Pat Narduzzi Willing to Shift Pitt’s Schedule to Keep Backyard Brawl Alive

It’s essential for both WVU and Pitt to have a desire to keep their Backyard Brawl rivalry alive in this era of college football. Both school must be willing to do everything in their power to keep the game active as often as possible.

And while it’s well documented that everyone notable at West Virginia and Pitt support the Brawl, Pat Narduzzi reiterated his stance at the recent ACC Kickoff media event.

“I think those regional rivalry games are critical. Our players look forward to playing West Virginia every year. That’s a rivalry game that will end after this year. Maybe three years it picks back up. If you guys have any power to see if we can maybe get them in the next three years, we’re willing to make some movements in our schedule to try to get that done. I would love to play them every year. That’s what the game is about – those regional rivalries. It brings fans in. Our fans love it, our players love it. It’s intense. There’s no love lost. That’s what it’s all about. That’s college football,” said Narduzzi when asked about Pitt’s non-conference schedule.

WVU and Pitt lineup during the 2024 Backyard Brawl at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh. (WVSN photo by Kelsie LeRose)

WVU director of athletics Wren Baker has continuously stated his interest in playing Pitt every single year, which may put Narduzzi’s comments about be wiling to adjust Pitt’s schedule to the test.

Despite a clear mutual interest, the difficulty in scheduling the Brawl is the two schools are operating within different schedule formats. West Virginia only has three non-conference games available due to playing nine league games in the Big 12.

In order to avoid WVU playing more Power Four opponents than most other schools around the country – they were playing 11 while others were playing 10 throughout most of the Neal Brown era – Baker prefers to only schedule one Power Four program outside of the Big 12. He does prefer that non-conference Power Four opponent to be Pitt, but being able to make that happen every single season seems unlikely. Doing so would also mean never playing Virginia Tech or any other regional rival again, too.

Conversely, Pitt plays four non-conferences games and only has eight games that factor into the ACC standings.