So people say college football rivalries are dying?

Pitt and Penn State are finally playing each other now, but not for too much longer. Pitt-West Virginia is long gone, as is Texas-Texas A&M and other traditional Division I neighborhood games.

Of course, that’s Division I.

Neighborhood rivalries are all over Division II, particularly in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. That’s a 16-team league with every team in the same state.

There is no other college football league in the country that can match such a thing.

The California Collegiate Athletic Conference is a 13-member league with all of its schools in California. The Florida Intercollegiate Conference has 11 members, all from the Sunshine State.

The PSAC actually has 18 members. Two of them — Mansfield and Pitt-Johnstown — don’t play football.

The youngest schools in the league are also two of its newest members. Mercyhurst and Gannon joined the PSAC in 2008. Those schools were formed in 1926 and 1925, respectively.

Every other school in the league has been around since the 1800’s. The league’s oldest institution is Cheyney, that university existing since 1837. The oldest school in the conference’s Western Division is California, which has been there since 1852.

The PSAC itself was put together in 1951. Slippery Rock University has been playing some teams on its schedule a lot longer.

The Rock has been playing California since 1905. Indiana has been on the schedule since 1907, Clarion since 1911, Edinboro since 1916.

When SRU plays a Western Division foe, it never has to travel more than two hours or so. California (Pa.) would be the longest trip in that regard.

So while Pitt has Penn State on its schedule as a rival, Penn State has Ohio State and West Virginia has pretty much nobody, Slippery Rock has a rival game every week once it gets into Western Division play.

SRU’s homecoming game has to be against a rival — unless it wants homecoming to be in mid-September. This year’s homecoming game is next Saturday against Indiana. That could very well be a battle of unbeatens with first place in the West at stake, pending the outcome of games this weekend.

Winning teams in the PSAC West have a solid fan base at road games because the travel isn’t very far.

SRU’s home game against California last week had packed stands on both sides of the field. Next week’s game with Indiana will likely be standing room only.

That’s what college football should be about — rivalries with decades of history.

Division I may have lost such a thing.

But such rivalries are very much alive in Division II — especially in Pennsylvania.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle