As conferences attempt to navigate the latest pandemic landmine as COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on the possibility of college football, a report last week provided a glimmer of hope. The president of the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Classic mentioned that he wanted conferences to play a “Conference Plus-One” model where conferences played their conferences games and one out-of-conference game. The reason for his proposal is simple: he has three major games on opening weekend and he wants to do everything he can to keep those games at the forefront and played.
For the West Virginia Mountaineers, the first game of the 2020 season was going to be played against the Florida State Seminoles but unfortunately, that game is most likely going to be dropped. If the Conf+1 model is adopted, FSU will play the Florida Gators. Intra-state rivalries trump all. The removal of the Seminoles leaves the Mountaineers with a huge gap in their OOC schedule, since the Big Ten has already announced they will play only conference games.
The CFA has proposed that the Mountaineers could play the Virginia Cavaliers, who were scheduled to the Georgia Bulldogs. Georgia will likely play Georgia Tech, intra-state winning again. On the surface, the proposal of Virginia vs West Virginia seems to make sense.
I say SCREW THAT. I don’t want to play the Cavaliers. I don’t care about the Cavaliers. There is little rivalry there. If I am only going to get one out of conference game this year, it needs to be either Pittsburgh Panthers or Virginia Tech Hokies.
We’ve played the Hokies recently. We haven’t played Pitt since Dana Holgorsen’s inaugural season and the Mountaineers final season in the crumbling Big East. The Backyard Brawl is on the books in the near future but I want one more game.
I need to see Sam James running past the Panthers secondary. I want to see Tykee Smith hitsticking a running back. I crave watching Darius Stills sack the quarterback. If I am only going to get one non-con game this season, I say let’s play Pitt. And make them eat ____.