Two of ESPN.com’s columnists Ivan Maisel and Pat Forde in a long exchange about the upcoming football season. Here’s the portion regarding the Big East.
Ivan: Texas, unnamed team from the Big Ten, whoever it is. Michigan has got it all on paper, but with the exception of ’97, they always find a way to not get it off the paper. What I think will be interesting is what happens when Louisville runs the table in the Big East. How will the Cardinals be regarded? They will start high enough in the ranking that, if they are undefeated, they are going to move up.
Pat: They’ll start in the top 10, top 12, and move up from there. They’re playing in a marginally better conference. The one game they’ve got to hunker down for is Pittsburgh.
Ivan: When is that game?
Pat: Nov. 3, a Thursday night. Of course, it’s Louisville, so they’re not playing on a Saturday.
Ivan: I have a theory that Dave Wannstedt is the new Pete Carroll. Talented assistant who fought the NFL to a draw, had two different teams, and is at the perfect school for him. It’s the same profile.
Pat: Pitt has players. They should be the team that challenges Louisville.
Ivan: I don’t know how you pick that league because you’ve got three new teams, and two new coaches at the other five.
Pat: The start-from-scratch league.
Ivan: Everybody at Texas says that Greg Robinson will be a very good head coach at Syracuse.
Pat: I’ll wait and see.
That really is it, isn’t it. Everyone is waiting to see what will happen, and preparing storylines accordingly. The Big East will still be ripped this year. If Louisville runs the table or just wins the BE, people will use that as an indictment of how weak the conference is. If, say Pitt wins it then everyone will just say that the BE is no better than it was last year even with the new teams. God help the conference, though, if someone else wins it.
It’s just the way things are going to be. I’m not going to rail about it (for now). The only thing to do for the Big East teams is to win the good non-con games. Strangely, for the Big East, the non-conference games take on bigger meaning than the conference games for national exposure and credibility.
Pitt needs to beat ND and Nebraska. Syracuse needs to surprise Virginia or Florida State. Louisville needs to handle Oregon State and North Carolina. Rutgers needs to beat Illinois. UConn needs to upset Georgia Tech or USF over Penn State. Those will be the things that gets attention regarding the teams and competitiveness.
