Pitt-WVU in a nutshell:
Pennsylvania has a "tiered" system of higher education. The best students get into Pitt (and Penn State and Temple). Others are assigned to its state colleges. The state also focuses much of its finances on the student, in the form of aid they can use at any college, even private or out-of-state, rather than on the college, keeping in-state tuition low, as most states do.
West Virginia for complex historical reasons mis-placed WVU right on the Pennsylvania state line, far from the vast majority of the state's population. To keep the school full, it subsidizes it to a huge degree, such that out-of-state tuition is actually less than in-state tuition for most northeasterners, including Pennsylvanians. It also has, as do all colleges in the state, a virtural open admission system, anybody that has any business in college can attend.
So, faced with the "thin envelope" from Pitt, many western Pennsylvanians choose to forgo places like Slippery Rock for a lower total cost and a "big time school" experience at WVU. Such that 68% of on-campus students at WVU are from out of state, the majority from western Pennsylvania. The fandoms hate of Pitt is born of pure jealosy. The hate that can only be born of applying to a school and being turned down.