Gene J. Puskar, Associated Press
	If Pitt doesn't know who Cincinnati quarterback Dustin Grutza is, they'll soon find out in this season of orientation in the Big East. MORE COVERAGE Injuries force Panthers to shuffle

Like clockwork, they used to appear during the autumn months. You could mark it on your calendar as you would Halloween or Thanksgiving.

Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech forever will be linked with Pitt as members of the Big East football conference's formative years. Boston College and Miami were founding members of the league that formed in 1991; Virginia Tech joined two years later.

Even if you would like to forget them for bolting to the Atlantic Coast Conference, there is no denying the history they left behind. Other than Pitt last season, Syracuse in 1997 and '98 and West Virginia in '93, Miami or Virginia Tech won or shared the conference title the other 10 years.

Through the years, rivalries developed with Pitt. The Panthers played Boston College 17 of 18 seasons before this year; Virginia Tech 11 of the past 12; Miami 13 of the past 16.

The series with Boston College and Virginia Tech were extremely competitive, and even though the Panthers managed to beat Miami just once in Big East competition, many of the games were decided by a touchdown or less.

As Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech eat up the competition in the ACC (they are a combined 12-2 this season and all ranked in the top 25), Pitt gets set to take on their replacements in the new Big East.

Over the next five weeks, Pitt will attempt to start new rivalries. The Panthers play Cincinnati and South Florida in consecutive weeks starting Saturday. They play original Big East member Syracuse Oct. 22 before facing two more new kids on the block, Louisville and Connecticut, a second-year member, the following two weeks.

"It's definitely a new start," said Pitt senior safety Tez Morris, a three-year starter and veteran of some of those big games of yesteryear against Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College. "It's definitely new for the program. You can't look back at the past. What happened, happened. We're not sad about those rivalries ending or anything.

"I wouldn't say we're going to miss those games. All these games taking their place are just as big."

Any game is a big game for Pitt, given the Panthers' early-season struggles. But the players go into the upcoming weeks without much of an historical perspective of their opponents or a hint of a rivalry.

Pitt has played the four new members 15 times, and only played recent games against Connecticut and South Florida. The game Saturday at Heinz Field against Cincinnati is the first between the two schools since 1981.

To try to jump-start the series the schools this week announced that the winner of the game will receive the "River City Rivalry Trophy."

"This will be a rivalry game for us," Cincinnati coach Mark Dantonio said. "We're trying to make it a rivalry game."

How does that happen when there is no common history?

"What has to happen is it has to be an emotional game for both teams," Dantonio said. "What can it become? You have two great cities on the river. You have existing rivalries with the NFL teams. We're trying to get on board with that."

Mention Cincinnati and most sports fans think of former coach Bob Huggins and the Bearcats basketball team. Cincinnati has been playing football since 1885, but it enters its first Big East game without much football history. All of the new teams, except South Florida, enter Big East football in the shadow of their basketball programs.

Cincinnati has not had more than eight wins in a football season since 1964 and that was when it played in the Missouri Valley Conference against the likes of Dayton, Xavier and Detroit.

In terms of football history, Cincinnati is only slightly more steeped in tradition than the team that follows on Pitt's schedule.

South Florida has been playing since 1997 and has been in Division I-A full time since 2001. The Bulls briefly grabbed some national attention two weeks ago when they beat then-No. 9 Louisville but quickly came back to earth when they lost, 27-7, Saturday to Miami at the Orange Bowl.

Louisville, another basketball school, came into the season in the best position to succeed on the football field. The Cardinals had been successful in Conference USA and had gained respect nationally when they finished 11-1 last season.

But they plummeted in the polls after losing to South Florida and enter this week's game against North Carolina at No. 23, the Big East's only ranked team.

"With Cincinnati, Louisville and South Florida, it will take time," Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. "Rivalries have to develop. We're all in close proximity to each other. We'll be recruiting against one another. It will be a year-round thing, so I think it will be good."

Following Louisville on the schedule is Connecticut, which is in its fifth season playing Division I-A football. But the Huskies own something the other schools don't -- a Big East win against Pitt.

Connecticut beat Pitt for its first conference victory last September. Pitt is hoping Cincinnati, South Florida and Louisville don't pull off the same feat.