Inside The Panthers

Pitt Opening 2025 Season Against Duquesne

The Pitt Panthers will open their 2025 season against Duquesne.

Dominic Campbell

Oct 24, 2024; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers defensive back Phillip O'Brien Jr. (5) celebrates an interception against the Syracuse Orange during the third quarter at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Barry Reeger-Imagn Images
Oct 24, 2024; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers defensive back Phillip O'Brien Jr. (5) celebrates an interception against the Syracuse Orange during the third quarter at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Barry Reeger-Imagn Images / Barry Reeger-Imagn Images
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PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers will open their 2025 season against a school just two miles down the road in Duquesne.

The Panthers and Dukes will meet up on Aug. 30 at Acrisure Stadium, with kickoff time not revealed, marking the first meeting between the crosstown rivals since 1939, 86 years ago.

Pitt and Duquesne have faced off against each other seven times in the series, all coming in the 1930s and at Pitt Stadium.

The Panthers won the first two matchups, 33-0 in 1932 and 7-0 in 1933, before the Dukes won 7-0 in 1936. The Panthers then won the next two games, 6-0 in 1937 and 27-0 in 1938, before the Dukes won the final matchup, 21-13 in 1939.

Pitt and Duquesne haven't played in "The City Game," since then for a variety of reasons.

The teams stopped playing each other in all sports in 1939, when the Pitt athletic director at the time, Jimmy Hagan, stopped the rivalry due to a dislike between the two schools. This put an end to the football series until now and the basketball series until 1953, when the schools reignited the rivalry.

Pitt also plays in the FBS and Duquesne in the FCS, with the two teams on different levels of Division I.

The Panthers are 22-1 against FCS teams, since they started playing them in 1998. Their only loss came in 2012 against the Youngstown State Penguins, 31-17, in the first game under head coach Paul Chryst.

Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi is 10-0 against FCS opponents in his tenure, including three wins over Youngstown State, with a 73-17 victory back in Week 4 of the 2024 season.

The game against Duquesne will also serve as one of two games against a nearby FCS opponent, as Pitt plans to play Robert Morris, located in nearby Moon Township, in the future as well.

Duquesne is one of four non-conference opponents that Pitt will face in 2025, along with Central Michigan at home on Sept. 6, rival West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl in Morgantown on Sept. 13 and rival Notre Dame at home at a later date.

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Dominic Campbell
DOMINIC CAMPBELL

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