West Virginia and Pittsburgh will meet at 3:30 p.m. for the 107th time in the Backyard Brawl and head coach Neal Brown wants to see the game be an annual staple on the schedule.
The two teams are set to play next season in Morgantown before the game takes a three-year hiatus before resuming in 2029 and going through the 2032 campaign. The two played annually from 1943-2011 until shifts in the landscape of conference realignment caused a ten-year break in the series.
“The Backyard Brawl is one of the best rivalries in all of college sports,” Brown said.
Only 75 miles separate the two schools and it’s a game that simply means a lot to both of the fan bases as evidenced by the attendance of the two games since play resumed. In 2022, the Backyard Brawl had 70,622 in attendance inside Acrisure Stadium while Milan Puskar Stadium held 61,106 last season.
“I think it makes sense for us to play the game. Close proximity, a great TV audience and the fans on both sides are excited about it,” Brown said.
There is a ton of familiarity between the two teams when it comes to their rosters and it’s one that is of great importance for both fan bases.
Brown hinted that West Virginia is in the process of getting their schedules fixed moving forward and the Backyard Brawl is a game that he wants to see part of that. The Mountaineers currently are set to play nine conference games and have three out-of-conference opponents and Brown outlined what he would like that formula to look like as future schedules are put together.
“It’s Pitt, FCS and a group of five. And preferably the group of five and FCS are at home that gives us the opportunity to have seven games at home,” Brown said.
The Mountaineers' schedule is currently booked in two of the three years that the Panthers aren’t on the schedule in 2026 and 2027 with Alabama on the books with a home-and-home instead beginning in Morgantown and then traveling to Tuscaloosa. But Brown joked about that two-game series.
“We’re in the process. We got Alabama, that ain’t fixed,” he said.
The contract states that if either team terminates or materially breaches the agreement before the scheduled game date then that team should pay the other team $2,000,000. That two-game series also includes this
"The teams acknowledge the long-range nature of football schedule planning, and that conference rules, including the requirement to play a minimum number of games each season within their respective conference, can change dictating that a game cannot be played during the 2026 or 2027 season. Accordingly, should this occur, the Teams agree to discuss in good faith a future date(s) for the game(s) to be played."
The other season that the Backyard Brawl isn’t featured through 2032 is 2028 and that season West Virginia is slated to play Tennessee in Charlotte at a neutral site contest with two current openings.
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