And for the Big East, according to conventional wisdom, that isn’t a good thing.
You can excuse the commissioner for perhaps not sharing in the euphoria.
West Virginia, which is without a marquee player and is under the radar nationally, has the inside track for the Big East’s automatic BCS bid.
Louisville, the preseason favorite and the team the Big East was counting on to be its showcase program, is yet to win a league game. Three weeks ago, it was embarrassed in a 45-14 loss against USF.
“Short term, it probably wasn’t the best result (for the Big East),” Tranghese said. “But long term, I think it was the first indication of what we believe — that South Florida’s got a chance to be very good.”
On second thought, maybe not.
On Saturday, USF was hammered by Pitt. And USF barely showed a pulse in losses against Penn State and Miami.
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The Big East has an 18-12 record against non-conference foes this season — but only 12 of those wins came against Division I-A programs. The league has gone 0-5 against ranked teams and is 4-9 against teams from other BCS conferences.
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“We still have our ups and downs, in terms of wins and losses,” Tranghese said. “But at least we know who we are, what we are and what we’re trying to do. I think this is the first step in that whole process.”
Just about everyone (aside from Syracuse) is still alive for winning the Big East. I mean, Pitt is still under .500, but is now 3rd in the Big East. More disturbing, Rutgers is 2nd.
Mediocrity pervades all of college football this season.
Go ahead, pick the best team in the Big 11. Michigan State has lost to Michigan and OSU. OSU has lost to Penn St. Penn St. has lost to Michigan. Michigan has lost to Wisconsin and Minnesota. Minnesota has lost to Penn St. and Wisconsin. Wisconsin has lost to Northwestern. Northwestern has lost to Penn St. Iowa lost to OSU. There are a bunch of good teams, but have any of them looked like they will be top-10 teams by the end of the season? Which one are you that sure of what to expect from game to game?
One entire division of the Big 12 is a crap shoot, and after Texas and maybe Texas Tech the rest of the conference is easily dismissed.
The SEC is tough as always, but after Georgia it’s starting to look like “any given Saturday.”
In the ACC, VT looks like the best but they have consecutive games coming in late October — their traditional collapse point — versus BC, Miami and then at UVA.
It is more acute for the Big East because this is the first year of the new alignment, and the schools have not represented well outside of the conference. The only team to look even decent out of conference was Louisville with big blowouts against Oregon State and North Carolina. But they tanked against USF and choked the game away versus WVU. Pitt — well we know that deal.
WVU is about the closest to having any credibility, but no one actually is sure. They beat Maryland — who may be improving — but then struggled to hang on against East Carolina. The VT game seems to be looking better, even though they lost, but that is contingent on the Hokies continuing to dominate.
So while all of college football seems to have taken on an NFL-esque flatlining, parity look for the season, the Big East hasn’t been able to provide even a Cincinnati Bengal illusory team.
