After last week's announcement that Pitt would play West Virginia for four years, I speculated that the Panthers were unable to get the Nittany Lions on the schedule and thus selected the Mountaineers. In short, here was what I wrote:
it sounds as if West Virginia was an alternative at least partially because Penn State happens to be busy for the early part of that decade. Barnes has pretty much said before that the Nittany Lions are a priority over West Virginia. If securing the Mountaineers was done because a series with Penn State wasn't feasible, Barnes clearly made a great move.