Big East Revisited

Last week, I ripped into West Virginia for their non-conference scheduling, noting that because they play in the Big East, they need to find a game against a high-quality opponent for at least one of their five non-conference games. I received feedback, in the form of a comment, that the Big East was better than I was giving it credit for. So, a conference that has Louisville, West Virginia, South Florida, Rutgers, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Syracuse should be one of the BCS conferences?

Last week, West Virginia continued to roll through weak non-conference opponents by drubbing border-rival Maryland. Louisville, the other marquee Big East team steamrolled Miami at home. South Florida beat Central Florida, 24-17, and Rutgers beat MAC juggernaut Ohio (sarcasm again?) 24-7. The problem with the weekend was that Connecticut and Pittsburgh got beat at home by Wake Forest and Michigan State, with the Spartans dismantling the Panthers pretty soundly after spotting them a 10-0 lead in the first quarter. You can't count Cincinnati losing to Ohio State against the conference, but I'm not putting much stock in the Syracuse win over Illinois either ... someone had to win that one.

Moving back a week, Pittsburgh beat Cincinnati in a week 2 conference game. West Virginia and Louisville throttled Eastern Washington and Temple, respectively. Rutgers shutout Illinois. South Florida eeked one out over Florida International 21-20 at home and Syracuse lost to Iowa at home despite Hawkeye QB Drew Tate sitting out the game with an injury.

In search of anything sound below Louisville and West Virginia, I'll go back to the opening weekend of the season. Pittsburgh beat Virginia, but the Cavaliers lost to Western Michigan and only beat Wyoming by 1 point. Hard to get excited about that. Louisville over Kentucky and West Virginia over Marshall - that's the Marshall team that Big 12 North middle-of-the-pack Kansas State beat this weekend. Cincinnati beat Eastern Kentucky. The Colonels beat W. Kentucky and lost to W. Carolina in other action this year. South Florida beat McNeese State. So, the Bulls scheduled McNeese State, Florida International, Central Florida, Kansas, and North Carolina. The 3rd best Big East team has UCF, KU and UNC as their big non-conference games? Maybe for basketball, but that doesn't fly in big-time college football, does it? Kansas is probably about the 8th best team in the Big 12. UConn beat Rhode Island (sounds like a good bball game back when Odom, Mobley, and Wheeler were at URI), Rutgers held on 21-16 against UNC, and Wake Forest beat Syracuse.

So, through three weeks, the only thing that we've found out about the Big East is that they do ok against the ACC. I know it is still early but the league only has one win against the top 25. Louisville has been good for a while. West Virginia looks like a pretty good team. My problem all along is the supporting cast in the Big East and I haven't seen anything to support them being on par with other power conferences like the Big 10, Pac-10, SEC, and Big 12. I don't know what's going on with FSU and Miami, but the ACC is a deep league up top, even if they are lacking a truly elite team, with VA Tech, FSU, Clemson, BC, and Miami (despite recent struggles). The Big East has two teams, WVU and Louisville, that can contend for the national championship, potentially. That was never in question. But, if those teams don't play strong non-conference schedules, they'll each only have one real test during the season as long as they don't overlook anyone, and that will be the other one. If WVU beats Louisville, they should run the table. If the Cardinals beat the Mountaineers, they should run the table. USC plays ND and Nebraska, as well as top 25 Pac-10 teams California, Arizona State and Oregon.

That may be just the way it is. Maybe Rich Rodriguez has trouble getting people to play West Virginia. I don't know. Roy mentioned that maybe WVU thought the non-conference teams would be better than they ended up being, but I don't really think that is the case. Marshall and Maryland are mid-level teams, but not in the elites (which includes teams like Miami that are down this year but are usually good) of college football. Eastern Washington, East Carolina and Mississippi State are gimme games. MSU is from the SEC, but they are an SEC bottom feeder. So, the only thing I can hope is that Rich Rodriguez tried to challenge his boys and couldn't get anyone to take the game and had to settle for the lineup he put in front of them to dismantle. They need a Chad Johnson checklist, and other than the Cardinals, they might as well check the boxes now, if they didn't do it this summer.