The Big East: Last in National Love, but #1 in My Heart

THIS WAS ORIGNALLY WRITTEN NOVEMBER 10, 2006

1,130 yards of offense, 79 points scored in a match-up between two of the top ranked teams in the nation and all we have heard all week is that no defense was played in the showdown between Louisville and West Virginia last Thursday night. But those numbers I mentioned don’t reflect that game, oh no, those numbers are the final stats to everyone’s “Instant Classic” that was played last January 4th between Texas and USC for the National Championship. Last Thursday Louisville and West Virginia played in a game that totaled 1,018 yards and 78 points. Now I realize that there is not much difference here, but it leads to the question that people have been wondering all week.

What’s with the double standards?? Why is the Big East always “weak”?? Why can’t Rutgers just really finally be good and that the conference itself is good??

I have some theories behind this madness.

#1. Nobody likes change. The Big East is completely different from the conference that everyone knew and respected. The ACC raid of the conference has made everyone think that they are a second-tier conference and will never be able to get back to the level they were at one time. Well let me say this. They were right. The Big East was BAD; they were a second-tier conference and probably didn’t deserve their automatic bid to a BCS bowl. But that lasted for all of about a year. But think about it, Let’s remove Florida, Auburn and LSU form the SEC, or Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin from the Big Ten, or Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska from the Big XII, those conferences would struggle for a while? That is what happened to the Big East, their top 3 teams up and left in the middle of the night and left a make shift “conference” behind.

#2. Nobody likes change. Rutgers??? Louisville??? These teams are good or at least aren’t supposed to be. Louisville is a team that has jumped from the Missouri Valley Conference, to being an independent, to Conference USA and finally to the Big East. In that 43-year span they won a total of 2 conference championships and have been to 13 bowl games with a record that is just slightly better then .500 all-time (409-401-17). And Rutgers, well they are Rutgers! Before last nights win against Louisville, the biggest win that school ever had was a 6-4 win over Princeton 137 years ago in the first college football game ever played. Rutgers was bad even as recent 2003. In a 23 game span from 2001 through the 2002 season the Scarlet Knights won 3 games. In that span they lost games by the scores of 61-0, 50-0, 42-0, 80-7 and even a 30-5 loss to TEMPLE!!

But let’s make this whole thing plain and simple. The Scarlet Knights are good (like it or not). The Big East is good (like it or not). And Rutgers should have a chance to play for the National Championship if they win out and go undefeated (like it or not).
Maybe the Big East is not that good, but show me a conference that is better (outside the SEC, we all know how much I think the SEC is year in and year out the best conference in football).

The Big Ten?? Excuse me I meant the Big Two. Ohio State and Michigan combine for 72 Big Ten titles in history, the other 9 teams have combined for 86. Over the past 20 years they have 17 titles between them. And take those two teams out of the equation and you have one good team in Wisconsin.

The ACC, ha! The ACC raided the Big East to take their powerhouse teams because suddenly they wanted to be a college football power and those teams are no where to be found near the top of the ACC standings. Those three schools have a combined 9-7 record this season in conference play. Georgia Tech is the frontrunner for a BCS spot from the ACC and they are ranked #18 in this weeks BCS rankings.

The Pac-10, this might be the worst and most overrated conference of all. Cal is the best team from this conference and Tennessee smoked them in their only big non-conference game. USC is just plain not good this year, hey it happens, but they shouldn’t be praised and ranked so high just because they have had good years recently. They still have two losses on their schedule (Cal and Notre Dame, who is also overrated) and played WAY to many close games against flat out BAD teams.

The Big XII, maybe. I might be able to see the Big XII as a better conference then the Big East, they have traditional powers such as Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska this year, as well as others like Texas A&M, Missouri and Oklahoma St playing well this year. My only problem here is that no one in the conference has a good non-conference win. Nebraska was beat handily by USC. Texas lost at home 24-7 to Ohio State and Oklahoma lost to Oregon, who has had more people score on them then Paris Hilton.

So, there you have it, the Big East is it. After the new rankings come out, you could have 3 Big East teams in the Top 10, no other conference can claim that. Also consider that the Big East owns the best record of any BCS conference versus other BCS conferences, and you suddenly have a pretty good case for Rutgers and the Big East.