Tonight is the start of the college football season! Yeah!
I’m looking forward to seeing if my Scarlet Knights can get passed the Ray Rice and put together a decent year. If Mike Teel, Kenny Britt and Tiquan Underwood can connect frequently enough it will open the ground game for RBs Mason Robinson and Kordell Young (who missed most of last season due to injury).
The Knights lack the experience and depth on the line to compete with West Virginia and make a run for the Big East title but I’m hoping they can end up ahead of tough Pittsburgh, South Florida and Cincinnati squads. Connecticut and Louisville (!? How the mighty have fallen. And quickly too!) seem to need rebuilding and Syracuse—well—they are not the Syracuse of 30 years ago. Here’s hoping they are not the Syracuse of the last two years.
There’s a lot of jaw wagging out there about the best conferences as bulletin boards and such are full of people who are…well, full of it. Some say the PAC 10 is best. Some argue for the SEC or ACC. And some pick the Big 10. Although, with Ohio State’s showing the last two championships and the quality of play among many of the other members –ahem, Michigan—the number of folks in the latter group, i.e. Big 10 supporters, has dwindled.
One thing is consistent, however, and that is the Big East gets treated worst than Rodney Dangerfield (you see this in the polls too) and that is just plain and simple wrong. A quick glance at the post season play the last two years would and should provide ample evidence the quality of play occurring on the fields of the Big East. I can’t find the numbers at the moment but over the last two years I believe the Big East is something like 10-1 in bowl games. I’ll concede that the bowl matchups are done in a peculiar way to introduce what folks think of as parity and thus provide a competitive game or in the name of drawing fans to attend and party in the host city, but that just proves my point. In the last two years those who matched up the teams felt the Big East wasn’t quite as good as it turned out to be. Big East teams beat up on their opponents with fairly good regularity.
I will also concede that the Big East took a huge hit when three teams deserted for the ACC (Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College) and they have yet to find competitive opponents in the non-conference games that they were forced to schedule as a result, but that will soon change. The cause of the scheduling difficulty was the timing. Most schools arrange their non-conference games years in advance and were locked in when the Big East as it now is came calling. Ironically, the Big East’s success on the field may make it difficult for them to schedule competitive teams seeking to pad their won-loss record. Better to take a chance with a Division II school like, oh, say Appalachian State. (How’d that work out for you Michigan?)
I’ll be looking forward to lots of Big East victories in the next four or five weeks as they teams take on non-conference opponents.
Anyway… College football starts tonight and by Tuesday, half the teams that play will be losers and half will be undefeated.
2 comments:
I lurves me some college football!
Of course I have to say, "Go Gators!"
:o)
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Just don't let Jimbo at Parkway Rest Stop hear you shout that. He might soil his britches.
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