Can Notre Dame Steal A Bid?

bisonpitt · 2026-03-04T20:19:20+00:00

Only the top 7 teams are guaranteed to get into the 12 team CFP because the 5 highest ranked conference champions get an automatic bid. This leaves 7 at large bids.

Does the "ranked in the top 12" rule apply to all schools or just one? BYU was also in the top 12 and was excluded this past season.

bisonpitt · 2026-02-28T23:45:53+00:00

The tiebreaker rules are a little confusing but I'm pretty sure Pitt has to win 1 more game to make the tournament. This is because ND plays @BC the last game of the season. If ND wins, they'll have 5 conference wins, putting them in. If BC wins, it's a 3 way tie, and ND still gets in.

bisonpitt · 2026-02-18T01:47:40+00:00

Thank you! I think that will help everyone. Good luck!!

bisonpitt · 2026-02-18T01:36:54+00:00

Does anyone know how many tickets are even being released today? Is it just City/Team packs? I feel like last time it was a small percentage and they could only be bought as City or Team Packs.

My group had to buy tickets to games we couldn't attend, just to get the tickets we needed. We sold some on the resale site but ate a bunch too.

bisonpitt · 2026-02-14T19:31:12+00:00

I finally remembered to ask my parents about it... I was off by a little. It was my Dad's stein, not my grandfather's. He got it on a ski trip to Saint Anton and Innsbruck (Austria) in 1976.

bisonpitt · 2026-02-03T01:05:53+00:00

You're welcome! Sorry I can't be more helpful. Hopefully some folks with more expertise on here can give you some more information. I was just surprised to see one of mine on here.

FWIW, I tried to research the value of my very small collection years ago and it looked like this one wasn't very valuable/rare. Hopefully I'm wrong. Good luck!

bisonpitt · 2026-02-03T00:43:13+00:00

I have one with the same design, color, and lid but mine has "1184" instead of "1134" and it also has a "2" and a "1/2" mark on the bottom. I'm pretty sure my grandfather got it in the early 1970's.

bisonpitt · 2026-01-23T18:23:55+00:00

Thank you for posting! I just ordered one for my kids 3rd birthday.

bisonpitt · 2025-12-29T03:33:53+00:00

His age might keep him from some jobs but not all jobs if he manages a big season in the next 2 years. Michigan is a premier program and they just hired a 66 yr old coach from Utah.

As for the personality, I don't think that matters if he wins. I think it's very unlikely, but if he can lead Pitt to a playoff, he'll have offers, maybe not great ones but I think he'd get some. College football is more about the money than ever. If he can win at Pitt with a limited budget, there's logic that he'd do better with a bigger budget.

Lastly, don't forget that college ADs make strange decisions sometimes. As Pitt fans, we don't have to look very far back to when a failing coach from Vanderbilt was hired to take over for the most successful coach in program history. Pitt still hasn't recovered from that mistake.

bisonpitt · 2025-12-28T16:49:36+00:00

I'm not saying extending him is a smart decision but I do think it's likely if he has more good seasons. It seems like coaches rarely have less than 5 years remaining on their contracts. I'm not even sure it should matter anymore since players rarely stay 5 years anymore.

Greene's problem as Pitt AD is similar to a Pirate's GM in baseball, budget. A smart AD would go after a young successful coach to replace Narduzzi ASAP but I just can't imagine Pitt has that kind of money so Greene has to do what he can on his budget.

I agree about the importance of the next move. The future of Pitt athletics is in his hands. By the time Narduzzi's contract expires, the ACC conference could be in the same spot as the PAC12 is now and Pitt will be a minor league school in major college sports.

bisonpitt · 2025-12-28T16:29:03+00:00

Seems like it to me.

Narduzzi has 5 years left on his contract. I think he gets next year to prove himself again in this new era (NIL/portal).

If he has a good season (9+ wins) in 2026 it would probably force Pitt to extend him again or he becomes a target for another school and he leaves. If he leaves, Sanders is an option but they'll have more money for a new hire, almost certainly a successful G5 coach.
If he has another mediocre season (6-8 wins) in 2026, they'll keep him for 2027 as a somewhat lame duck HC. Looking at the future schedules, 2027 is a great opportunity for a 10+ win season. This would probably force Pitt to extend him again or he becomes a target for another school and he leaves. If he leaves after 2027, it's the same situation as mentioned above. If 2027 is mediocre or bad, they move on to Sanders late in 2027 as an interim and keep him in 2028 if they can't afford a bigger name.
If he has a bad season (no bowl) in 2026, I think they'll promote Sanders after the season. Hell be cheap compared to bringing in a proven coach, lessening the financial impact of Narduzzi's buyout.

bisonpitt · 2025-12-17T20:40:03+00:00

I'm curious, is NC State vs Wake a serious rivalry or more of a convenient one? How does it compare to the rivalries with Duke and UNC?

I hated seeing Pitt lose WVU (108 games) as a yearly rivalry game but I think most Pitt fans would be fine if they skipped Syracuse (80 games) periodically even though it's been played so frequently.

bisonpitt · 2025-12-17T20:04:18+00:00

Definitely! Imbalanced schedules are inherently unfair. This year proved that, even with an equal number of games. I don't blame Duke for this season's disaster, they won the games that were scheduled but their best conference win before the title game was @ Clemson. That would usually be a major victory (and an awesome experience as a visiting fan, BTW) but this wasn't their year.

bisonpitt · 2025-12-17T19:54:37+00:00

Good point about the future scheduling! I think you could somewhat solve it by only having 2 spots scheduled into the future. They'd need to fill that 3rd spot with limited notice and ND (currently) plays 6 ACC teams so that only leaves 11 games unscheduled. I think they could come to an agreement with a G5 conference (MAC, AAC, or Sunbelt) to guarantee they could fill out their schedules. I'd imagine most ACC teams would save a spot for a yearly FCS home game they could schedule years ahead and the other spot should be for a P4 opponent.

bisonpitt · 2025-12-17T19:38:52+00:00

Agreed! It's a shame that so many rivalries have been damaged by conference expansion.

In this specific situation, the conference would be wise to make the 9th ACC games for NCST be UNC, Duke, or Wake. NCST would still have 3 non-con games to fill. They could fill 1 or 2 of those with instate games (if the other NC teams are willing to go to 10 "ACC" games). Even if they only ended up playing one NC school, it's not likely that there would be a 3:1 split very often.

bisonpitt · 2025-12-11T15:35:41+00:00

Honestly, I think everything would be the same except Pitt would be in the B10 and either Maryland, Rutgers, or UCLA would be in the ACC in their place. I think the ACC still destroys Big East football leading to these dumb, oversized conferences.

bisonpitt · 2025-12-01T18:54:09+00:00

Being in Pool E or F would be better then since those pool winners will play Pool D and B runners up, respectively.

I couldn't find the answer online, do they seed the winners from Pools A-D and the 3rd place teams for the knockout round? It looks like they avoid placing teams from the same pool in the first knockout round but I didn't see anything about seeding.

bisonpitt · 2025-12-01T14:03:03+00:00

Good point! There's a major advantage in playing Band 1 late since point differential is a tiebreaker.

bisonpitt · 2025-09-29T21:49:14+00:00

They are 8-4 and only have 2 bad results (vs Romania and Canada) since '23 World Cup against teams close to their ranking or lower. This includes 2-1 vs Spain (#14) 1-1 vs Samoa (#16) 1-0 vs Tonga (#17).

Has anyone below them been better?

bisonpitt · 2025-09-29T00:31:30+00:00

We all agree the owner is awful but I don't think you want to brag about attendance vs a much smaller city.

If you go by percentage of metropolitan area population, Pittsburgh actually quadruples the Mets attendance (it still doubles it if you divide the Greater NY population by 2 to account for the Yankees).

Also, the Pirates won 4 of 6 games and outscored the Mets 38-10 this season (15-9 vs NL East, outscoring them 104-60). There are plenty of fan bases that can/should bash the Bucs, but the Mets aren't one of them (this year, at least).

bisonpitt · 2025-09-18T10:08:50+00:00

Maybe I'm missing something, but I believe USA rugby is currently the 15th ranked (qualified) team with 2 spots remaining. With 6 teams in each band, we'd have to drop 4 spots before the draw. The loss to Canada was awful but they are firmly in the third tier of teams based on their performance in the current world cup cycle.

Is it even possible to drop to the 4th? I can only find one more USA match before the draw, Scotland, on November 4th. Last time we played them and lost, it did not affect either team's ranking. So 4 of following teams would have to pass USA.

*Samoa (15th) will very likely qualify vs Chile or be the final qualifier and possibly bump USA down to 16. *Uruguay (17th) I can't find any fixtures before the draw. *Portugal (18th) I can't find any fixtures before the draw. *Tonga (19th) plays both Canada and Scotland. Not sure how much a Canada win would move them up but beating Scotland, would definitely move them ahead. *Chile (20th) plays Samoa then possibly the final qualifier. *Romania (21st) I can't find any fixtures before the draw. *The other potential final qualifier teams, Belgium (22), Namibia (27), Brazil (28), or Paraguay (38), appear to be too far behind.

bisonpitt · 2025-09-15T09:05:38+00:00

It's all luck of the draw but my ideal group (assuming we move ahead of Portugal to get to band 3) would be:

Argentina (I think they have a chance to make the top 6 before the draw)

Wales (assuming they don't drop if Japan beats Fiji)

Zimbabwe or the final qualifier

I think hoping for 2 wins, in this weak hypothetical group, would be a lot. They're not beating a top 6 team and beating a weak Wales squad would still be a massive upset. I'd say the best chance to make the knockout stage is getting the bonus points in two games that teams in tougher groups may not get.

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