By the time the two teams reached Acrisure Stadium, Pitt was already dictating the terms the market had priced in. What was left to answer in the second half was simply how far the margin would stretch.
It stretched plenty. Pitt tacked on 21 more points in the third quarter alone and coasted to the final, needing barely more than a half to make it feel like business as usual for a program that owns a 35-6 all-time mark against MAC opponents. Turner and Cook did the bulk of the damage on the ground, and McComb's first career start ended up buried under a first-half deficit before he ever got a real chance to settle in.
For Miami (OH), the day was always going to be more about what it revealed than what it decided — McComb got live reps in exactly the kind of low-stakes environment a new starter needs. For Pitt, the opener did what openers are supposed to do: confirm Heintschel and the returning skill-position pieces are picking up right where a promising freshman season left off.