Proving Them Wrong: Big East Teams Are Leaving The

[TyBull]

Proving Them Wrong: Big East Teams Are Leaving Their Mark Reply

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CONNECTICUT -- They called it the "Big Least" or the conference that didn't deserve a BCS bid. Sure, West Virginia was going to be good and Louisville had a chance to be decent, but that was about it.

Certainly Big East football was supposed to be behind the SEC, Pac 10, Big 10 and ACC. It wasn't supposed to even be close. Well, they were all wrong.

The Big East may have been the best conference in Division I-A college football this year. Certainly at least one of the top two. They finished with a 32-8 (.800) out-of-conference record.

The Big East had three national powers in Rutgers (11-2), Louisville (11-1), and West Virginia (11-2). The conference even had a more than solid team in South Florida.

The Bulls finished the season at 9-4 after beating East Carolina 24-7 in the PapaJohns.com Bowl. USF also has one of the best freshmen quarterbacks in the country in Matt Grothe.

How about Rutgers? No one picked them to do anything this year and they will end up in the top 15 and will likely be ranked in the preseason top 25 next year.

They'll return a Heisman Trophy candidate in Ray Rice and their head coach Greg Schiano, who eschewed Miami for a much longer stay at Rutgers.

They completely demolished Kansas State 37-10 in the Texas Bowl. Yes, the same Kansas State team that had beaten Texas during the regular season.

Virtually everyone associated with the KSU program said that Rutgers was the best team they faced this season and they faced some mighty tough teams.

West Virginia, which beat Georgia Tech 38-35 in the Gator Bowl, returns quarterback Pat White and one of the top running backs in the country in Steve Slaton.

Louisville returns their star QB, Brian Brohm and has a chance to make the Big East 4-0 in bowls pending their game against Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl. The Cardinals are favored.

Cincinnati (7-5) has a chance to make the Big East 5-0 in bowl games when they meet Western Michigan in the International Bowl on Saturday.

The Bearcats lost their head coach, Mark Dantonio, to Michigan State, but they still return a strong nucleus especially on defense.

UConn (4-8) and Syracuse (4-8) were better at the end of the season than they were at the beginning of the season and Pittsburgh (6-6) has one of the top recruiting classes in the country coming in next year.

Don't be surprised if a number of Big East teams are playing on New Year's Day in 2008. The conference is that good, deep and young and will only get better.

Sure they lost Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College, but they gained much national respect in the process for rebuilding

Link: http://www.blackathlete.net/artman/publish/article_02728.shtml

[windbane]

if we beat auburn, and possibly even if we don't, we could have 4 ranked teams from the big east next year.  pitt and cincy could achieve ranking as well.

[USF03]

if we beat auburn, and possibly even if we don't, we could have 4 ranked teams from the big east next year.  pitt and cincy could achieve ranking as well.

Wow... and only a year ago you couldn't shut up the TV guys.  "The Big Least"

I hope we show em...

[bulls96go]

beast of the east

[DontPushMe]

Louisville returns their star QB, Brian Brohm...

doubt it

and Pittsburgh (6-6) has one of the top recruiting classes in the country coming in next year.

They have one of the best recruiting classes every year and it never amounts to anything. Ill believe it when i see it.

good article though

[twillybull]

The bowl victories are proving the Big East is the strongest BCS conference this year.  Who's the most overrated... well if ND wins tonight it will be none other than the SEC!  Tell me again why UF deserved the NC game over Louisville?

[Fernando The Bull]

Your'e absolutely right! We need to continue to have a better turnout in fans if we expect to get into a bigger bowl. Let's hope that next years attendance goes up significantly.

[crambone]

Next year's schedule is going to kick tail!

[ProfessaBull]

The bowl victories are proving the Big East is the strongest BCS conference this year.  Who's the most overrated... well if ND wins tonight it will be none other than the SEC!  Tell me again why UF deserved the NC game over Louisville?

The Big 10 is by far the most overrated conf. in NCAA football and when UF beats Ohio you will see why they deserved the NC game over Louisville.