Pre-pandemic schedule might have given Pitt a lift

The first four weeks of the season appeared set up neatly for Pitt to write its name across the college football skyline.

For a month, at least.

There were three non-Power 5 opponents — Miami (Ohio), Marshall and Richmond — and an ACC home game against Duke, a team that is 1-6 against Pitt since 2013 and has allowed an average of 52.6 points per game at Heinz Field.

No lock, of course, but Pitt appeared capable of starting 4-0 for the first time since 2000 when the Panthers played home games at Three Rivers Stadium.

But no one knows what the future (immediate and long-range) holds, with the landscape changing dramatically in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic that continues to strangle Allegheny County and the nation.

Speculation ranges from canceling football season (for the purposes of this discussion, the college version) to moving it to the spring.

Two Power 5 conferences — the Big Ten and Pac-12 — made the first significant steps by announcing their teams will play only conference games. That hurts smaller schools who in many cases need the guaranteed paydays the Power 5s offer. Also, it eliminates marquee games (USC/Alabama, Michigan/Washington, Penn State/Virginia Tech and Oregon/Ohio State, for example) that would have drawn huge numbers of sports-starved viewers.

The other three Power 5s – ACC, SEC and Big 12 – are still weighing their options and will make their decisions known before the end of July. Canceling non-conference games and reconfiguring the schedule is certainly on the table.

Statement from ACC Commissioner John Swofford ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/vTishzIYPA

— The ACC (@theACC) July 10, 2020

Even if the ACC decides to kill most of its nonconference games, Notre Dame’s six games against the conference (including Pitt at Heinz Field) may survive.

The Irish are independent, so every game is nonconference for their opponents. The ACC probably will find a way to include Notre Dame in a reconfigured schedule because of the prestige of playing/beating a good Irish team and the chance to fill stadiums.

Notre Dame has played at Heinz Field six times since 2003, never drawing a crowd less than 65,000.

And who could forget Paul Chryst’s locker room dance after Ray Vinopal’s two interceptions helped beat the Irish in 2013? I’m guessing he did no such dance for any of his other 18 victories as Pitt’s coach.

One scheduling model on the table for the ACC:

Ten games but not 10 individual games, rather a home-and-home between five teams.

Notre Dame would be included and count in the ACC standings

There wouldn't be any other games against teams outside the league

— Joe Giglio (@jwgiglio) July 10, 2020

One reconfigured schedule model presented by veteran ACC reporter Joe Giglio would have each team playing 10 games, home-and-home, against five conference opponents. The Notre Dame games would count in the ACC standings for 2020. Different, intriguing, worth exploring.

Moving to the spring would be the last desperate move of college administrators who would have nowhere else to turn.

The chief argument against spring football is this: How can anyone know if there will be a covid-19 vaccine by the turn of the new year? There may be just as many questions then as there are now.

Would players destined for the NFL — and Pitt has several — want to play college football games so close to starting their professional careers? Would the NFL move its combine and draft to accommodate spring football?

Meanwhile, players across the U.S. have been preparing for the season since many of them returned to campus for voluntary workouts early last month. Starting Monday, the NCAA will allow up to eight hours per week of weight training, conditioning and film review as a means of compensating for time lost in the spring. From July 24 to Aug. 6, that would increase to 20 hours per week. Then, it’s summer camp and, if all goes well, a season.

Not so fast, however. The important questions of when it starts and what form it will take remain unanswered.