podium. We play in, I think, the tough- est conference in the country playing nine games. He's absolutely right, we've assured ourselves [a strong] schedule. "But he is looking solely at a rhythm and flow for our football program and how to ensure wins, get us prepared, get us into the Big Ten season, and then that's going to take care of itself and get us to the College Football Playoff, which is the goal. Win a Big Ten title, win a na- tional championship. "The other side of this is, every fan base I've ever worked with wants to play three or four Top 25 opponents. So guess who gets to arbitrate that? I understand both perspectives, absolutely. It's my job to kind of bring that together some- where in the middle and put together a schedule. But it's always going to be in concert and in conversation with our head football coach." Barbour on Pitt series: 'We've agreed to talk' | BARBOUR

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