Pitt finalizes 2012 Non-conference Football Schedule

By Kevin Kelley -

Pittsburgh PanthersThe Pittsburgh Panthers finalized their 2012 non-conference football schedule today with the addition of a home game against Gardner-Webb.

Pittsburgh opens the 2012 season at home on Sept. 1 against the Youngstown State Penguins. Other non-conference games at Heinz Field include Virginia Tech on Sept. 15 and Gardner-Webb on Sept. 22. The Panthers will travel to face Buffalo on Oct. 6 and Notre Dame on Nov. 3.

Since Youngstown State and Gardner-Webb are both FCS teams, only one win will count towards bowl eligibility for Pitt.

With the addition of Temple to the Big East today, the 2012 conference opponents are set. Pitt will host Louisville, Rutgers and Temple and will travel to Cincinnati, Connecticut, Syracuse and Rutgers.

The 2012 season could be the last for Pittsburgh in the Big East. The Panthers are set to join the ACC in 2014, but could join in 2013. Big East commissioner John Marinatto stated today that he is open to discussing an early exit for both Pitt and Syracuse.

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Comments (4)

Ugh. Screw you Big East for costing us home games vs. Central Florida, TCU, and WVU and now we have to replace them with Youngstown State, Gardner-Webb, and Temple? One more year left of this BS.

This is the problem with messing around with the WVU exit. Everyone knew the Big East couldn’t keep WVU from leaving – they could only prevent WVU from joining the Big 12 early. They should have cut their losses early and not screwed over their members.

Nice pick-up. It seriously looks like Pitt is dumbing down their schedule to prepare for those “tough” future ACC conference matchups against Duke, North Carolina, and Wake Forest.

We really didn’t have a choice. The Big East kinda screwed us over with letting TCU walk free and not even bothering to force WVU to stay one more season.