State Sen. John Wozniak, D-Cambria, has sent state newspapers an opinion article he wrote urging resumption of the Pitt-Penn State football rivalry.

Noting that West Virginia's governor is credited with brokering the deal that enabled the West Virginia Mountaineers and Marshall University Thundering Herd to resume their annual game, Wozniak, a Pitt alumnus, said, "I would be more than happy to meet with school officials to mediate a similar means to resume the historical Pitt-Penn State game."

But Wozniak added, "While many have suggested the state legislature step in and mandate that the schools resume their annual game (the schools first met in 1893 and last played in 2000), I do not believe it is government's role to dictate how schools operate their athletic programs."

That's a good point, considering the Pennsylvania General Assembly's inability to get its more important work — the work its members were elected to do — done efficiently and in a spirit of bipartisan cooperation.

Considering state lawmakers' oftentimes-demonstrated inability to reach a quick accord on seemingly simple and uncomplicated matters, state residents would be justified in wondering how much time the Pitt-Penn State football issue would consume, to the detriment of other business.

That is not to imply that points made by Wozniak on behalf of resumption of the Panthers-Nittany Lions fall encounter are invalid.

His observation that the Pitt-Penn State game was a huge event and economic bonanza for both schools cannot be disputed.

"There was a time not so long ago when the biggest game on Pitt and Penn State's football schedule was each other," the senator said. "The rivalry between Pennsylvania's two biggest schools brought their student bodies to a frenzy, captured a feverish statewide audience, and drew national coverage and attention.

"Apart from the obvious excitement and intrigue that the rivalry represented for alumni and college football fans across our state, the game was a great opportunity to showcase both of these fine universities and our state."

Wozniak is correct in his puzzlement over Penn State and Pitt's ability to find space on their schedules for the likes of Florida International and Grambling — and, in the future, tiny Coastal Carolina and Bowling Green — but cannot muster the determination to resurrect their gridiron rivalry.

But it's neither the role of Wozniak nor other members of state government to devote time to something so clearly out of their jurisdiction — regardless of what took place in West Virginia.

Important unfinished business like Gov. Ed Rendell's energy plan and resolution of the highway funding issue demand that state officials stick to their own field of play. Anything else would be out of bounds.