No doubt about it, the Panthers 2012 home football schedule was a dud. West Virginia and TCU, both slated to play at Heinz Field this past season, left the BIG EAST for the greener pastures of the Big XII. Their departures created gaps in the the remaining members' football schedules and Pitt's Athletic Department did all they could do on such short notice, replace them with Gardner Webb and Temple. Throw in Youngstown State and Rutgers and you have four games of a six game home schedule made up of opponents that only their players' family members have any desire to watch.

Thankfully, Pitt is ACC bound next season and will have have a conference schedule filled with eight shiny new opponents. We already know that six of the eight will be the other members in the Coastal Division, plus Syracuse as the permanent crossover opponent. But who will the eighth opponent be, and which of these games will be at Heinz Field? The ACC filled us in on those details this morning. Throw in Pitt's non-conference opponents and their 2013 schedule shapes up like this:

Notre Dame, Florida State, and Miami at home (not to mention Bob Davie and his New Mexico Lobos)? Yes please. Season tickets may be hard to come by this season if you don't have them already.

No dates for the conferences games have been released yet. The ACC will do so in early February. Stay tuned.