Image: U.S. Steel February 26, 2021 ERIE, Pa. — In January, when the deal closed, U.S. Steel executives positioned the company’s acquisition of Big River Steel as a “best of both” integration — a $774 million blending of traditional steelmaking and LEED-certified, Flex Mill manufacturing. The student members of Penn State Behrend’s CFA Institute Research Challenge Team said they saw it differently. “It’s too little, too late,” said Joshua Kirkpatrick, a senior from Pittsburgh. He and his teammates — Evan Briant, Michael Fedorek, Simon Nero and Michael Tejchman — spent months studying U.S. Steel, a Pittsburgh-based Fortune 250 company. On Feb. 24, at the opening round of the CFA Institute student challenge, they were given 10 minutes to convince a panel of financial analysts that the company is overvalued at $13.60 per share.