Pitt's bowl projections range from Yankee Stadium to San Diego

The rules governing college football’s postseason make it clear:

Pitt is eligible for a 13th game, has been for a long time after winning No. 6 on Oct. 12. The bar for bowl eligibility is set at six victories.

Projected locations from various national media outlets include the Pinstripe Bowl on Dec. 28 in Yankee Stadium, where 247Sports predicts a Pitt/UConn throwback Big East matchup. The Panthers and Huskies were annual opponents from 2004-12.

UConn (8-4) played an independent schedule this season and already has played four power conference teams, losing by one-score margins to Duke, Wake Forest and Syracuse after a 50-7 blowout loss at Maryland in the season opener.

Nebraska (6-6), Minnesota (7-5) and, yes, Michigan (7-5) from the Big Ten are also Pinstripe possibilities for the Panthers (7-5), according to USA Today, Action Network’s Brett McMurphy and 247Sports, respectively.

Michigan would be an intriguing opponent, given its shocking upset of Ohio State on Saturday and the fact that, despite the relatively close proximity, Pitt has played the Wolverines only twice, and those games were in 1941 and 1947.

The Holiday Bowl on Dec. 27 in San Diego offers the warm climate fans might like if they don’t mind the cross-country flight. CBS Sports and Athlon Sports projected Washington (6-6) and Washington State (8-4) as possible opponents.

If you waste enough time on the Internet, you’ll see Pitt getting another projected trip to the Birmingham Bowl, no longer called the BBVA Compass Bowl. Pitt was a guest there in three consecutive seasons (2010-12), a rarity in bowl annals. Arkansas (6-6) has been projected as an opponent by College Football Network.

Sporting News projects a Pitt/Baylor matchup in the Pop-Tarts Bowl (formerly Blockbuster). That would offer another look at Pitt’s past. Baylor (8-4) was the first team to defeat a Johnny Majors-coached Pitt team, a 20-14 loss in 1973 at Pitt Stadium. Until 1984, Baylor was the only team that finished with a losing record to beat Pitt.

Of course, these are mere projections that will depend on several factors, including how many ACC teams are chosen for the 12-team College Football Playoff. If only the conference champion goes (either SMU or Clemson), that will push the title game runner-up and Miami toward the upper-tier bowls while shoving Pitt further down the pecking order.

Coaches welcome a bowl invitation because it allows for extended practice sessions that serve as a warmup for spring ball and an early look at next season’s roster. Pat Narduzzi likes to go bowling for that reason.

Some top players decide to opt-out of bowl games, saving their bodies for the NFL while preparing for the draft. Kenny Pickett chose that route in 2021, skipping the Peach Bowl after leading the Panthers to an ACC championship. Pitt was down to its third quarterback after Nick Patti’s injury, the Panthers lost to Michigan State, 31-21, but Pickett became a first-round choice.

Pitt has a rich bowl history, dating to the 1928 Rose Bowl, a 7-6 loss to Stanford. In fact, Pitt’s first four bowl games were in Pasadena. There also have been bowl droughts (1937-54 and 1957-72), but, since Majors arrived in 1973, Pitt has played in postseason games 31 times.

Narduzzi is 2-4 in bowl games, having defeated Eastern Michigan in the Quick Lane Bowl in 2019 and UCLA in the Sun Bowl in 2022. Pitt has qualified in all but two of Narduzzi’s nine previous seasons (2017 and 2023), but school officials wisely decided to stay home at the end of the covid-interrupted 2020 season.