WVU Preview: Millennials Should Kill Power 5 Non-Conference Games Too

Millennials and Gen Z are killing everything you once cherished. 

Department stores? Dead thanks to millennials. 

Cable TV? Also millennials and Gen Z. 

Applebee’s? Well that place shouldn’t have existed in the first place but yeah, generic chain restaurants were killed by millennials. 

And if you ask me, we’ve (29 year old blogger) killed regional rivalries that were important to college football. That’s right. Everything is once again the millennials’ faults. 

OK, not really. 

But here’s the deal. With West Virginia coming to town, it has reignited the annual conversation on whether or not Penn State should play Pitt once per season. And it’s very tiring to hear year after year – really since 2019. 

It’s a good reminder that these games don’t mean much – or really anything – to my generation. They’re just the one Power 5 game that Big Ten members or Big 12 members or ACC members are required to play out of conference every season.

It’s time for millennials and Gen Z to add the Power 5 requirement to the hit list. 

James Franklin was specifically asked about these “rivalries” and teaching the team about the importance of them. It was clear there is no importance to him and he wasn’t going to be bothered with wasting time on giving the same lecture that your Penn State uncle will give you this weekend about the old days.

“When you talk about history, recent history, I don’t think there’s been a game played while these guys were alive. It’s like this is very similar to another game that we played here recently that there was a ton of questions,” Franklin said. “We talk about the history of the game. That’s what it is, it’s history.

Again, that history, although it would be nice to take some time and talk about the history of college football and the history of this region and some of these games, there’s just not a whole lot of value in that in terms of getting our guys ready to play this game and be successful. There’s not a whole lot of storylines that would make sense for them.”

I wasn’t alive the last time Penn State and WVU played. In fact, you’d have to probably be in your 40s by now to really remember the last time these two schools faced off. 

There is no rivalry. This series means nothing to us beside the fact that Penn State is going to play a football game this weekend. My excitement for this weekend isn’t the opponent but rather that the Nittany Lions will run out of the tunnel with fireworks being launched from the top of the pressbox and suites. 

The only reason why the Pitt series meant much of anything to me, personally, was because I grew up in that half of the state. If you grew up in the Philly or Harrisburg areas – where a decent chunk of Penn State fans reside or grew up as 90s babies– your parents probably didn’t pass down the legendary Pitt-Penn State tales. 

There was no connection for people my age, give or take a few years, because much like WVU, no one had ever experienced it enough to remember it. Nationally, there was no connection for average college football fans either.

The future of college football fans don’t care about regional rivalries. They care about good games. 

When the conferences once again expand, like the Big Ten to 18 teams in 2024 or even the Big 12 this year, it’s going to be less about regional “rivals” and more about getting to the playoff – safely and easily as possible. 

Why risk those chances just to make a bunch of people happy for one weekend when you can make entire fan bases happy for a lifetime thanks to a national championship trophy? 

Get rid of the Power 5 requirement. Play 10 conference games per season. That will build meaningful rivalries that people around the country will want to watch, not rehashing old rivalries because that’s what grandpa liked. 

That’s what college football, whether you like it or not, is about right now. 

Playing Pitt and West Virginia only gives those programs charity in forms of a more likely national stage. Penn State played Pitt in primetime on ABC a few years back and the Lions will play the Mountaineers in the first Big Ten broadcast on NBC. Pitt may appear on a “national” broadcast but it’s very unlikely that West Virginia will this season. 

I’m sure that line will make Allegheny County in particular mad. But flip the shoe. Say Pitt was the big brother, not Penn State. Why should Pitt’s job be to agree to a series to elevate Penn State into the national spotlight? 

In a way – and this comment will make Centre County angry – Ohio State and Michigan are still the big brother to Penn State in the Big Ten. 

Yet, the games between Ohio State – while most of late have gone in favor of the scarlet and gray – have been doozies. And of course, you had the legendary peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich Gate after last year’s Michigan-Penn State contest. Those rivalries are building more quickly than refiring the Pitt and WVU kilns . They’re usually three of the higher rated college football games of the season. 

And this year’s games between the triad of Penn State, Michigan and Ohio State once again promise to be nationally relevant. The only reason why the contest with West Virginia will be nationally relevant is that it’s NBC’s Big Ten debut. 

When the Big Ten expands, the national spotlight will shine even more often in those matchups than it has with the Big Ten East and West split as the east has harbored much of the power. No divisions will allow for all of these teams to likely play at least two of the other teams per year: Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA.  

That is national interest. Imagine if Caleb Williams, Bo Nix, Drew Allar, J.J. McCarthy, Michael Penix and Dorian Thompson-Robinson were duking it out for a Big Ten title and you got those level of matchups every week. That is television gold. 

Those matchups happening more often erase the need for matchups like the one this weekend.

Expansion is tricky. It’s going to kill the remaining shreds of still existing regionalism. It’s going to cost you and me more money to go to games. I hope that’s not the case. And there’s still time for the kinks to be worked out. 

But if we have to be forced fed conference expansion, we might as well embrace it. On the macro level, those games are going to get better TV ratings – the most important metric in college football right now. And don’t worry. People will still tune in to UMass-New Mexico State because we’re messed up in the head and we love this sport. 

I have to get over my stubborn ways the same way a boomer can get over the fact that no one likes going into the office anymore. 

Once again, here is a millennial trying to kill something. It’s time to get rid of the Power 5 requirement. There is just no more reason for it. 

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