Pittsburgh

The fanbase has heard the program written off as an afterthought for two decades and bristles every time, because Pitt was a national power before half the programs dismissing it existed. They don't want sympathy; they want the country to remember the receipts.

What this game touches

The forgotten power. Pitt won a national title in 1976 and produced Tony Dorsett and Dan Marino, then spent the modern era as an overlooked program whose history outweighs its present. The 2021 ACC title under Pat Narduzzi briefly broke the silence; the wound is that the country still acts like Pitt football is a question mark, not a heritage.