A sacred tradition in football is playing your rival and enjoying the entire rivalry week. This is a concept that Penn State seems to not understand.

What is better than being on a campus of a college that has a rival coming to town — especially a longtime traditional rivalry like Pitt vs. Penn State? This is why Penn State looks really bad now that they have decided to abruptly end the rivalry again.

Penn State decided to schedule the Temple Owls instead of Pitt. Temple is a team that just recently lost to FCS Villanova Wildcats.

In 2012, Penn State was at the rock bottom of the history of their program after the Jerry Sandusky scandal came out. Penn State came running to Pitt finally after the two had not played each other since 2000. The rivalry looked to be revived in 2016.

In 2016, the game came and was an instant classic. Pitt came out to a hot start after a long week of bickering between the teams and fans. It was a true natural rivalry and a game that meant a lot for many people. Even in 2017 with Penn State being heavy favorites, it was still a heated matchup.

However, all of sudden Penn State decided to downplay the importance of the rivalry and started to act like they were too good for Pitt. Penn State Head Coach James Franklin said that beating Pitt was just like beating Akron.

The two biggest schools in the state should play. It’s that simple. They recruit the same people and the same people apply to both to these schools. This is what a rivalry is. It goes beyond football.

The teams have met 98 times, with Penn State leading the series 51-43-4.It is a shame that the rivalry will not reach the 100th game until 2026 at the earliest.

It is easy to understand that Penn State felt that they had nothing to gain from this game anymore. They felt that they were supposed to win, but if they didn’t it would benefit Pitt crucially. It would make mutual recruits look to Pitt and all the excitement surrounding the win.

However, that is what a real rivalry is supposed to feel like. Some of the greatest and most emotional moments in all of sports come in college football rivalries.

As we approach the final meeting of this recent trilogy of games, fans will have to soak it all in as this rivalry will not be here in upcoming years. Pitt vs. Penn State will be no more for at least the next six years because Penn State decided to schedule Temple. Fans of football in general should feel robbed.