Posted on 11/23/2009 8:22:39 AM PST by William Tell 2
Maybe the doubters will finally go away. They should. Not one Big East football team was ranked among the Top 25 in preseason polls. Now, as the college football season is concluding two teams are in the Top Ten and one is in the Top Five.
During the season there were as many as four teams ranked in the Top 25. Think about the significance of this. Half of the teams in the Big East conference were ranked among the Top 25 in the nation.
What other college football conference can make such a claim?
The University of Cincinnati is currently the fifth ranked team in the country and has been for the past few weeks. Their offense is high powered and their depth at quarterback defies description.
Last season, Cincy’s first two starting quarterbacks were injured. So what happened?
The third string quarterback, Tony Pike, led them to the Orange Bowl!
This year Pike was injured. So, what happened?
The second stringer, Zach Collaros, steps in and he leads them to a perfect record. Indeed, Collaros has evoked comparisons to Brett Favre, Steve Young and Joe Montana with his athleticism, ball handling skills and laserlike passing accuracy.
Contrast this to Iowa, which was moving in the standings until their starting QB, Rick Stanzi, was injured. Iowa has not been the same team since.
Then there is Pitt. ....
(Excerpt) Read more at tremoglieteatime.blogspot.com ...
I have to say, I quite enjoyed the UCONN/Notre Dame and Pitt/Notre Dame games. Too bad Boston College (ACC now?) and my Boilers couldn’t come through earlier in the year...
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Forget the Big East, Temple is 9-2 with a nine game win streak. Another sign of the impending apocalypse.
There is a reason why the Big East is continuously under ranked. Their overall talent level is barely above the non automatic qualifiers. When you have that it isn’t hard to see why people look at the Big East and think that their overall schedule is no better than TCU. Now it can be said that the recruiting services don’t always rank players correctly but if you at the history of the recruiting rankings the teams like Cincinatti and TCU become outliers not the norm.
And here I was thinking it was due to the 10 -0 Saints.
The reason that the Big East is continuously underranked is mostly due to the sports media and their big conference agenda. ESPN/ABS/CBS/NBC are loaded with Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 homers.
Or the news that the KC Chiefs beat the Steelers.
*** college football ping ***
Amazing I was actually on the edge of my seat during a Chiefs game.
Big East Football, Big Time
My Syracuse OrangeMEN are far from big time.
Thank God for basketball.
Rutgers and ND are in there too, although isn’t ND just in it for the other sports?
I think the Irish are catching karma over there Obama love-in.
Keep the coach, fire the president.
Recruiting rankings? A ‘measuring stick’ made of silly putty.
Categorical statements about ‘overall talent level’ are largely meaningless especially 10-11 weeks into the season when the W/L records (with many games involving common opponents) are there for all to see. Notre Dame recruits nationally and regularly signs blue chippers. How are they doing? What about recruiting powerhouse Southern California? Auburn? Michigan? Florida State? Tennessee? Georgia? Texas A&M? This isn’t a cattle auction or a dog show where bloodlines are the issue....the games are still played on the field. Brian Kelly can use recruiting rankings (compiled by so-called experts attempting to predict the actions and careers of 18 year old kids) as bog roll.
The Big East’s problems lie in the number of football playing schools (8 - not enough) combined with the number of basketball playing schools (16 - too many) and a lack of available additions. Adding Memphis as a football school is hardly a solution and basketball hardly needs another powerhouse (assuming Memphis carries on as a powerhouse).
Disagree. Only two teams have been ranked in the top 25 for recruiting, WVU and Pitt, in the last 4 years for the Big East. That was in 2007, WVU, and 2006 for Pitt. Pitt is ranked this year but will likely fall out once other schools fill up. The importance of this can’t be overlooked. The fact remains that when your overall talent is at a certain level you can’t play schedules like they do in the SEC or the Pac-10 week in and week out with out wearing down and having your depth exposed. You can of course always have a year or two or play one or two big games a season but those who vote pay attention to this and will vote accordingly.
Yeah, but Temple left the Big East and doesn’t play anyone. One of their two losses was to “minor league” Villanova. All that 9-2 Temple proves is that giving TCU a better ranking than Cincinnati is frikking insane.
TCU might beat Cinci for all I know, but rankings are about what you’ve proven, and TCU has proven nothing.
Six out of eight Big East teams will end up with at least four wins outside of their own conference.
Projected final Big East standings:
Cincinnati, 12-0
Pitsburgh, 10-2
South Florida, 9-3 (presumes win against Miami)
Rutgers, 9-3
West Virginia, 8-4
Connecticut, 6-6
Syracuse, 4-8
Louisville, 4-8
Now compare that to Pac-10, supposedly the second-best conference in football, behind the SEC (after the Big 12’s collapse this year):
Oregon, 10-2
Oregon State, 9-3
California, 9-3
USC, 9-3
Stanford, 8-4 (presumes win against Notre Dame)
Arizona, 7-5
UCLA, 6-6
Arizona State, 4-8
Washington, 3-9
Washington State, 1-11
Its been a while...
Do you honestly for one little itty bitty second believe the tripe you just wrote? You know recruiting isn’t this one year thing. It is accumulated over a period. Yes teams like Oklahoma and USC are down this year but that would ignore the previous years when they were steadily in the top 2. Or your ignorance of teams like Florida, LSU and Texas or any other teams. Any person with an inkling of knowledge knows point blank that if Notre Dame had a coach with any skill they would be dominating the football landscape.Michigan is still changing offensive styles, Auburn as well. F Texas A&M is a peculiar choice of yours since they haven’t been consiistantly ranked in the top recruiting rankings.
If UConn finishes 6-6 then the Big East will finally fulfill their Bowl Obligations.
There are still a couple of toys you haven’t thrown out of your playpen. I’ll give you a few minutes.
Brian Kelly (Cincinnati) is one of the best coaches in college football. He’s been a winner every where that he has been to.
At Grand Valley State, he won two Div. II National Championships.
At Central Michigan he turned around a woeful program and won the MAC title.
And now, he’s getting the job done at Cincy. It would be a big mistake for him to take the money and go to Notre Dame. He’s got something good going at Cincinnati and he should stay. Notre Dame is a loser job. The expectations are too high and Weis has left the program in a mess. It would take a decade to turn things around in South Bend.
How to fix the Big East:
The Big East Conference has several problems including geography (too spread out) and television. The solution involves some additons and rearrangements. The first addition should be Penn State. The Big 10 is not going to add a 12th team and title game. Moving the Lions into the Big East reunites them with their historic rivals (Pitt and WVU). The next step is to swap South Florida for Boston College. Just look at a map and you’ll see why. The third step is to add Notre Dame (which already plays Big East b-ball) and the fourth step is to sign a television contract with NBC. Right now, the Big East’s primary TV partner is ABC- just like the ACC, Big 10, Big 12 and Pac 10. That means Big East football must compete with bigger and more well known programs for national broadcasts. Usually they end up on regional coverage. A deal with NBC will guarantee them national television every Saturday (just like the SEC on CBS). The final step is to add Army and Navy. This move puts the best game in all football within the conference, adds a ton of tradition, and brings the membership to 12 teams- title game in Yankee Stadium.
The result is a conference anchored by the huge fan followings of Notre Dame and Penn State, an exclusive deal with NBC, complete control of the northeastern market, and a clear shot of overtaking the Big 10 in prominence.
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