The Big East and Predictions Sure to Be Wrong

I love the Big East in basketball.  They have national title contenders, terrific players, great rivalries and passionate fan bases.  Football?  Not so much.  There are some really good players (Tony Pike, George Selvie to name a couple) but they don't have any teams worthy of being in the top ten.  There is only one really passionate fan base (West Virginia) and I found the games to be largely uninteresting contests between mediocre squads.  So, I am going to do what I did for the other BCS conferences but on a smaller scale.

8.  Syracuse Orange- 14 returning starters (7 offense, 7 defense), 2-10 (0-7)

The only interesting thing about the Orange is that Greg Paulus, a point guard at Duke last season, is their starting point guard.  Good story, but the guy hasn't played football in almost four seasons.  What does that say about the state of the football program at the 'Cuse?

7.  Louisville Cardinals- 13 returning starters (7 offense, 6 defense), 4-8 (1-6)

The Cardinals have fallen from grace very quickly since Bobby Petrino's exit.  This will be Steve Kragthorpe's third and final season as the head coach at the "Ville.  Since he took over, 20 players have left the program.  Kragthorpe won't be able to survive another losing season.  

6.  Connecticut Huskies- 12 returning starters (6 offense, 6 defense), 3-9 (2-5)

UConn has been solid under head coach Randy Edsall.  This will be a rebuilding year and the Huskies have a tough non-conference schedule that will see them come up well short of a bowl game.  Wins over Syracuse, Louisville and Rhode Island are going to be it.  I have them losing their opener on September 5 at a dangerous Ohio Bobcats squad.  

5.  Pitt Panthers- 15 returning starters (8 offense, 7 defense), 8-4 (4-3)

Pitt is part of the five-team upper tier that could win this league.  They have to play at Rutgers and at West Virginia.  Replacing LeSean McCoy is going to be extremely difficult.  I have them losing out of conference to Notre Dame and in the Big East to Rutgers, Cincinnati and WVU.  Again, this team is right there and they could very easily win the league.

4.  West Virginia Mountaineers- 12 returning starters (5 offense, 7 defense), 9-3 (4-3)

The Mountaineers have to replace one of their best players of all-time, Pat White.  That job falls to Jarrett Brown and I think he will do pretty well.  I have one concern, Bill Stewart wanted to pass the ball more last season.  That doesn't work for the Mountaineers, they should line up and run the ball.  Noel Devine is explosive and a very good running back and the schedule is not too hard.  I have them losing at USF, at Cincy and at Rutgers.  

3.  South Florida Bulls- 12 returning starters (6 offense/defense), 8-4 (5-2)

Matt Grothe and George Selvie might give the Bulls the league's offensive and defensive MVP's.  Selvie is a very powerful and cat-quick defensive end that will be a top ten NFL draft pick next April.  I like the Bulls to finish third because they get WVU and Cincy at home.  They will lose at Rutgers and at Pittsburgh when they have to travel into cold weather.  

2.  Rutgers Scarlet Knights- 13 returning starters (7 offense, 6 defense) 11-1 (6-1)

This is probably not Greg Schiano's best team but the schedule is really easy and things are set up nicely for RU.  The key will be how well new quarterback Dom Natale handles himself.  If he can create some big plays, Rutgers will probably win the league.  Things will be decided on September 7 when the Scarlet Knights host Cincinnati in their opener (incredibly dumb to have a big league game this early).  I think the Bearcats are better.

1.  Cincinnati Bearcats- 9 returning starters (8 offense, 1 defense) 10-2 (6-1)

Cincinnati should not win ten games but they have one of the best coaches in Brian Kelly and a very good quarterback in Tony Pike.  The offense should be explosive with Pike and the best wide receiver in the conference, Mardy Gilyard.  The Bearcats will outscore Rutgers in their opener.  A loss at Oregon State in week three and a loss at South Florida will be their only blemishes.  The Bearcats will be going to the Orange Bowl for the second straight year.  

Bowl Predictions

If even three of these bowl games come to fruition, I would be a genius (trust me, I am not).  That is one of the reasons we love sports, everyone can make predictions but hardly anyone is ever completely right.  If we all knew what was going to happen, what would be the point of watching?  So, here are my BCS bowl predictions for 2010.  

Cincinnati 10-2 (6-1) vs. Georgia Tech 13-0 (9-0)

Let's be honest, the Orange Bowl gets screwed.  They usually get the ACC champion against the Big East champion.  Let's take a look at the last three years: Virginia Tech-Cincinnati, Virginia Tech-Kansas, Louisville-Wake Forest.  Ouch!  Cincy will be the Big East champ and I have Georgia Tech winning the ACC title game over Clemson.  Their strength of schedule will not allow them to jump over Texas or Florida.

Oklahoma 11-1 (7-1) vs. USC 11-1 (8-1)

This would be a great matchup with a ton of NFL talent on display.  USC would probably wax the Sooners.  Just look at their recent bowl history.  The Trojans seem to peek come bowl season while Bob Stoops has had a hard time getting his teams ready to go.  Oklahoma would go as the Big 12 representative because I have Texas in the title game and USC would be an at-large selection.  

Alabama 12-1 (8-1) vs. Virginia Tech 10-2 (7-1)

I know this is a rematch of the season-opener for both teams.  I think it will be a great game, one that the Sugar Bowl people would not mind repeating.  Both teams have passionate fan bases that travel well.  Also, I don't see any non-BCS teams being in position to take an at-large spot and Alabama could not matchup against another SEC school.  Alabama will lose the SEC title game to Florida (again) and receive the Sugar Bowl as a consolation prize (again).  Let's hope they perform better this season than last.  

Penn State 12-0 (8-0) vs. California 11-1 (8-1)

This is the traditional PAC-10 vs. Big Ten the Rose Bowl desires.  Penn State will not be able to jump Texas or Florida (and probably not even Georgia Tech) because of their ridiculously easy schedule.  If they go undefeated, the easy schedule will haunt them.  California would be getting Jeff Tedford to his first Rose Bowl after several years of high-quality football in Berkeley.  

Florida 13-0 (9-0) vs. Texas 13-0 (9-0)

Tim Tebow vs. Colt McCoy in their final college games.  Urban Meyer vs. Mack Brown (Brown's final game?), NFL prospects all over the field, historic venue, national title on the line.  I would definitely be okay if this was the matchup.  What a game.  

I will preview the Hoosiers opener against the Eastern Kentucky Colonials tomorrow.  Just two more days until we get the season underway.  A couple of notes, Shareese Wright, a starting cornerback for USC has been suspended for the season for academic reasons and Iowa halfback Jewell Hampton (from Warren Central) will miss the season with a knee injury.  That really hurts the Hawkeyes.  Tough breaks for two Warren Central kids, Darren Evans and Hampton both go down for the year.