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The Backyard Brawl is an American college football rivalry between the University of Pittsburgh Panthers and West Virginia University Mountaineers. The term "Backyard Brawl" has also been used to refer to college basketball games played annually or semi-annually and may also be used to refer to other athletic competitions between the two schools. It is a registered trademark for both universities, and refers to the close proximity of the two universities, separated by 75 miles (105 km) along Interstate 79. The football rivalry is the 14th oldest in the United States and is typically shown on national television. In the past, the Backyard Brawl has been seen on ABC, CBS, ESPN, and ESPN2. Through the 104 games played between these two schools, Pitt leads the series 61–40–3. On Saturday, December 1, 2007 the 100th edition of the Backyard Brawl took place at Mountaineer Field in Morgantown, West Virginia. The 4–7 Panthers upset the 2nd–ranked Mountaineers 13–9, knocking West Virginia out of the BCS National Championship Game. The game was one of the most important Backyard Brawls, one of the biggest upsets for the Pittsburgh Panthers, and one of the biggest upsets of the season, voted as the "Game of the Year" by ESPNU.〔(100th Backyard Brawl Voted "Game of the Year" by ESPNU Fans )〕 The Mountaineers got revenge when the series returned to Morgantown in 2009, upsetting the No. 8 Panthers 19–16 on a game-ending field goal. The 2009 Backyard Brawl was the most watched game in the history of ESPN2. ==History== The football series was first played in 1895, and the game has historically been one of the more intense rivalries in the eastern United States. The rivalry between the two schools is due mainly to proximity. WVU's campus in Morgantown, West Virginia is only about 70 miles south of Pittsburgh (via Interstate 79), and the two schools often compete for the same recruits. The 1921 edition of the Backyard Brawl was the first college football game broadcast on the radio when Harold W. Arlin announced the 21–13 Pittsburgh victory on KDKA. From 1962-2011, the series alternated between Pittsburgh and Morgantown on a yearly basis. Before that, the games were held in Pittsburgh on an almost regular basis, with Morgantown occasionally hosting the game. At one point, Pittsburgh hosted the game 11 years in a row (1919–29) and also hosted eight straight contests between 1938–48. (There were no matchups from 1940–42.) In contrast, the most consecutive games West Virginia has hosted were four in a row from 1895–1901, with one of those games held in Fairmont, West Virginia, now the home to Fairmont State University, and one in Wheeling, West Virginia. The most consecutive games played in Morgantown, three, were held from 1932–34. West Virginia started out the series leading, 5–1. Pittsburgh won four games in a row from 1904–08 (there was no game played in 1905) to tie the series at 5–5. In 1909, the teams played to a 0–0 tie, making the series 5–5–1. The following year, Pittsburgh won 38–0, taking a 6–5–1 lead in the series, and has led ever since. Since the series began interchanging annually between Morgantown and Pittsburgh in 1963, the Mountaineers have held a 25–22–2 advantage over the Panthers. On November 25, 2004, the Backyard Brawl series saw its 97th game, surpassing the 96–game Penn State–Pittsburgh football rivalry as Pittsburgh's most–played rivalry game. Pittsburgh celebrated the event with a 16–13 win at Heinz Field. The Mountaineers and the Panthers wore Nike Pro Combat System of Dress, uniforms designed to pay respect to Pittsburgh's steel industry and West Virginia's coal mining industry, for the 2010 Backyard Brawl. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, West Virginia wore a shade of white "that looks as if it has a fine layer of dust on the jersey" and has accents in university gold that "references the canaries used long ago to test toxicity in mines." The helmet has a thin yellow line, designed to look like "the beam of light emitted by a miner's headlamp." Meanwhile, Pitt wore smoky college navy and black jerseys and pants with metallic team gold numerals "to represent the brilliant glow of a blast furnace," according to a Nike website, and matching helmets with a gold stripe and logo "evocative of steel I-beams" and resembling a hard hat. West Virginia won the game in Pittsburgh 35–10. In 2011, the rivalry took on a new look with the high powered offenses of Todd Graham and Dana Holgorsen coming to Pittsburgh and West Virginia, respectively. Holgorsen, formerly the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State, and Graham, formerly the head coach for the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, had offenses ranked 6th and 8th, respectively, in the nation in the 2010 season. West Virginia defeated Pittsburgh 21–20, in what turned out to be Graham's only Backyard Brawl due to his departure for Arizona State University in the offseason. For the 2012 season, West Virginia moved to the Big 12 Conference while Pitt will move to the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2013. The 2012 season was the first time the two teams did not meet since 1942. Beginning in 2014, the Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando, Florida will match an ACC team and a Big 12 team. Thus, it will be possible for the teams to meet in that bowl, or also in a bowl that is part of the College Football Playoff.〔http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2013/8/7/4598866/acc-bowl-game-lineup-new〕 On July 3, 2013, the ''Bluefield (WV) Daily Telegraph'' reported that WVU athletic director Oliver Luck commented on possibly reviving the Backyard Brawl: "We've talked to Pitt, but they've got a lot going on, because they're trying to get Penn State back on their schedule...they're trying to figure out when they can squeeze us in. Their AD and I just talked last week, so we're trying to get that set up. It's all about dates. I think it will get done, but it's all a matter of when." On June 18, 2014, ESPN quoted Luck: "At some point we’ll get Pitt back on the schedule, What I’m trying to do with our nonconference games is stay as regional as possible and rekindle some of our historical rivalries...I see (athletic director ) Steve Pederson every now and then at various conventions. And we’ve had some discussions about that. We just haven’t been able to really eyeball the proper time to get it going again." However, the ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'' reported in May 2014: "Pederson said he has not had any substantive discussions with Mountaineers athletic director Oliver Luck about reviving the Backyard Brawl." In September 2015 it was confirmed the two had agreed to a four-game series running from 2022-2025.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Lyons Announces Return of Backyard Brawl )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Pitt, West Virginia renew Backyard Brawl for 2022–2025 )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Backyard Brawl」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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