September 27, 2005
Flag on the Play: Magic Eight Ball Edition
After re-watching the Louisville - South Florida game, I pulled out my handy-dandy Magic Eight Ball for some Big East insight.
"Who will be the standard bearer for the Big East?" I asked.
"Outlook Not So Good," said the Magic Eight Ball.
Undeterred, I quizzed the Magic Eight Ball again.
"Just a cotton-pickin' moment here, Magic Eight Ball, are you telling me there's not a decent team in the Big East?"
"It Is Decidedly So," the Magic Eight Ball responded.
So, I dropped the Magic Eight Ball and skipped over to check out the latest Sagarin ratings.
1 BIG TEN
2 ATLANTIC COAST
3 PAC-10
4 SOUTHEASTERN
5 BIG 12
6 MOUNTAIN WEST
7 BIG EAST
As a lot of people had been saying for a long time, it would appear that the Big East is just not that good. I had suspected that the influx of Louisville, South Florida, and Cincinnati would be some salve on the wounds of losing Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College. Not even close. The Big East is currently ranked as the seventh best conference. Ouch. In Sagarin ratings, the best Big East team (Louisville) has a Predictor rating of 43. Yikes! Big East teams are 0-5 against the top 30 so far this season, and there's a lot of top 30 headed the Big East's direction this weekend. Not good. Not good.
This could be make or break for the Big East football. Conference leader West Virginia squares off with defending ACC champ & ACC front-runner Virginia Tech. Syracuse faces ACC division-leader Florida State. South Florida carries the Big East banner into the Orange Bowl to face-off with Miami. The best hope is probably a 1-2 record in those three key games, but it's very possible that the conference goes 0-3.
The clock is ticking on the Big East. The new BCS standards (2008) will measure the quality of the conference's depth over a four-year period in determining automatic bids, relative to the other conferences. The Big East can't be the Big Beast and the rest of the Little Guys (aka Miami and the Munchkins of the 90s), otherwise the conference will fall further to the back within the four year averages and lose it's BCS slot. If the Big East is going to hold onto it's automatic bid, the conference needs a few teams to step up and take spots in the top 25 this year.
What does the Magic Eight Ball say?
"Looks Cloudy"
Comments:
posted on September 27, 2005 11:00 AM — link — abuse?Kevin Donahue said:
Yeah, I leave the Ouija to the pros! ;)
DR MGM said:
posted on October 2, 2005 2:27 AM — 207.255.95.162 — link — abuse?
Is anyone really surprised at the current SHAMBLES that Pitt football is? Did anyone really believe that Wanstedtt could be a successful head coach, based on his track record in Chicago or Miami? Is the Wanstedtt era over already? Shouldn't it be? Is he playing for draft choices now?
Cardsfan said:
posted on October 9, 2005 12:25 PM — 64.12.116.139 — link — abuse?
Kevin used the Sagarin ratings for his Magic 8 Ball support, so he must think they're worthy. Hmmm...let's shake the ball again and discover the new Sagarin ratings thru October 8 games, especially now that the teams are connected, meaning they're no longer based on starting ratings. Louisville is now at #11 with a Predictor rating of 6, South Florida is at #16, and West Virginia is at #30. The Big East certainly isn't having a banner year, but at least they moved back to #6 overall in the conference ratings.
Louisville's 55-point win over North Carolina, a middle-of the-pack ACC team (wins against NC State and Utah, single-digit losses to Ga Tech and Wisconsin) might indicate that the Cards are still a BCS-caliber team. And considering strength of schedule, South Florida's road losses to top-ten Penn State and Miami may actually help the Bulls in some computer rankings.
Louisville's game at West Virginia next week might become the decisive game for the Big East title this year, but to overlook South Florida would be a big mistake, a reality that may already have trampled U of L's BCS bowl hopes. If the Cards avoid road-game inconsistency, they should be headed to the Sugar Bowl. However, instead of revising the Magic 8 ball forecast (always cloudy in my opinion), I'll take things one game at a time.
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Jeremy Collins said:
posted on September 27, 2005 9:45 AM — 167.239.198.48 — link — abuse?It is true that the Big East is down due to their loses. Pitt struggling is not helping the cause at all. They have brought in two good programs in the wake of losing two powerhouses and a third good team. WVU will be great in two years, If tey settle on a quarterback and if J.R. House is as good as he was in High School. They signed their biggest recruit ever in running back Jason Gwaltney so the talent is certainly going up. Louisville is great but Brian Brohm needs to be seasoned and that is what he went through in the lose to South Flordia. Pitt needs to get rid of Wanstedtt he is not a good coach would be a great defensive corrdinator. Syracuse is learning a new offense and is playing a brutal schedule, they will get the offense together by the end of the year(started clicking against Virginia). South Flordia had a great recruiting year and it is showing with the win against Louisville if they continue to recruit out of Flordia like they did this year watch out. Rutgers, no one never really knows what to expect from this club year in and year out maybe they are destined to be bad. Cinncinatti is replacing 17 starters from a bowl winning team last year they will rebound and make put a good not great team to run in the Big East. UCONN lost their shinning star in Orvlowsky and has had to go tp the run but not to worry it is working and they ar on their way the top 25 in a year or two.
The Big East has a bright future if the teams continue on the path they are on. If they falter say bye bye to the BCS berth and look for WVU,Louiville and PITT to jump ship.