TruffleShuffle

If Brady is absolutely terrible when he's under pressure, then so is every other quarterback in the NFL.

Pat White in his freshman year was about as bad passing-wise as Mustain was this year, and you can't tell me that Arkansas doesn't play better defenses than West Virginia does.

"Ball Four"

More inane speak. The good ol' boys stopped giving the Big East credit when Miami, Va Tech and BC left. And lo and behold, the Big East sucked in 2004! Look, if you want the Big East to play 4 games of Outback Bowl calibre or better, then you're advocating that half the Big East teams go to top bowls. That's not going to happen. Sorry, but I'm always going to be more impressed by the 4th place team in the SEC - a team which beats 2/3 of its conference - than the 4th place team in the Big East - which only beat half its conference. And like I said, once the Big East proves that teams like L'ville, WVU and Rutgers can STAY good over a period of time, they'll get their chance. The ACC played second-fiddle for bowl selections until they brought in teams that are good most years. And, while I'm not sure how the Big East can accomplish this, it sure as hell would help their credibility to have more than 8 teams.

well, the "real" season began yesterday for Holy Cross with an 84-74 win over Lafayette. Nice to see some scoring rather than their usual defensive-oriented battle over which team can throw up fewer bricks.

I'd put Arkansas over Louisville and WVU. I'd put teams that can pass the ball over Arkansas. Well, you could still keep Arkansas over WVU then.

jeez i woke up from a nap and read the last few posts from this thread, and expected it to be 23-0 Dallas or something

I thought the Big East was.

same percentage (75%) of Big East teams were .500 or better.

This doesn't make any sense. They lost 3 games (and maybe 4) because they had some tough matchups. Arkansas played a top 10 Wisconsin team. Alabama was mediocre and played a similarly mediocre Okie State team. You also had the SEC showing its depth by teams like Kentucky and Georgia pulling off upsets against favored opponents. Well one game is in the national championship game, so it's completely absurd that you're even including that one. As for the other two, you get the second or third best team in each conference to play each other in the Capitol One Bowl, making it the best non-BCS bowl out there, and sometimes better than the BCS bowls. Then the next team in line from each conference plays in the Outback Bowl, and that's usually a very good game as well. But to further answer your question, it's because you get two very good, high-profile teams from deep conferences to play in a bowl game, and that's good for ratings, and I'd argue that it's good for college football in general. Games like Arkansas-Wisconsin are definitely worth watching. I know you're all proud of your Big East, but let's not forget that two years ago they were getting completely embarassed by a Mountain West school in a BCS game. So let's have the Big East teams earn their stripes before we just automatically start assuming that they can hang depth-wise and talent-wise with the traditional power conferences. If Rutgers, WVU and Louisville all stay good and Pitt/Cincy/USF keep emerging, then I'm sure the Big East will get better, higher-profile bowl games. But to think that an 8-team conference that just lost three of its most prestigious members will receive the same treatment as well-established power conferences is idiotic.

That's my point. I'm sure if Rutgers, USF and WVU were SEC schools, Cuse would be hammering them for playing garbage OOC schedules. But I guess because they're in the Big East it's somehow okay for them not to play anyone. Then what makes the SEC teams better than? The 5-3 record in the Bowl games? I concede that the Big East teams play some easy teams but they also play major BCS conference teams too. Name one team that Auburn played that went to a bowl out of conference 0, Florida 1....LSU 0? Louisville played 3. WV played 2. Rutgers 1. Where did the SEC prove it was better? I'm not impressed by those wins.... East Carolina, Navy, Kansas State, Middle Tennessee State? Big deal. Those are unranked teams, maybe rating around #50-60 in the nation. If you're a true top 15 team, you shouldn't have any difficulty beating mediocre squads like that. Most SEC teams play at least 6 bowl teams in conference, which sure as hell isn't the case for Big East teams.

tom hammond's face scares me

I actually might have guessed it if I'd realized that they were playing girls high school teams for their non-conference schedule.

That's my point. I'm sure if Rutgers, USF and WVU were SEC schools, Cuse would be hammering them for playing garbage OOC schedules. But I guess because they're in the Big East it's somehow okay for them not to play anyone.

OK, well the fact is that they beat the top two teams from the worst major conference in CFB, the 7th best Big XII team, the 4th or 5th best Conference USA team, and the 3rd best MAC team. Pardon me for not crapping my pants in amazement at that brutal Rutgers got screwed, no doubt. But games against the #1 and #2 ACC schools are usually going to yield really good matchups. And in previous years, the Big East has hardly been dominating its bowl games, so I can't say it's completely unfair that the current Big East teams have to prove themselves before getting matchups against similarly-seeded schools from the Big Ten or SEC. I mean, would Rutgers or USF really have belonged on the same field as Wisconsin, Auburn or Florida last year? No, they couldn't even beat mediocre Arizona State and NC State.

Yeah, remind me how many times one conference has been favored in all its bowl games, and been favored by at least a touchdown in four of them? The Big East went 5-0 in large part because they had easy matchups. Maybe they played Buffalo because Howard, Eastern Washington and Temple already had commitments to play Big East teams.

I hate the guy, but it's Clemens and it's not even very close.

I've still yet to see you post any concrete evidence that the Big East got screwed in the bowls they were awarded this year. Tell me...what is concrete about college football? Did Louisville and Florida have the same record? Once Louisville lost 1 game they were booted out of the BSC Big game. Same for Rutgers and WV. Auburn and LSU have to lose twice. Why? Well, because Florida and LSU clearly played more difficult schedules, which is apparent to anyone who isn't blinded by conference homerism.

boy that OSU-Illinois game sure was enjoyable. Another Saturday, another Big Ten brickfest. Good times.

I've still yet to see you post any concrete evidence that the Big East got screwed in the bowls they were awarded this year.

That's funny Vance because that's how I view the SEC and Big 10. Plus, Thanks to Delaney (Big 10 Commish) we will NEVER have a playoff because he's too happy with the Rose Bowl the way it's set up now. But to a man, most of the big name coaches in the SEC are firmly in favor of a playoff. I know Miles, Myer, and Tubberville are for certain. But Vance we know who runs the SEC and it isn't the coaches. boosters?

Not really. I like Pat Devlin a lot (highly-touted recruit who committed last year), but he'll be a redshirt frosh who has never taken a snap. I think Daryl Clark is next in line, but I'm not enamored with him at all.

Where there's a Morelli, there's a way. Yup, but according to the depth charts on rivals.com, Notre Dame has all of three returning starters. That's really rough. Penn State loses only 8 offensive starters (9 if Dan Connor goes to the NFL). They do lose their entire starting defensive line, but that's a position that was recruited really well in the past few years, so I'm not too concerned there. The big things PSU needs next year is more awareness from Morelli, suitable replacements for Hunt and Levi Brown, and somebody to step up and replace Posluszny's leadership.

How many Super Bowls has Andy Reid won as a head coach compaired to Brian Billick, Mike Holmgren and Bill Parcells? George Seifert has two Super Bowl rings, Barry Switzer has one, and Dusty Baker came within five outs of winning a World Series.

Indy -7 Seattle -2.5 NY Jets +8.5 NY Giants +7 But I pick all the faves to win.