No Love for Big East?

FootballThat intermittent cacaphony of clicks you’ll hear tonight is the collective sound of millions of remote control buttons being pushed as the eastern US switches back and forth from My Name is Earl and the Office to the Thursday night ESPN game.

Like it or not, the winner of tonight’s game controls its own destiny, and (if still undefeated) will meet the winner of the OSU/UM game OSU in Glendale.

The knee jerk reaction of most fans is to complain about the Big East’s strength of schedule, and compare it to the SEC’s, for instance. It doesn’t seem fair to most that an undefeated Big East team would get a title shot ahead of a one-loss SEC team.

To counter that, others argue that just because a conference has a lot of parity, doesn’t mean that it’s the “best” or the “strongest.” The Mountain West conference has a lot of parity, as does the Sun Belt. Doesn’t make them superior. Just because Arkansas, Tennesee, Florida, LSU, and Auburn are going to beat themselves senseless this year doesn’t make the SEC the “best” conference.

Having said that, I think most reasonable people think a Tennessee or Florida would crush WVU or Louisville in a match up. However, most reasonable people thought Georgia was going to crush WVU in the Sugar Bowl earlier this year… but it didn’t happen, even though GA had the homefield advantage.

So, what say you? Who would you prefer to have the opportunity to play against lose to OSU in Glendale this January? Most likely victims candidates include West Va., Louisville, Florida, and Auburn. Give us your opinion in the comments.

Note: I know that some will point out that UM and Texas are also possibilities, but IMO would be a slap in the face of college football. Texas had their shot, as will UM. I’m not a fan of the rematch. If you don’t like the results the first time, you shouldn’t get a “do-over.” The only occasion in which I would support a do-over type of rematch is if some external factor affected the first ballgame’s outcome, like a major officiating screwup (a’la Oregon and Oklahoma earlier this year).

Comments

  1. I want the Irish again. I would love to hand the “genius” another ass-whipping. Lets hype them up, send them fluffers, etc. Two downsides to that wish though… 6 weeks of “hype” before the game, plus what if they won… that’s a disaster.

    Out of your choices, I want WVA. It’s like taking candy from a baby.

    I agree with you regarding the rematch scenarios. We had our chance last year as well. At least we lost our national championship on the field. We didn’t bitch in 1996-97 when the Florida schools got a re-do. I think we were just so devestated from the 13-9 loss that we knew we didn’t deserve a shot.

  2. Andy –

    >>We didn’t bitch in 1996-97 when the Florida schools got a re-do. << I sure did! (Still do!) That\'s the exact argument I made to el Kaiser this morning... one of the reasons why I\'m so against the do-over title is because of 1996. There is no question that OSU was the best team in the country that year. The Bucks were not challenged by anyone, until Cooper\'s Kryptonite came to town. Next thing you know, Shawn Springs trips over his shoelaces and Tai Streets gives AP voters the ammo they need to arrange for a Florida schools title rematch. Not that I\'m still bitter or anything.

  3. The 96 season didnt have a NC game ….it was before the BCS. The Bucks were going to go to the rose bowl no matter what happened. They got screwed by the voters not a redo game…..right

    I still stand by my theory that the SEC is way overrated and I would bet money that WVU or Louisville would beat Tennesee…..they almost lost to Air Force at home for petes sake. The SEC didnt play any OOC tough games except Ark vs USC and we know how that went. They play cupcake games OOC and then beat up on thier weaker conf teams and get highly ranked because of it. Now I will Show you why Boise St deserves a shot at the NC game.

    Boise St.>Oregon St.>Southern Cal>Arkansas>Auburn>Florida>Tennesee.

    Now tell me Boise St doesnt desrve to be in the NC game discussions.

  4. OOC schedules for top 5 SEC teams….you be the judge

    Florida- So Miss, Central Florida, West Carolina, Florida ST. 0 ranked eams

    Auburn-Washington St, Buffalo, Tulane, Arkansas St. 0 ranked teams

    Tennesee- California, Air Force, Marshall, Memphis, 1 ranked team

    Arkansas- USC, Utah St, SE Mossouri st, La Monroe, 1 ranked team

    LSU- La Lafayette, Arizona, Tulane, Fresno St, 0 ranked teams

    there top 5 and ranked teams played 2 ranked teams in OOC schedules and were 1-1 in those 2 games. The SEC is ranked based solely on on tradition and nothing else. They have horrible offenses and pathetic speacial teams and decent defenses. Look at thier results and wathc them play and you will know why WVU or Louisville will get the title shot over an SEC team. Big East undefeated teams = 3……..SEC undefeated teams = 0

  5. I’ll reserve my opinion on whether I’d prefer WVU or Louisville until after tonight; it’ll be the first time I’ve watched either of them for more than a couple of minutes/seen their highlights on SportsCenter. Besides, after tonight, opinions on those two won’t matter because the loser’s dead in the BCS water. Out of the SEC, I guess I’d prefer Auburn because of how scary Florida’s defense can be, but I have to say that Florida’s offense doesn’t scare me even a little bit. Against us, I think they’d be lucky to score more than ten points.

    On the subject of rematches: I mostly agree that an OSU-UM title game would be a slap in the face to every other one-loss team, and I say “mostly” because if – Jeebus forbid – we’re the loser on Nov. 18, it would still be difficult to argue that we weren’t one of the top two teams in the country. As far as Texas is concerned, though, almost an entire season has been played since “The Accostin’ in Austin” (copyright pending), and if Texas somehow manages to work its way back to #2 in the BCS mishmash, it becomes much less of a do-over than a rematch of a game played this late in the year. I know that’s kind of arbitrary, but it’s still the way I look at it.

  6. I’ll amend the last post…I’ll gladly face either of these defenseless Big Easters in Glendale. We’d score AT LEAST 50 on either of them.

  7. Also:

    White? Warrior.

    Slaton? Pussy.

  8. I grew up in Knoxville, graduated from OSU in 2005, and I would do anything for some payback against the Volunteers. I’ve had to deal with Tennessee fans dogging us ever since they beat us in that Citrus Bowl monsoon back on New Year’s Day, 1996.

  9. SYR – I note your point about the SEC, but after seeing the game last night, it’s apparent how the Big East is terribly overrated as well.

    Gimmicky offenses & gimmicky defenses just mask a lack of power overall. Did you see the players huffing and puffing, and getting up slowly, even though neither defense was playing hard at all? Makes you wonder how beat up they’d be if they’d play against an OSU, Michigan, or Texas.

    Also, no Big East team has won a tough road game this year (the “biggest” road victory for any of them was Navy).

    If one team from last night’s game had totally dominated, winning in a classic, non-gimmicky manner, then I’d have “bought into” the winner and had more respect for the conference. As it happened, I left pretty unconvinced that the winner (Louisville) could hold its own against a tough team.

  10. I dont care what anyone says….I want to play Louisville for the NC game or Rutgers I dont care.

  11. Right now, three games before the season ends, I’m kinda hoping for Louisville, too.

    It’d be a for-sure victory for the Bucks, and would probably keep the Big East out of the top ten next year – even if some teams were undefeated.

  12. Sylvester-Yon Rambo

    BIG EAST OCC:

    L’Ville: Kentucky, Temple, Miami, Kansas State, MTSU
    WV: Marshall, E. Washington, Maryland, ECU, Miss St.
    Rutgers: Illinois, UNC, Ohio, Howard, Navy

    Some really tough competition. ???????

    Why don’t you compare what really matters and compare in conference. No we can’t do that because that will show the SEC has alot of ranked good teams. I know High Schools that would be undefeated with Rutgers schedule so far.

    Do you have some kind of hate towards the SEC or something?

    Everyone saying we’re the best get on your nerves?

    Get over it place 5 teams in the top 15 this late in the year and then we’ll talk.

Leave a Reply to TomCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: