Big East needs teams to step up, play big

[Apis Bull]

Link:  Big East needs teams to step up, play big

Jack Bogaczyk

July 28 2004

Big East needs teams to step up, play big

Jack Bogaczyk

Daily Mail Sports Editor

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The 2004 Big East Conference football season began to be written today.

The verse is in ironic pentameter.

The shrunken league held its annual preseason media gathering this morning at Giants Stadium, in a gargantuan market where it -- ahem, Rutgers -- already has played very small.

Big East football is wearing no XXL jersey. For the first time since the conference built a pigskin profile in 1991, it's shy of eight members.

There are no Hurricanes or Hokies here. Following Miami (Fla.) and Virginia Tech to the ACC next year, Boston College will play this season like it doesn't have any Right Guard -- if you catch the drift.

For the first time since four basketball outsiders (West Virginia, Rutgers, Temple and Virginia Tech) joined four Big East incumbents to form the football league, there is change.

Connecticut is here a year earlier than expected. Temple is staying a year longer than earlier desired, then gets the boot after November. With the Owls and BC being traded for Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida, Big East football returns to eight members in 2005.

The Big East already has been considered the weakest of the six Bowl Championship Series leagues. That won't change any time soon.

A historical sixth is at a different level than the present and future at the same number. Louisville was picked to win the Conference USA title on Monday. USF and Cincy (Nos. 7 and 8, respectively) are forecast for C-USA's second-division.

Little help there. So, what the Big East football remnants must do is prove they aren't scraps.

West Virginia is picked to win the Big East. That plays mammoth in the Mountain State, but nationally, it will bring a yawn until WVU beats someone outside the league.

For all of its rebuilt success in the Big East -- a 12-2 record in the last two seasons -- Coach Rich Rodriguez's program has yet to beat a team from another BCS conference.

WVU is 0-8 in those games since 2001, and has been thrashed, on average, 37-16. Those numbers are the kind a Big East, sans Miami, cannot afford.

Nor can the conference cope, in the respect category, with another disappointing season at Pittsburgh, or more piling on in the underachievement department by Syracuse.

The worst that could happen -- Johnny Maestro and the nearby Brooklyn Bridge, thank you -- would be to have BC playing its way into the BCS while playing its way out of the Big East.

West Virginia has a biggie-sized opportunity this season after two straight better-than-expected finishes.

Big East football has a void in the behemoth department now that Miami -- which hadn't lost to a remaining Big East team since 1998 at Syracuse -- is in Florida State's league.

The "Big" in Big East football this season is a relative term. One way or another, it will be a statement season in the league that's trying to rebuild after years of being leveled by Hurricanes.

Us, Louisville, and Cincinnati need to step it up this year also.

[smazza]

big east will be fine

[bulls96go]

wvu will falter

UL will falter

Uconn will overachive

usf will overachive

[WVUNo1Fan]

I don't understand your logistics for that prediction but everyone has their right to opinion.

[E.T.]

I see WVU being The Team (after My Beloved BULLS  ;D )... mainly because their coach.

Why I wish we play them in Tampa in 2005, and because WVU seems to travel well.

Go BULLS !!!

[WVUNo1Fan]

I guarentee you that when WVU comes to Tampa we'll bring some fans with our team. We took them to the Orange Bowl and we'll make it to Tampa as well. I think the game will become bigger than the WVU vs Miami game because neither team is 'that much' superior than the other.

I see it as our biggest new rival out of the three.

Good luck to the Bull's in 2004. A Big East team is seeking respect...YOU'RE ALREADY BIG EAST, BULLS!

[smazza]

if wv falls on face some one else will step up