Inside The Panthers

Pitt Football Opens As Early Favorite In 2022 Backyard Brawl

The Pitt Panthers open as one-touchdown favorites over their rivals from south of the border.

Stephen Thompson

Pitt Football Opens As Early Favorite In 2022 Backyard Brawl
Pitt Football Opens As Early Favorite In 2022 Backyard Brawl /
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PITTSBURGH -- The online gambling service Bet Online has begun to set lines for the coming college football season and revealed a few select week zero and week one spreads this week. The Pitt Panthers will kick off the 2022 season against West Virginia and Bet Online has the Panthers as a 6.5-point favorite over their rivals from just south of the Pennsylvania border.  

That week one contest between the Panthers and Mountaineers will be the first meeting between the two schools on the gridiron since 2011 and the first game played at Heinz Field since 2010. The two schools agreed to a four-game series in 2015 and have since extended it for another four games. They'll meet once a year from now until 2025, take a four-year break and then pick back up with the next four meetings occurring annually from 2029 to 2032. 

The natural hatred that these two teams and fan bases hold for one another will be compounded by a few major storylines. Both schools landed a pair of former USC teammates and quarterbacks - Kedon Slovis for Pitt and J.T. Daniels for West Virginia - that are serious contenders for their teams' starting jobs. Pitt is hoping to sustain the momentum of their 2021 ACC title-winning season while the Mountaineers are seeking a breakout year for head coach Neal Brown, who has yet to crack six wins in three years at the helm. The tension has been wound even tighter by the more than a decade hiatus this series took. 

Kick-off time and television designation for both teams' season opener has yet to be announced, although Pitt has announced that it will be a night game and an ESPN network will broadcast the game nationally. 

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Stephen Thompson
STEPHEN THOMPSON

Stephen Thompson graduated with a bachelor's degree in communications and political science from Pitt in April 2022 after spending four years as a sports writer and editor at The Pitt News, the University of Pittsburgh's independent, student-run newspaper.  He primarily worked the Pitt men's basketball beat, and filled in on coverage of football, volleyball, softball, gymnastics and lacrosse, in addition to other sports as needed. His work at The Pitt News has won awards from the Pennsylvania News Media Association and Associated College Press.  During the spring and summer of 2021, Stephen interned for Pittsburgh Sports Now, covering baseball in western Pennsylvania. Hailing from Washington D.C., family ties have cultivated a love of Boston's professional teams and Pitt athletics, and a fascination with sports in general.  You can reach Stephen by email at stephenethompson00@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter. Read his latest work:

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