Pitt 35 - Miami 23....What Lies Beyond?

A few weeks ago, after watching Pitt get outscored by North Carolina, and watching Miami come this close  to beating Florida State, I would not have given Pitt a chance in Hell of defeating Miami, but - drum roll, please - THAT'S WHY YOU PLAY THE GAMES!!!!  Getting in the car after the James Taylor concert last night, I was, well, not exactly stunned, but pleasantly surprised to hear of Pitt's defeat of the 'Canes down there in Coral Gables.  I had the foresight to record the game and have already watched the first half.  

All in all, a great end to what in all honesty has been a disappointing regular season, but the possibility of what could happen in the over-abundant Bowl Season has a lot of people in this corner of the college football world frothing at the mouth in excited anticipation.

The Pinstripe Bowl in Yankee Stadium scheduled for December 27 has ties to down the track finishers in both the ACC and the Big Ten.  Both Pitt and Penn State finished their seasons with 6-6 records, the very definition of "down the track", so what could be more natural than matching up these long time traditional rivals in the fabled Pinstripe Bowl?  I know for certain that Pitt fans would love to see this, and I can reasonably assume that Penn State loyalists will want to see it played as well.

Two long time eastern rivals, playing in New York City after Christmas.  You'd have to believe that alumni of both schools would travel to NYC to attend. The TV ratings would probably be pretty good, too. It would add some real meaning to what would be yet another meaningless bowl game amongst the glut of meaningless bowl games.

In fact, it makes SO much sense to pair these two teams together that I have full confidence that the Bowl officials, the ACC, the Big Ten, and ESPN will somehow manage to screw things up and NOT arrange for this match-up.  The wild card here is the fact that the Pinstripe Bowl, like so many others, also has a tie-in to Notre Dame.  What are the odds that some suit at ESPN or the NYC based Pinstripe Bowl will jump at the chance to take a 7-5 Notre Dame team over Pitt and thus prevent what would be a dream game for the fans of Pitt and Penn State?  Let's face it, ND moves the needle in a way that Pitt and a post-Paterno PSU does not.

We'll see how this played out.