Big East Football - Catch The Fever

by BSD on May 3, 2007 4:52 PM EDT in Football Comment 25 comments

Remember this time last year we were talking about breaking up the Big East because they were so pathetic? Nobody took them seriously. Unfortunately, the nature of sporting events is there has to be a winner and a loser. So the simple laws of mathematics means the Big East Conference had to have a conference champion. And when the meat of your conference consists of teams like Pitt, Syracuse, UConn, Cincinnati, and South Florida you're going to have some teams who feed on them and manage to put together deceivingly impressive records. And naturally you're going to have some people who take those deceivingly impressive records and extrapolate them into a belief that the Big East is a conference to be reckoned with. Today, that imbicile is ESPN's Joe Starkey.

Given up for dead three years ago, the top-heavy Big East is fresh off a 5-0 bowl season and primed to spend plenty of time in the national spotlight again this season.

Yes indeed. I was particularly impressed South Florida's 24-7 victory over 7-5 Conference USA powerhouse East Carolina. Or who could forget Cincinnati's thrilling 27-24 win over 7-5 Western Michigan? That was an ESPN instant classic if ever I saw one. I guess for the purposes of this article Notre Dame is officially NOT considered a member of the Big East. Oh, and if by "national spotlight" he means featuring their biggest conference games on Thursday nights on ESPN2, well then yeah ok.

That is because three teams that finished in the top 12 -- Louisville, Rutgers and West Virginia -- will go into the season with realistic national title hopes based on high-end talent and highly manageable schedules.

None of the three plays a nonconference game against a team that was ranked at the end of last season.

Well yeah. When you play non-conference games against UNC, Ohio, and Howard and you're conference schedule features five patsies you're going to win a bunch of games. Does that mean you deserve to be lumped into the discussion with the Michigans, USCs, and Floridas of the college football world? Me thinks not.

The conference also boasts four legitimate Heisman Trophy candidates: Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, Rutgers running back Ray Rice and West Virginia's dynamic duo of quarterback Pat White and tailback Steve Slaton.

Quick. Someone name me four guys not mentioned above who have a legitimate shot at being an All American this year. I thought so. Can anyone name me one guy not on West Virginia, Louisville, or Rutgers? No? Bueller?

Cincinnati will attempt to recapture last year's magic (4-3 in the conference) under new coach Brian Kelly and his wide-open offense.

Wow. There you have it. Going 4-3 in the Big East constitutes a "magical" season.

The fact is the Big East has no legitimacy. They lost it all when Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College packed their bags for the ACC. These teams that are contending for the Big East conference title now were the Purdues, NC States, and Texas Techs of the Big East a few years ago. Going 6-1 in the Big East is worthless now so Big East teams can only be judged by their non-conference schedules. If they choose to avoid the upper echelon of BCS schools, they do not deserve consideration for the BCS title.

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Uh oh

Here come the Pitt trolls.

The Big East has gone from being the most underrated conference in the country to the most overrated in the span of about 8 months.

by speedomike02 on May 3, 2007 5:09 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Ray Rice

Am I the only one who thinks he's overrated? I think the departure of Brian Leonard is going to hurt him a lot more than anyone realizes...

...and if he can't turn it up, who are they going to look to in crunch time? Mike Teel? Good luck.

by Cpiritual27 on May 3, 2007 5:35 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Thursday night games

I know there's the whole "Let's attack Pitt" thing, which is fine and I fully support, but I don't understand the hate on Thursday night games. If you played every game during the week, that would be bad, but I think Thursday every once in a while is nearly as good as Sunday or Monday night football. You have the entire collegiate football viewing audience to yourself as opposed to sharing it with dozens of other games. Plus, Thursday night football makes for fantastic pregaming entertainment before a Thursday out, and you can't beat that.

Also, Big Ten supporters probably not to being throwing stones about top-heavy conference after last season.

http://www.rakesofmallow.com

by CW on May 3, 2007 7:42 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Thursday Night Games

There would be a revolt if Penn State played a game on a weeknight. There's a reason you don't see the marquee teams playing on weeknights. Weeknight games are for teams who can't get a large enough viewing audience to command the prime time slots on Saturdays. I have no interest in seeing PSU having to settle for weeknight games. No thanks.

Mike
Black Shoe Diaries

Hail to the Lion!

by BSD on May 3, 2007 8:23 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Almost happened

We were supposed to play Virginia on Thursday in 2001, but that was the week of September 11th.

by speedomike02 on May 3, 2007 9:15 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

That's right

And we were pretty lousy back then too. That was probably the best chance we had at getting any television exposure.

Mike
Black Shoe Diaries

Hail to the Lion!

by BSD on May 3, 2007 9:33 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think

that you're being overly harsh. Certainly the Big East is not the greatest conference in the land the way it's been recently made out to be, but claiming that the Big East has no legitimacy and does not deserve its BCS berth is ridiculous. Do you really think that the quality of play in the Big East last year was worse than the ACC? You could conceivably argue that play in the Big East was marginally worse, but not enough to justify pulling the Big East's berth and leaving the ACC with one.

by Ben on May 3, 2007 9:35 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The ACC

Don't get me started on the ACC. They aren't much better. But at least they have some traditionally good teams, like FSU, Miami, and VA Tech. It's more conceivable they just had a bad year. The Big East, in my eyes, must prove themselves. And they aren't going to do that playing cupcake OOC teams.

Mike
Black Shoe Diaries

Hail to the Lion!

by BSD on May 3, 2007 10:05 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Pretty Shortsighted...

Mike, your statement "If they choose to avoid the upper echelon of BCS schools, they do not deserve consideration for the BCS title." is an exercise in misinformation.

The reason the BE conference's OOC schedule has been so soft for the last few years is because three of the better teams left the conference. You know as well as I do that you can't schedule top quality teams in the space of one or two years in the future - that just does not happen. All the Big East teams have strengthened their OOC schedules by scheduling better teams as early as they can - they are not choosing to avoid anything.

And, it's interesting that your opinion of whether the three BE teams should have been rated in the top 15 at the end of last year differs from the Coaches poll, the sportswriters poll and the computer rankings. Give it a rest - it's not like just because the BE is getting some national recognition it sheds unfavorable light on the Big Ten somehow.

Do you really feel the need to act like the Big Ten bully? That somehow if another conference has an old rival in it you have to denigrate it? Give it a rest already.

by Reed on May 3, 2007 10:07 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

So by your logic...

...Boise State was one of the best teams in the country, even though they barely beat a "good" Oklahoma team, featuring Adrian Peterson returning from a collarbone injury. That was their best win all year, so what did they REALLY prove?

Mike's exactly right in what he says: the Big East MUST prove themselves. However, when you have Louisville losing to RU, RU losing to Cincy and WVU (both of whom were starting backup QB's), and WVU losing to Louisville and USF, it's pretty tough to justify that these are "great" teams. The weak OOC schedules do nothing to help this. Until proven otherwise, the Big East is still a lesser conference.

by Cpiritual27 on May 3, 2007 11:38 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Don't face reality....ban it.

Instead of facing reality and having others point it out to you, you should just ban it from revealing itself to you. Or posting here.

Continue to insult teams that have Hiesman canidates when you have criminals, and decide who's better in your heads instead of on the field. It'll make you feel better than waking up and realizing you're no longer a top program, just an also-ran. Now I understand why it's called happy valley.

Also insult teams that play soft non-con schedules while you play powerhouses Temple, FIU and UBuffalo. And the chronically overrated ND who's only wins are against the service schools.

Ignore all the rankings, records, and everything else than the rest of the world follows. Remember the Big11 is so good that it doesn't even have to follow rules of the universe, like math.

Reality out. Go back to self-delusion.

Hail to Pitt.

by Reality on May 4, 2007 4:28 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Nice Try Stuart

You were not banned for talking about "reality". You were banned because you were warned twice to be respectful and you couldn't do it. Go find another PSU message board if you want to pick a fight, but I suspect you're probably banned from many of those too.

Mike
Black Shoe Diaries

Hail to the Lion!

by BSD on May 4, 2007 8:24 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

That's not Stuart

It's that player from Florida, Jarvis Moss maybe, that EDSBS ran a story about his facebook page. Look at the incorrect spelling of Heisman, its a dead giveaway.

by PSU Nick on May 4, 2007 9:52 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

That is funny

And his spelling of candidate. But I'm sure it's Stewart. I have ways. He's not very good at hiding his identity.

Mike
Black Shoe Diaries

Hail to the Lion!

by BSD on May 4, 2007 10:00 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Maybe it's Trung

The Arizona running back who was a preseason candidate before being exposed in the Pigskin Classic against PSU a few years ago

by PSU Nick on May 4, 2007 10:12 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

pay attention

This is what you call non-respectful:

"Nice...take a cheap shot at Pitt for a recruit re-opening his search... Meanwhile, the same week half a dozen of your players are getting charged with crimes.

I'm sure they'll hold off on punishing them as long as possible so they can play the whole next season. What a sham. On the brightside for you, I'm sure the judge in the kangaroo court out there is a PSU football ticket holder, condsidering there is nothing else to do.
"

Funny how reality played it out. You can ban this too, and any comment that you don't like. What a sham you have running here - most people would like to expose in open thought that which was wrong so as to prove it so; here, you try not to expose any opinion that is contrary to what you think, because it could hurt self-delusion.

No one would have to "hide" their identity if you allowed open thought and not just a penn state bandwagon site.

I won't post anymore. I am well aware this is a fantasy site, and any comment dealing with reality just can not be accepted...and you think honest comment and reality is "disrespectful."

In, the end,

12-0,

Never this decade,

Hail to Pitt.

by WakeUp on May 5, 2007 3:02 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Stuart needs a hobby...

Dude, this is the THIRD alias you've used to gain access to this site. Seriously, you need a life. This is getting to be downright pathetic.

By the way, what is 12-0? Because to my recollection, PSU went 12-0 in 1994. When was the last time Pitt did this? Remember, 9-4 is a lot closer to 13-0 than 6-6 is. You embarrass yourself, and your joke of a team.

by Cpiritual27 on May 5, 2007 10:45 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You need help

Man your delusion is at unprecedented levels. You need serious mental help, and I'm not talking just a therapist, you need a team of doctors watching you night and day. In the last two seasons Penn State has beat Ohio State, Florida State and Tennessee. Pitt? Virginia. But hey you do hold a two game win streak over Cincinnati, too bad I can't say the same for South Florida. That's SOUTH Florida. Pitt sucks bad bud.

by Galen on May 4, 2007 8:45 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

It seems...

That the only ones asking the BE to prove themselves are PSU fans. All the national people that actually vote have accepted the conference as BCS worthy. The BCS committee extended the conference's BCS Bowl eligibility, ESPN signed a very lucrative TV contract extension with the conference, and again, the pollsters thought enough to place 3 or 4 teams in the 2007 pre-season rankings.

Also, no one is saying the BE is a great conference - it's not. Or, that the top BE teams are great teams - they are not either. But they are playing good football and apparently in the opinion of people that actually matter, they are BCS bowl worthy.

As for scheduling, PITT has signed a contract to play ND and other quality teams in future series, and has continually tried to schedule PSU (someone keeps throwing a wrench into that) so your comment that they are dodging OOC opponents isn't quite true.

by Reed on May 4, 2007 6:48 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The Post

I'm not sure how this got spun into an anti-Pitt post. It's not. It's an anti-Joe Starkey post for saying the Big East conference contenders deserve to be in the discussion for the national championship.

Every year we have teams ranked in the top 10 that have people question their schedule. Since we don't have a playoff system, each team is compared by their resume. A team that beats Texas and Michigan, like Ohio State, deserves more consideration than a team that plays UNC and Howard. And when Big Ten teams are playing good OOC teams that makes their conference wins look even better. That's all I'm saying. We can disect PSU's out of conference schedule if you want to do that, but the fact is Notre Dame is a respected program that kicked our butts and did go to a BCS Bowl this year, so don't conveniently leave that off the list of our OOC games. Before the Notre Dame series we played Nebraska. In a few years we'll be playing Alabama which could be pretty damn good by 2010 now that Nick Saban is there.

I stand by my contention. Until the Big East schedules other powerhouse BCS schools they do not deserve consideration for the championship. It would be a travesty if a 12-0 Rutgers went to the championship before an 11-1 Florida team with one loss in the SEC or an 11-1 Michigan team with one loss in the Big Ten.

Mike
Black Shoe Diaries

Hail to the Lion!

by BSD on May 4, 2007 8:38 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

OOC?

What's so impressive about Akron, Youngstown St., and Temple?

by Johnny on May 4, 2007 10:00 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

And Notre Dame

You conveniently leave that out.

Mike
Black Shoe Diaries

Hail to the Lion!

by BSD on May 4, 2007 10:01 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The thing you're forgetting...

...is that the Big 10 does not have any teams like UConn, Pitt and Syracuse. It's not like Cincy is lighting it up either. Yes, that means a legitimate half of your conference is mediocre, at best.

Now, I know the Big 10 has some bad teams, namely Northwestern, Indiana and Illinios. However, how much can you expect from a Northwestern team whose coach died in the offseason? I give them a legitimate 1-year pass.

Indiana and Illinois both look promising. Indiana has James Hardy, while Illinois has Juice Williams and Arrelious Benn. These teams are up-and-comers, must like USF was this year.

I'll take 3 out of 11 bad teams vs 3 (or 4) out of 8 any day!!

by Cpiritual27 on May 4, 2007 10:32 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Just having some fun Mike....

How did that game turn out for you guys, anyway? Schedules should be improving in the near future, at least for WVU with Auburn, Mich. St. (you can make your own cracks about that one), and FSU.

by Johnny on May 4, 2007 11:32 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs