September 22, 2007

For The Love of Sport: Welcome to the New Big East : To steal a line from Mark Twain, rumors of the Big East’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

Sometimes I am finding that my choice of article is almost made for me. The start of the NHL regular season is September 29th so the first game that will be nationally televised is January 20th on NBC and I wish that was a joke. So I can scratch that off the short list. Also, PAC-10 games are apparently only televised if they involve USC so I could rule out the intriguing match-up featuring 3-0 #6 Cal at 3-0 #13 Oregon (for the record I am taking the Ducks, Cal just seems soft to me). At first I was a bit disappointed that I either had to dig a bit deeper to find a great match-up or I could write about something that I had no way of actually watching. However, after searching through the sports schedules I found a great game that I had at first overlooked. On Friday September 28 #23 ranked South Florida will host #5 West Virginia in a battle of rising Big East stars. I can hear the skeptics now, which is weird, they must get in through the attic. You have a no-name team that belongs in a mid-major versus a team that hasn’t been able to get to the top of the mountain (no pun intended Mountaineer fans). Of course the really skeptical skeptics would just dismiss the Big East as a mid-major and move on. But I really see this match-up in a different light. To steal a line from Mark Twain, rumors of the Big East’s death have been greatly exaggerated. After the departure of the University of Miami and Virginia Tech in 2004 and Boston College in 2005 the conference faced the very real threat of losing their automatic BCS bid. This seemed even more likely after Pitt’s disastrous 35-7 loss at the hands of the University of “Who Invited These Guys” Utah in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl. Fast forward a couple of seasons but make sure you slow down to enjoy last November and December which featured three conference match-ups for the ages that really helped to right the Big East’s ship. Rutgers win on November, 9 2006 over then #3 Louisville is probably the greatest win in Rutgers history. South Florida’s win over then #7 West Virginia about two weeks later was probably their greatest win ever. But even that was topped by West Virginia’s 41-39 3OT win over Rutgers on December 2, 2006. Welcome to the new Big East. Don’t look now but the Big East has more schools in the AP top 25 (with 4) than either the Big 10 or PAC-10 who each have just three schools each in the top 25. When these conferences get together for family holidays the Big 10 is like the younger brother who had no money for school but makes a nice living as a shift supervisor down at the plant. The Pac-10 is the attractive, older sibling who gets all the girls, grades, etc. that you can never quite impress. Very rapidly the Big East is turning into that awkward middle child. Not “Malcolm in the Middle” cutesy awkward, but hasn’t shaved in a week, itching to start a fight and quite possibly half in the bag awkward. There’s a lot of spirit in this conference. The teams are littered with kids who didn’t quite get into the schools they wanted and schools who were left behind when all of the glitz and glamour packed up and left town. This specific game features two teams that are exciting for very different reasons. West Virginia is a classic running team. Maybe it’s because I was a lousy High School running back but I have always been a sucker for a team that can dominate with the run. Those Tom Osborne Nebraska teams will always have a special place in my heart. A lot of top tier teams can line up in a spread offense and sling the ball all over the place and tear a lesser team apart. To be able to run all over an opponent to the tune of 343.4 yards rushing and 47 points per game is a whole different level of abuse. Patrick White (81.3 ypg rushing with 4 rushing TD) and Steve Slaton (130.7 ypg and 8 rushing TD) get all of the press but the Mountaineers actually have a third back in Noel Devine who is averaging over 80 ypg rushing. With an offense that puts up just about 500 ypg and features 2 Heisman Trophy candidates there really is no limit to how high WVU could climb. South Florida on the other hand really epitomizes the new look Big East. The Bulls are a scrappy underdog that will have to keep upsetting opponents until people stop calling them upsets. Probably the fourth or fifth school that you would think of if I asked you to name a Florida college they are steadily improving in both on-field performance and in their ability to land recruits from the deep pool of high school talent out of Florida. After a gutsy upset of Auburn, where the Bulls tied the game on a field goal with 59 seconds left and won on a 14 yard touchdown pass in overtime, the Bulls have arrived in the top 25. While a win over a weak UNC team would help to solidify their position a likely loss to WVU may drop them back out of the top 25. I have a pretty good feeling that this won’t be the last that we hear from South Florida or the Big East. The Big East is crashing this party and they don’t plan on leaving any time soon. As always I can be reached via email at kyrilmitch_76@yahoo.com.

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