Pitt, West Virginia to open 2022 season in Backyard Brawl

By Kevin Kelley -

The Pittsburgh Panthers and the West Virginia Mountaineers will open the 2022 season in the Backyard Brawl, both schools announced on Tuesday.

Back in 2015, Pitt and West Virginia announced a renewal of the dormant series for 2022 through 2025. The four-game, home-and-home series was set to kick off at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh on Sept. 17, 2022.

Today the two schools announced that the series opener in 2022 at Heinz Field has been moved up two weeks to Saturday, Sept. 3. The game will be the season-opener for both schools.

Dates for the three remaining games of the series are unchanged. Pitt and West Virginia are slated to meet at Mountaineer Field in Morgantown on Sept. 16, 2023, at Heinz Field on Sept. 14, 2024, and in Morgantown on Sept. 13, 2025.

Pitt and West Virginia first met in 1895 and have played 104 times overall. The Mountaineers won the last meeting in 2011, but Pitt still leads the series 61-40-3.

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Comments (6)

West Virginia and Pitt should be in the same conference so they could play every year. As close as these two schools are, they are natural rivals. Why in the world is West Virginia stuck in the Big XII?

Being in the same conference shouldn’t affect things like this game. Georgia and Georgia Tech do it. South Carolina and Clemson do it. Florida and Florida State do it. Kentucky and Louisville do it.

The ACC and SEC have a working relationship when it comes to season-ending rivalries. The same cannot be said for the Big Ten (Penn St.) or Big 12 (West Virginia). Both those conferences end with conference games.

Agreement or not, there is no reason these games can’t happen earlier in the year. I understand the issues they may face, but still…

It would be nice to see this game return as an annual OOC matchup. Iowa and Iowa St don’t seem to have any trouble meeting up annually.

With the ACC only playing 8 conference games Pitt would also have room to get Penn St on the schedule annually too.