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WVU photo
\nZach Abraham scores the game-winning touchdown in WVU\u2019s 47-41 win over Pitt in 1994.<\/p>\n
MORGANTOWN \u2014 As the Big 12 was settling into its Media Days this week to kick off another season, the newspaper\/website known as The Athletic was throwing a flag on the festivities as it printed its own ranking of the top football rivalries in the country and left the Backyard Brawl out of the Top 25.<\/p>\n
This was a slap that could not go unchallenged. West Virginia vs. Pitt matches up well against any rivalry you can find, be it Michigan-Ohio State, Alabama-Auburn, Army-Navy, Steelers-Ravens, Yankees-Red Sox or Ali-Frazier.<\/p>\n
The author of the article and the man who placed the Backyard Brawl at No. 26 is Scott Dochterman, who took time to explain his logic to Justin Walker this week on the West Virginia based podcast \u201cCouz\u2019s Corner.\u201d<\/p>\n
He had his reasons for the ranking. They just were misplaced.<\/p>\n
A rivalry isn\u2019t for all America, despite what ESPN might have you believe. There\u2019s not a soul who lives in West Virginia or Pittsburgh and the surrounding western Pennsylvania area who gives a hoot whether anyone in Rome, Georgia, or Rome, Italy, cares about the Backyard Brawl.<\/p>\n
Rivalries belong to their fans and college rivalries are unique. <\/p>\n
I can speak to this. As a kid, my dad took me to the Army-Navy game, I\u2019ve covered Ohio State-Michigan games, not the pansy rivalry they now play but when it was Woody Hayes tearing up first down markers on the Ohio State sideline.<\/p>\n
When Oklahoma and Nebraska played \u201cThe Game of the Century\u201d in Norman in 1971 with Barry Switzer going against Tom Osbourne, the stadium was filled with more energy than I\u2019ve ever experienced in World Series games, Wimbledon finals, Masters and U.S. Open golf tournaments or NFL Championship games.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t because the nation was caught up in it. It was because the two schools, the two states and their residents, they came not only with flasks full of whiskey but with hearts full of love for their team and hatred for their opponents.<\/p>\n
That is the Backyard Brawl and you don\u2019t measure it with anything less than a \u201cPassion Meter.\u201d<\/p>\n
The problem with Scott Dochterman\u2019s rankings of college football rivalries grew out of the problem that plagues us most today in society. He tried to break it down into numbers so he could feed it into a computer and come up with a final rating.<\/p>\n
He was trying to figure out what a rivalry was through the brain when real rivalries are driven from the heart.<\/p>\n
As he did it, he started from 100 and worked backwards but found when he got \u201caround 35ish, how do I find ways to differentiate them,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not just going to rank them on cool nicknames.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dochterman rattled off figures at this point, like number of meetings, but most of them had 100 or more renewals.<\/p>\n
Did it matter? Not to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Backyard Brawl is crazy. All of them are crazy. But how do I get it to some workable order without being a milk toast and saying I\u2019m just not going to rank them, just say all of them are great rivalries. Nobody wants that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The thing is, that\u2019s exactly what they want. Numbers aren\u2019t going to convince them. In their heart, the rivalry they are wrapped up in is the world\u2019s best.<\/p>\n
Dochterman said he came up with 11 principles to rate without one taking precedence,\u201d he said, not realizing that was the fatal flaw in his technique. <\/p>\n
One does take precedence and its passion.<\/p>\n
This week at Big 12 Media Day West Virginia\u2019s Rich Rodriguez was asked about the Backyard Brawl. Think that isn\u2019t on everyone\u2019s mind in both schools? If not, why then did they notice the game is to be played on September 13.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s right. That\u2019s 9\/13, which is exactly the score that Pitt beat WVU by, 13-9, 17 years ago in Rodriguez\u2019s last game as WVU coach, costing him a spot in a national championship game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get reminded about it every other day,\u201d Rodriguez said of that game. \u201cIt is one of the greatest rivalries. I\u2019ve been part of some big ones in my career, but there\u2019s no question \u2026 the intensity \u2026 they both hate each other. Hate may be a strong word, but not in this case.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of those things that makes college athletics so unique and makes it what it is. We\u2019ll have a day in camp dedicated to Pitt. We\u2019ll have a day during the summer dedicated to Pitt. We\u2019ll talk about it quite a bit as a staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Think about that for a moment. In the summer, there is a day dedicated to playing Pitt. In pre-season camp it\u2019s the same thing.<\/p>\n
You want to beat Robert Morris. You want to beat Baylor. You want to beat Arizona State.<\/p>\n
But, at WVU, you have to beat Pitt.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez put it this way on the day he returned to WVU:<\/p>\n
\u201cI say too many four-letter words, but there\u2019s none worse than P-I-T-T.\u201d<\/p>\n
He put data into his selection methodology.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do the numbers say? How many times have they met as ranked opponents? What is the won\/lost disparity?\u201d Dochterman said. \u201cI\u2019m not dismissing the passion.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, is WVU vs. Pitt any less of a rivalry because they have been met with both ranked teams just six times?<\/p>\n
Dochterman also took note \u2014 probably too much of it \u2014 on the fact that when the two schools left the Big East and went in different directions there was a decade-long hiatus in the series.<\/p>\n
He took that as a negative, for a rivalry without meetings, isn\u2019t really a rivalry \u2026 but the passion was such that it had to be reinstated and both schools know that is the jewel in the schedule each year.<\/p>\n
And now, with Rodriguez back in the mix, it has to jump higher in the rankings.<\/p>\n
OK, isn\u2019t Ohio State-Michigan, Texas-Oklahoma, Army-Navy \u2026 but it has so much going for it in immeasurables that to think it isn\u2019t Top 15 \u2014 probably Top 10 \u2014 in college football rivalries is unimaginable. <\/p>\n
How many rivalries have books written about them? How many have upsets like this one? How many saw a Hall of Fame coach like Bobby Bowden blow a 35-8 halftime lead to lose 36-35, a game that changed his coaching philosophy on blowouts.<\/p>\n
How many saw a placekicker account for all the points in a 15-0 victory as Ken Juskowich did in 1957 with five field goals to account for the scoring?<\/p>\n
Would it help if they met as No. 1 vs. No. 2 on occasion? Of course it would, but as it turns out, whenever they meet it is No. 1 vs. No. 2 on the field at that moment and that is what makes it one of the great rivalries in American football.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ELKINS \u2014The Little League 10-12-year-old state tournament begins today at Melvin Heckel Fields at Riverbend …<\/p>\n