A major summit involving the leaders of the world's 20 largest economies goes to London, and protesters drape banners from the Bank of England. A major summit involving the leaders of the world's 20 largest economies goes to Pittsburgh, and what do protesters do? They hold up Lord Stanley's punch bowl and play football. Take that, globalization.

Photo via Best Week Ever

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Good morning. It's Friday.

According to the Associated Press, paid attendance was 15,892, but turnstile count was about 3,000, and even that seems generous. Attendance was so sparse that the Pirates closed off the upper deck at PNC Park. Daddy's Sugar Ball posted some more photos from the game and then proceeded to thoroughly lose his shit:

As a Pirate fan I have laid claim to seeing rock bottom on several occasions. But this one takes the cake. I know that the G-20 summit is wrecking total havoc on the city and even if you had tickets to today's game you are not going to fight the traffic snarls to get a seat to see this ball club. They are 3-22 over the past 25 games. That is a .120 winning percentage. If the Pirates lose today's 12:35 game they will have been swept (again) by the Reds (again). Things have been characterized as "epically bad" and "historically terrible" for the Pittsburgh Pirates for so long that you begin to forget just how bad things really are.

[...]

It just pains me to watch this team be so inept. There was an opportunity for today and they blew it. After drawing a total of 4,000 fans (that's butts in the seats) for the last two games combined, they should have thrown open today's gates and given the seats away for free. No one was going to come anyway. If you live on the south or eastern side of the city you can't get to the North Shore and PNC Park but the news would have shown up to talk about it. Western PA has G-20 fatigue. They would have appreciated the gesture even if they could not or did not take advantage of it. Bring back Buc' night for today's day game (one dollar soda and one dollar hotdogs). Anything...do anything to make people care! Just quit being so fucking BAD at running a baseball team… Please I beg you. I'm not sure I can take it any more.

The Pirates lost, 4-1.

So where were all the Pittsburgh sports fans today, you might wonder? Well, it seems a few of them dropped in on the G-20 protests to scream impotently about global capitalism and, simultaneously, celebrate the Penguins. Witness:

THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY AND HOCKEY TROPHIES LOOK LIKE!!!

Protest photo courtesy reader Jackie

Rock Bottom [Daddy's Sugar Ball]
Not many watch as Reds beat Pirates 4-1 [Associated Press]

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Thanks for your continued support of Deadspin. Barry Petchesky is running the show tonight. Sent from my iPhone

Pittsburgh at South Florida (-13.5) - Friday night’s game on September 12 between South Florida and Kansas has already been forgotten. But if Kansas wins that game they’re inside the top 10 with four other Big 12 teams. Instead South Florida is #10 in the AP and will be favored in every game remaining on their schedule with the possible exception of an away game in Morgantown/Deadwood on December 6. But how good is South Florida? They’re 5-0 with one overtime win over a mediocre team (Central Florida), one last second field goal win over a good team (Kansas) and a near disaster against Florida Atlantic (17-8)? Last season things were also going smoothly for South Florida, they rolled to #2 in the country before losing three straight in conference games and plummeting out of the polls. This season their rise hasn’t been meteoric but their position is similar. Win their final 7 games and it’s hard to believe they won’t be in the BCS Title Game at 12-0. Even still, you’re reading this and thinking, there’s no way South Florida runs the table. They’re not a top 5 caliber team. And I’m writing this and thinking the same thing. Even though I have nothing to base this on.

Meanwhile Pittsburgh has won three in a row since a home-opening loss to mighty Bowling Green. Dave Wannstedt, who has been on the verge of perpetually turning the corner with Pittsburgh football for the past three seasons, needs to prove his team has actually improved. So far Wanndstedt has gone 5-6, 6-6, and 5-7. Is there any coach in America that’s lived on a perpetual hot seat longer than Wannstedt? Since 2002 he’s been on the verge of being fired for some offense or another.

Oregon State at Utah (-14)- Demonstrating the respect that Oregon State garnered by upsetting USC as 25 point underdogs last week, Utah opened as 12 point favorites. The line immediately moved to 14. Last week everyone expected for USC’s turn on Thursday night football to be an audition for the nation’s accolades. This week, the same holds true for Utah. Especially since the Mountain West is 5-1 against the Pac-10 this year.

Utah is averaging 38 points a game and is 5-0 including their opening game win at Michigan. If they can get past Oregon State, Utah looks to be in solid shape for a match-up of undefeated teams in their November 22nd game at BYU. Such a game could be a play-in between top ten teams (you’ve got to figure that the #15 Utah team would be in the top 25 by then) and could provide the necessary juice to propel whichever Utah team wins that game into the BCS Title Game. Against, you guessed it, South Florida.

If that happened, we could end up with a split national champion. Something the BCS was devised to keep from ever happening. So if you’re a college football fan who believes that a playoff would be a gift from God (and who doesn’t believe this?) then you might want to root for the winner of BYU/Utah to go undefeated and play South Florida for all the marbles. Because the indignation would be at an all-time high and just maybe, maybe, the low ratings and anger would finally mean something would have to change.

Meanwhile, Oregon State has already been passed over as the flavor of the week. Just seven days ago they shocked the college football universe by beating the best team in college football history. Now they’re going on the road for another Thursday night game and no one is giving them a shot in hell. Which seems odd. Unless you consider how much sex Jacquizz Rodgers has had since he went for 186 yards against USC. The oddsmakers clearly have to be factoring in his leg fatigue.

So I guess what I'm saying by way of these previews is, watch both teams if you can because it might be your only chance to develop an opinion about two national title contenders. Seriously. Or don't and watch Sarah Palin, all the while thinking that you're really watching Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin in a skit.