MORGANTOWN, W.Va. —
When Bryce Brand committed to West Virginia as a transfer from Maryland, the first thing that popped into my mind was at some point, he’d have a chance to play against his old teammates at some point.
Looking over the Mountaineers’ schedule for 2020, it was good to see a familiar face, and one that many don’t really care for, back on the slate. The Terps will play at Milan Puskar Stadium on Sept. 19, with WVU making a return trip to College Park to open the 2021 season.
This has been recycled for nearly a decade since the second major wave of conference realignment forced many schools to find new homes, resulting in the loss of many of the great rivalries that make college football what it is.
And the sport misses them, a lot.
Last season during “Rivalry Week,” the same week as Thanksgiving, there were of course several of the traditional games: The Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn, Michigan and Ohio State, the Egg Bowl between Ole Miss and Mississippi State, Clemson and South Carolina, and Bedlam between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
We need to protect these games at all costs, because college football is due for another wave of conference realignment before long, but that’s a topic for another day.
However, there’s no more Texas A&M and Texas, Missouri and Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma, Pitt and West Virginia.
Notice a trend here?
The Big 12 has (and the former Big East) has lost much of its luster over the year from being poached by the SEC and Big Ten. Even Colorado found a new home in the PAC-12.
The Mountaineers, arguably worse than any school in the country, lost a major part of their traditional schedule. Obviously, the move to the Big 12 — a necessary move — makes no geographic sense, and WVU has no prior history with any of the schools still there. Try as we may, Texas and Oklahoma are not rivals to WVU, yet at least.
With nine conference games, that leaves three slots every year to try and squeeze those schools there’s an actual hatred for on the slate. Since WVU joined the Big 12 in 2012, Maryland has been the only consistent presence on the schedule, but even the Mountaineers and Terps haven’t played since 2015.
There is a place for games like this year’s Florida State game in Atlanta, the 2018 game in Charlotte against Tennessee and the BYU game in 2016 in Washington, D.C., as well as the home-and-homes other Power 5 programs like N.C. State and Missouri, but when it comes down to it, the traditional rivalries need to be preserved.
Under athletic director Shane Lyons, WVU has certainly tried to do its part. Maryland is back for 2020 and 2021. The Mountaineers played Virginia Tech in 2017 in D.C. and the Hokies will make a trip to Morgantown in 2021 with WVU going to Blacksburg in 2022.
That same season, just three weeks apart, the Backyard Brawl will resume for the first time since 2011 when the Mountaineers travel to Heinz Field and the Panthers coming to Morgantown in 2023, then two more games in 2024 and 2025.
For old-school fans, the Penn State game will return for the first time since 1992 in 2023, with the first meeting in State College and the return game in Morgantown in 2024.
While it’ll be weird for these games to be played in late August or September rather than cold night in late October or November, it’s great to know all of these schools at least acknowledge that it’s common sense to try and play annually.
One school that is missing from any future dates is Marshall, and while the Thundering Herd should be ahead of FCS programs on the totem pole, but the previously mentioned programs — already scheduled — should be the priority.
With questions on whether this season will even start on time, it’s fun to look ahead and see what we have to look forward to, and many of our favorite WVU rivalries will be back sooner than you may have thought.
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