Sure, it's one thing to treat a relative a bit shoddily. Ask John Justice, a 1970 Marshall grad and the proprietor of the Rivals Sports Bar across Huntington's 3rd Avenue from the Joan C. Edwards Stadium, where the state of West Virginia's two major-college kinfolk gather tomorrow: "We're their poor stepbrother, and they love pickin' on us."

But to never even visit that stepbrother for 92 years?

"1915 was the first and, what, only time West Virginia came down here," said Keith Morehouse, a Huntington television sportscaster. "Just to have them here is a big coup for Marshall and its fans."

The ESPN2 audience and the sold-out home stadium, expected to top the 38,019 capacity thanks to Mountaineers fans buying up season tickets for the game, don't carry as much significance to the Herd followers as the mere meeting itself.

Why? There's that little thing about their mutual football history: They last played in Huntington in 1915, a 92-6 Mountaineers rout followed by an 81-0 shellacking in their next run-in, at Morgantown in 1923. It would be 74 years before they played again.

There is a divide between the athletic programs in general, although Marshall basketball closed that gap a bit in two of the previous three winters with upsets over the nationally ranked Mountaineers in Charleston. There are feelings of inferiority on Marshall's end and of superiority on the third-ranked Mountaineers' part.

"No one," Morehouse said, "... thought the two would play."

This in-state contest, only their seventh, "is huge to Marshall and not so much to WVU, except to the administration and the governor's office," said Shelly Poe, a longtime Mountaineers athletic department official and football historian who left last month to work for Ohio State.

On the flip side, how long have the Herd faithful been awaiting this game?

"Probably since Governor [Joe Manchin] brokered the deal," in May 2005, Justice said. He likewise attempted to explain the dual meanings of this duel. "Look at the picture when the governor signed it: The left-hand [Marshall] side is all smiles, the right-hand [Mountaineers] side is all frowns."

Marshall, a two-time, Division I-AA national champion in the early 1990s, switched to the big-boys' club in '97 and promptly wrangled a date in Morgantown. With future NFL stars Chad Pennington and Randy Moss leading the Herd, Marshall took a 31-28 lead in the fourth quarter that year but ultimately fell, 42-31. Mountaineers officials maintain that Marshall then opted out of the remaining three Morgantown games to which they had agreed. Former Marshall coach Bob Pruett fought vehemently to reinstate the series, however. Asked recently by a reporter about the Mountaineers' hesitance to play in the Herd's smallish football confines, Pruett barked, "If you're scared, get a dog."

As per the governor's brokered deal, should the Mountaineers win tomorrow, they'll play host to the series' remaining three games. They haven't lost yet, in six games over 97 years. They don't want to start now.

" 'Don't you guys lose to Marshall,' " Mountaineers receiver Tito Gonzales of Tampa, Fla., said he hears weekly from fans. " 'Please beat Marshall.' "

"It is a rivalry, whether they want to admit it or not," Justice said. "I've seen more Mountaineers bumper stickers and gold flags on cars around here than I've seen in 45 years. That's fine. Everybody has to root for somebody ... no matter how misguided they are.

"It's probably one of the biggest things sports-wise to happen to Huntington in a number of years. Having the Mountaineers come, because they vowed they'd never set foot in this stadium, is big to us. They're trying to downplay this: 'It's just Marshall.' But it is a big deal to them, too."

Here's another way to look at the fervor on both sides: Mountaineers fans bought up their 5,000 allotted tickets and an estimated additional 1,500 Marshall season-ticket plans, just to get a seat for this one.

"I know I bought 50 extra season tickets myself," Justice said. "I got a lot of friends, man. At least I do when they want tickets."