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Conference called out
The Big Easy. The Big Least. The Big Joke. The Sorry Seven.
College football's most ridiculed BCS conference is having a difficult time making an imprint this season -- its first since super-power Miami and Virginia Tech defected to the Atlantic Coast Conference.
WVU was supposed to be the program best equipped to build a bridge during this major transition period.
But the Mountaineers lost to unranked Virginia Tech, 19-13, last week and plummeted 10 spots to No. 16 in the rankings.
So, what does that leave now?
It leaves a league with no identity, that boasts only one ranked team, and is 12-9 against non-conference Division I-A opponents. Good thing many of those I-A foes compete in the Mid-American Conference.
The Big East is 5-2 vs. the MAC, although Temple reached a new low by dropping back-to-back decisions to MAC members Toledo, 45-17, and Bowling Green, 70-16, in humiliating fashion the past two weeks.
Temple and Boston College are in their final Big East seasons. The Owls have been evicted and BC is moving to the ACC. Louisville (4-0), South Florida (2-2) and Cincinnati (2-3) join in 2005.
"We knew going in that it would be an awkward year for us," said Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese, whose league is guaranteed a BCS bid through the 2007 season. "We were left in a state where we couldn't get new members in. It's a year that I refer to as being in limbo."
Louisville will be the headline newcomer next season.
"Louisville's a great football team," Tranghese said. "Nobody even knows they're with us. They're not with us, but they're with us."
In games against BCS conferences, the current Big East is 4-7. Against top-25 foes, it is 1-4. Against the ACC, it is 2-5.
Even in the four victories against BCS schools, there was no Big East chest thumping afterwards. WVU barely got by Maryland (ACC) in overtime, Boston College beat a bad Penn State team (Big Ten), Rutgers slipped by a poor Michigan State team (Big Ten) and UConn held its breath against winless Duke (ACC).
Oh, by the way, all of those games were played at Big East venues.
Yet, despite the lackluster start to 2004, coaches around the conference are doing their best to paint a pretty picture. But everybody knows how difficult it is to turn a dogs-playing-poker watercolor into the Mona Lisa.
"I think some of the perceptions are unfair to the league as a whole and to the teams,'' West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said. "The last I looked, there was only one league team (Temple) with a losing record. The difference between one and 100 in Division I-A isn't as big as it used to be."
WVU, BC and UConn are 4-1, Syracuse is 3-2, Pitt and Rutgers are 2-2 and Temple is 1-4. One of Rutgers losses came against a Division I-AA program and Pitt needed overtime to beat I-AA Furman. WVU, BC, UConn, Pitt and Temple own I-AA victories. Syracuse's two losses were by a combined 81-10 against two top-25 teams.
Still, Rodriguez contends that the low-level Big East teams are better than most might think.
"All you have to do is look at Ohio State losing to Northwestern," he said. "(Ohio State) was ranked sixth in the country and Northwestern was perceived as not being very good. But they're a lot better than people think. I think the same thing is true for our league."
UConn coach Randy Edsall, who is getting perturbed with the Big East bashing, elaborated.
"Take a look around the country," he said. "You never know what's going to happen. There's upsets in every conference."
Edsall cited the Ohio State-Northwestern game, as well. He then added, "You don't see anybody writing about how bad Ohio State is."
Nobody is writing about how bad WVU is, either, but the Mountaineers are under the microscope because they were considered the league's best shot at a national title. Now, they are on the outside looking in.
Edsall thinks things will get better in time.
"It's become an old question and you get tired of answering it, really,'' Edsall said. "You know, we lost two pretty good teams, but there are still good teams in this conference. You're not going to do something overnight.
"This conference will be a strong conference. It's no different than when it started in 1991. There were people who said the same thing and then it became a very good conference. Once you get all the ducks in a row, get the (new teams) in here next year and everything's back on solid ground, this is going to be a very good conference. When things don't go well, there's always people out there willing to take shots at you."
