Editor's note: Christian Alexander (59%) is closing the college football season with a bang! Make your Thanksgiving Day special with his primetime Thursday Selection!

Pittsburgh (5-5, 4-2 Big East) vs. #12 West Virginia (8-1, 5-0 Big East)
Thursday, November 23rd at 8:00 PM
TV: ESPN
Stadium: Mountaineer Field (Astroplay)
Line: West Virginia -13

There are a lot of classic football rivalries and fittingly, some great names for those games. The Apple Cup (Washington and Washington State), Old Oaken Bucket (Indiana and Purdue), Little Brown Jug (Michigan and Minnesota), Border War (Wyoming and Colorado State) and of course the Red River Shootout between Texas and Oklahoma.

However, while it can’t compete with Auburn vs. Alabama or Michigan vs. Ohio State in terms of tradition, you’ll find no better name for a college football rivalry than the one for the battle between Pittsburgh and West Virginia. The "Backyard Brawl", does it get any better than that? For fans of the Panthers and the Mountaineers it sure doesn’t.

This Brawl is the longest active Big East rivalry as these two teams have hooked up 97 times, including 67 years in a row. While Pitt leads this rivalry 59-35-3, the last half century this matchup has been about as close as you can get with the series tied at 24-24-2.

For many of those 97 games between these two bragging rights were all there was to play for. However, now that we’re in the era of lucrative postseason bowls there is extra motivation in this game, especially this year.

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The magic number for college teams to qualify for a postseason berth is six wins and so it doesn’t take a mathematician to tell you that with a record of 5-5 Pitt has a lot on the line this Thanksgiving. Coach Dave Wannstedt certainly doesn’t want to end his first season on the job by guiding the Panthers to their first losing record since 1999.

Of course, at 8-1 West Virginia has been bowl-eligible for a while now but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some serious motivation and money on the table in this one for the home team.

That’s because of the automatic berth that the Big East conference champion gets to the Bowl Championship Series, better known as the BCS. With a perfect 5-0 conference record, West Virginia is currently in the driver’s seat for that berth and with it a multi-million dollar payout. However, South Florida is lurking at 4-1 in the Big East standings and next up on the schedule for West Virginia. That leaves little margin for error for West Virginia.

Then again, coach Rich Rodriguez and the Mountaineers have been in this position before – in fact just one year ago. Last Thanksgiving West Virginia was looking to sew up the Big East's automatic BCS spot when they were upset by Pittsburgh and quarterback Tyler Palko 16-13. That win was a financial windfall for Pittsburgh as they ended up representing the Big East in the BCS (Fiesta Bowl) and pocketing a payout somewhere in the 14-17 million dollar range. And you thought gamblers were the only ones playing for money in college games?

Huge rivalry, BCS berth, revenge factor, postseason eligibility…needless to say there are plenty of motivating factors in this one.

The fact that Pittsburgh is even entertaining thoughts of a bowl game is testament to the second half of the season the Panthers have had. After starting out 0-3, including an embarrassing loss at Ohio (not State, just Ohio) Pittsburgh has turned things around winning five of their last seven games.

Palko is back at the controls on offense and on defense junior linebacker H.B. Blades not only leads the Panthers defense but also the Big East with 120 tackles.

Blades and crew will have their hands full with a West Virginia rushing attack that leads the Big East with 236 yards per game and stars a pair of talented freshmen in QB Pat White and RB Steve Slaton.

You would think that Blades would have his hands full with that assignment but the son of Bennie Blades and nephew of Brian and Al Blades – all former Miami Hurricane and NFL players – had time to stir things up even a bit more when he remarked that West Virginia players were "country boys" and then went on to say, "They're out in the middle of nowhere. There's nothing in Morgantown, really."

Sounds like a classic “Backyard Brawl” in the making, gotta love it.

Happy Thanksgiving and best of luck to all. See you around the corner for bowl season!

Christian Alexander's Thursday night season record:

With no game last week, Alexander's 2005 Thursday night record stands at 7-5.