Maybe they will eventually figure it out.

[abpk2903]

The Big East is almost laughable at this point. Each year is the same West Virginia and Louisville start in the Top 10 and usually another overrated team starts about 20th. The season start and they play there non-conference schedule of East Carolina, 2 D-1aa teams, and another boat load of crap opponents (I know Penn State does the same thing but it still is wrong). They all get to conference time and all the sudden South Flordia, Cincinatti, UCONN, and Rutgers are these amazing powerhouse programs because they beat WVU and Louisville. Maybe it is the fact that WVU and Louisville are not that good. Lets see what happened this year. South Flordia beats WVU and is all the sudden the best team in the nation and magically loses two games in a row. Cincinatti goes into the Top 25 only to lose to a Pitt team that is God awful this year. Now UCONN beat the teams of Louisville and South Flordia and is being claimed one of the best teams in the nation. Now the season will end and the Big East will go play in the International Bowl against like the worst team in the MAC and play the Sun-Belt and play in the Continential Tire Bowl and play one BCS game against the worst program other than the Big East representative. They will go like 4-1 or 4-2 or 5-2 in the bowls and next year the Big East will have 6 teams in the Top 25 preseason poll.

I like Big East football and I cheer for the majority of the teams in the Big East but it is more obvious every week that this conference sucks.

[hilltoppanther]

Take Louisville out of your post and replace them with Michigan. Take West Virginia out of the post and replace them with Penn State. Take Wisconsin out of your post and replace them with South Florida.

Then take Ohio State and have them represent the Big 10 in a bowl game and get slaughtered like they did last season. The rest of the teams will play middle of the pack teams in Bowl games and go about .500 like every other year.

The Big 10 is just as bad or just as good as the Big East.

[ham55]

At least the Big East beats the 1-AA teams they schedule. The Big 10 lost two this year.

The Big East is just as average as all the other conferences. Along with the Big 10, Pac-10, Big 12. The SEC is tough, but it's down from what it normally is. All conferences have strong points and weak points. Hell, a UCLA team is (or was first in the Pac-10) and they lost to NOTRE DAME AND FRESNO STATE!

It's a moot point to even try to argue which is stronger this year, when so many upsets have happened and top teams are falling to the likes of UCONN, USF, Stanford, Notre Dame, ect., ect.

[abpk2903]

When was the last time Penn State started in the top 10?
-You proved my point for me you took the Big East best team year in and year out (West Virginia) and compared them to the Big Ten's 3rd or 4th best team. year in and year out.

Michigan always does start Top 10 but at least they finish there on a regular basis.

Wisconsin went to a BCS bowl last too and won.


Big Ten usually has 2 BCS teams but lets just say they dont:
1st- BCS Bowl
2nd- SEC #2
3rd- SEC #3
4th- Big 12 #4
5th- ACC #4
6th- Big 12 #6
7th- MAC #2

Big East bowl schedule:
1st- BCS
2nd- ACC or PAC 10 #3
3rd- ACC #4
4th- Big 12 #5
5th- C-USA #3
6th- MAC #3

Every bowl the Big Ten plays in they are either playing someone who finished equal to them or better in their conference. The Big East plays teams that finished worse. I would hope they can pull together a good bowl record with that schedule.

[hilltoppanther]

You say that the Big East plays bowl games against lesser opponents. The Math says otherwise.

1. BCS: This one is a wash.

2. ACC or Pac-10 #3: ACC=12 teams. Big East=8 teams. So both of these teams are equally in top 75% of their league.
The Pac-10 would be a lesser opponent. You win half the argument here.

3. ACC #4: ACC's rep is in the top 66.7% of their league while Big East rep is in the top 62.5%. So Big East is actually playing a better team here.

4. Big 12 #5: Big 12's rep is is in the top 58.4% of the league. The Big East rep is in the top 50% of their league.
Therefore, the Big East is playing a better opponent.

[Head Roadie]

If the Big East is laughable then so is the Big 10.....they are both IMO very average conferences. Not even close to the SEC which is by far the top conference in the land, and below the PAC-10 and ACC this year.

Using CBS.sportsline Top 120 poll as my 'neutral' basis I see that:

Two Top 20 Teams from Each Conference: OSU 1 and Michie 14 while WVU 7 and U.Conn 20
Wisconsin at #25 would be in the mix as a top 1/4 of the conference team. Remember Big East has 8 while Big 10/11 has 11.

The second 1/4 of each conference would have Ill (27), Pur (28), and PSU (29) lined up with S. Fla (22) and Cinci (32)

The third 'quarter' of each conference has Big 10 with Indiana (50), NW (64) with Rutgers (35) and Lville (62) from the BE

The bottom 1/4 of each has Mich St. (65) Iowa (68) and Minny (114) with Pitt (74) and Syr (90)

I think it's very fair to say that from top to bottom these conferences are pretty equal. If anything I think that Northwestern and Michigan State (pulling their late season nosedive again) might be the most overrated but that's just a personal opinion.

[ham55]

Wisconsin did not play in a BCS bowl last year. They played in the Capital One Bowl.

The Big 10 is a joke. The Big East is a joke. The Pac-10 is a joke. The Big 12 is a joke. And the ACC, aside from Boston College, is an even worse joke. The SEC is the top dog this year, and has been for a while, and won't be knocked from those rankings for a while. But, is being the best of a bad lot really something to pound your chest over?

[Weapon X]

Yeah, I think you basically described every conference with that first post of yours. You bring up South Florida, a team that beat a highly ranked team, got themselves some national recoginition, then lost 2 in a row. Well, theres Kentucky, Cal, and Illinois for you. I agree with Ham its a moot point this year. There are teams in all conferences that were ranked too high and some that lost games to crappy teams they shouldn't have lost. Its definitly not just in the Big East.

I don't try to pretend that the Big East is one of the top three conferences, but they are far from laughable. This was a dead conference 3 years ago. After Pitt lost in the BCS bowl to Utah I really thought it was going under. They only had 1 team that annually got any recognition and that was West Virginia. You bring up Louisville like they are constantly overranked, when this is the only year they have ever been overranked. Last year they were very deserving of the high rankings they got. This conference actually has meaningful national championship type games now. They have more then 1 team getting national recognition and they are doing it with a bunch of basketball schools and a program that is only 10 years old. People are excited what Rutgers, Uconn, Cinncy, and South Florida are doing. Its a conference thats growing and getting better and has momentum right now. No ones mistaking any of these programs for amazing national powerhouses, but their gaining recognition and growing. The conference is going in the right direction, meanwhile the ACC and Big 12 are erroding as conferences. The Big East has went from the worst conference to the 4th best and are probably not as far away as you think.

[hilltoppanther]

Good post WeaponX!

Keep this in mind when evaluating the Big East.....

How many conferences would have survived the exodus of three of their top 6 programs? When Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College defected, it looked like the death of the Big East. The conference has rebounded quite nicely.

[The Ancient Enemy]

I'm not a real big Big East fan, but I do think it is very sad how this conference was given a BCS bid, was shoved down everyone's throats as a credible conference, and then no one wanted to rank South Florida as high as they were. Listen... nobody had the foresight to know USF would lose those games. They beat Auburn and West Virginia. Boston College still, to this day, has not played an opponent worth a dang. Virginia Tech is terrible. You cannot keep telling people "the Big East is as good as the other conferences" and then balk when one of their teams is playing above everyone else. That's pathetic.