I usually get one or two emails a day from BSD readers. I open and read every one of them. I try to respond to all of them in person if I have the time. But sometimes you get some emails that are so good you have to share them with the group. My Big East tirade from the other day understandably pissed some people off. So much so they felt leaving a comment on the blog wasn't good enough. They had to send me a personal email. Our first letter comes from Jersey Jeff.
You might not like it, you might not want to believe it but the Big East is pretty good and getting better.
Why don't you get the old man to sign his name on the dotted line for a 1-for-1 with RU (with RU's home game actually at home) with that TBA on your scheulde for next year and we'll see how fucking tough State Penn is.
FIU, Buffalo and Temple....I wouldn't be throwing stones about non-conference schedules.
Your arrogance is exceeded only by your ignorance.
You're sort of right, Jeff. I don't believe it, but it's not that I don't like the Big East getting better. I just don't like that they are getting unearned hype in the media. You can't compare yourself against the other major BCS conferences and claim you are just as good as they are without playing the best those conferences have to offer and beating them.
Leaving your insult about our head coach's age aside, I would love nothing more than to go back to the days of putting Rutgers in their rightful place. But I'm afraid Penn State would never agree to a 1-and-1 with a team of Rutgers stature. We never played 1-and-1's with them in the past and I don't see any reason to do it now. Penn State owns a 22-2 all time record against the Scarlett Knights. (Congrats on that win back in 1918!) Nothing has changed to make me believe Rutgers is any better than they have ever been. Sure you went 11-2 last year. That's great. Who did you play? You beat Louisville. Great. Who did they play? The fact is if Miami, Boston College, and Virginia Tech were still in the league Rutgers would have been another four loss team just like the old days. I'll reserve judgement on giving them credibility until they beat someone from another conference with a pulse.
Now, I would certainly rather play Rutgers than Temple, Buffalo, or FIU, but then they don't ask me to put together the schedule. But don't forget we play Notre Dame, a team that has gone to two consecutive BCS bowl games. I'm really starting to get irritated how people just conveniently leave that out. We have a series scheduled with Alabama in a few years. We have played Nebraska and Miami in recent years. Penn State isn't ducking anyone. It's just that teams like Rutgers and Pitt don't want to accept the fact they are not worthy of a 1-and-1 series with Penn State. We want games that will be put on television in the prime time slot on ABC and ESPN. A game with a Big East opponent would make regional coverage unless we played on a Thursday night.
Speaking of which, our next letter comes from Jason Garrett, who I did not realize was my father until I read his email.
Daddy?
Congratulations. The biggest game in a century for your school against another unbeaten team on a Thursday night and you managed to pull in an 8.1 on your home turf. Not exactly Super Bowl ratings there. If the Yankees or Mets had been in the World Series you would have been buried on page six of the NY Times Sports section.
But Jason was so mad he sent an unsolicited followup email to the first one which strangely makes my eyes hurt.
Daddy...Daddy you're hurting me...
They must be having a sale on periods in New Jersey. Buy four and you get a free dash and an exclamation point to go with it.
First of all, I never said the ACC was better than the Big East. But then the ACC isn't out there thumping their chests saying look at us, we have three top ten teams! Give credit where credit is due. Florida State and Miami regularly play Florida. Florida State is also going to play Alabama and Colorado this year. Miami is going to play Oklahoma and Texas A&M. Boston College plays Notre Dame every year. Virginia Tech is going to play LSU. The ACC is going out there lining up the big competition. So when they have a bad year I'm willing to give them a pass which is why you don't see anti-ACC rants on BSD.
The same goes for the PAC-10, Big XII and every other conference. Very cunning argument though. Pull the best teams out of each conference and they're no better than the Big East. Well, duh. Pull out the best teams and what you have left is a crappy conference...or pretty much the Big East.
And nowhere in my post did I put Penn State up on a pedestal. Go back and read it again and you will not see the words "Penn State" anywhere in there. It was strickly a commentary on the Big East conference and their weak out of conference schedules. So your rip on Penn State riding Michigan and Ohio State's coattails is completely irrelevant to the discussion. But since we're on the topic, Penn State did win the conference title, a BCS bowl, and finished #3 in the country in 2005 so we must not be too shabby.
Thanks so much for your email. Keep those crayon letters coming!