Charleston (WV) Daily Mail: No. 8 Cincinnati visits No. 21 South Florida . . .

[Jim Johnson]

No. 8 Cincinnati visits No. 21 South Florida in ESPN game Thursday

Big East notebook

by Mike Casazza

Daily Mail sports writer

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- A season in which the Big East championship will largely be decided on national television in made-for-the-small-screen games awakens this week. No. 8 Cincinnati travels to No. 21 South Florida. At 7:45 p.m. Thursday, ESPN will broadcast the first of what will likely be several battles for the conference lead.

It's the latest two unbeaten Big East teams have played since Rutgers beat Louisville Nov. 9, 2006. The Cardinals beat unbeaten WVU a week earlier. Both were played on a Thursday on ESPN

"It's why you sign up for this, why kids come to their respective schools," Bearcats Coach Brian Kelly said. "You want to play meaningful games on national television. Everyone here is excited and I'm sure everyone feels the same way at South Florida. You hope come game time the kids can put on a good show for both programs."

The Thursday night ESPN game has become a showcase for the network and certain teams and conferences, but the Big East and WVU certainly helped after the league's reconstitution. The Mountaineers-Cardinals game in 2006 remains the highest-rated Thursday night game in ESPN history - and WVU-South Florida a year later is the highest-rated Friday night game. USF, Cincinnati and Rutgers have all won Thursday night games in recent seasons to take the conference lead.

"I really never saw it as an experiment," USF Coach Jim Leavitt said. "I always thought of Thursday night games as fun. For us, that's family night when we're off and we go home and watch football, so that's always been something exciting for us and it seems like the Big East has been good for Thursday night the last several years. I think it's a pretty powerful tool."

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