Big East's Wasted Opportunity (From a Fan Perspective)

[Eric]

I know WoVeU will disapprove of my sentiment, but when there is so much parity in a conference, isn't it a bit of a downer when the preseason favorite or traditional team rises to the top? With the Big East, what you'll probably see is a Big East title game this weekend between Pittsburgh and West Virginia. UConn is lurking on the perimeter and would own the tiebreaker between Pitt and West Virginia should West Virginia win, but if the Panthers win, it's pretty much a slam dunk that Pitt will go to the BCS.

I just think it's such a wasted opportunity. You have teams like Rutgers, USF, UConn, and Syracuse all getting themselves into the mix only to drop out at the end. UConn still has the upper-hand on Pitt if Pitt loses and creates a three-way-tie, but I'm writing this under the assumption that UConn will lose on the road to USF in the final week of the season.

Of course it doesn't matter anyway because the conference winner will get slammed by Okahoma or Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl

What this kind of reminds me of is the ACC a few years ago when just about every team was in the mix at some point. Only until the final week of the season, it was decided that Boston College and Virginia Tech would make it out of the intraconference bloodbath, which was a rematch of the 2007 conference championship game.

[GoBoilers]

I don't think ANT team is a lock to win their bowl games this year. Simply no powerhouses of passing and running. That said I do like "power" teams in bowls like Ohio St and Wisky.

[Dossenator]

Pitt just became bowl eligible today and they will probably be in a BCS bowl game this season....just crazy!

[Brian Roastbeef]

Syracuse can take out West Virginia, Cincinnati, and Rutgers on the road, but can't handle Louisville or mount anything against never-wins-on-the-road-Connecticut while in the Dome.... If we weren't so ape about finally being bowl eligible it would be an incredibly frustrating season.

[BYUfan1]

I don't think there is parity in the Big East. It is just not a very good conference. The conference didn't fair well in the non-conference part of the schedule even with every team playing at least one FCS school (Syracuse had two). I think the biggest win was West Virginia over Maryland, and that doesn't look so good after Maryland has lost two games in a row. Rutgers and South Florida have yet to ever win a Big East title, and I would not say that Syracuse is back just because of one mediocre season. Five teams in the Big 12 could have won the Big East this year. I don't think a Big East All-Star team could defeat the Big 12 Champion.

[Eric]

I don't think there is parity in the Big East. It is just not a very good conference. The conference didn't fair well in the non-conference part of the schedule even with every team playing at least one FCS school (Syracuse had two). I think the biggest win was West Virginia over Maryland, and that doesn't look so good after Maryland has lost two games in a row. Rutgers and South Florida have yet to ever win a Big East title, and I would not say that Syracuse is back just because of one mediocre season. Five teams in the Big 12 could have won the Big East this year. I don't think a Big East All-Star team could defeat the Big 12 Champion.

I'm just saying there's a real "any given Saturday" element. Syracuse and USF came from the pack to knock off West Virginia and UConn, who lost to presumably the two worst teams in the conference in Louisville and Rutgers, managed to beat West Virginia and Pitt, presumably the two best teams in the conference.

You're right that it is a down conference right now. I think it'll bounce back shortly. It is only an 8 team conference, so asking them to have 4 teams or so in the top 25 at any given moment is too demanding and equivalent of saying the SEC or ACC should have 6 ranked schools (which, although I think the SEC currently has 7 and probably 6 next week, is not an easy feat). In the past, I think there have been justified BCS representatives and not since 2003 have they been in a position to embarrass themselves in the BCS.

People are too short-sighted, in my opinion. Say what you want about the top of the MWC compared to the top of the Big East, but overall the two conferences are not that different. Demanding that the Big East have its BCS bid revoked and given to the MWC doesn't really solve anything. If the MWC was the team with an auto-bid and TCU had an off-year, people would be complaining that the Mountain West sucks and have a relative respect for the Big East.

My proposition is that in order for an auto-BCS to kick in, the winner of your conference needs to be in the BCS top 20. I don't think that's all that demanding and it would solve the problem for the Big East (and I also think they could afford to offer the Mountain West an auto-BCS bid as well with that system in place).

[billybud]

The Big East champ will have their hands full at the bowl...I think Fiesta if Pitt wins the BE...Orange if WVU wins. Syracuse? Fiesta.

The Orange picks before the Fiesta and I could see the Orange Bowl jumping for a VT-WVU match. A simmering blood rivalry with some pent up demand. Sure to create national interest and fans from the schools travel well.