Post by rainman on Sept 13, 2007 6:34:53 GMT -5
Big East will get recognition soon
By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
COLLEGE PARK, Md.— Sooner — and we hate to use that word, considering that Oklahoma’s Sooners jumped West Virginia in The Associated Press Top 25 poll this week — or later, the world is going to recognize the Big East for what it is.
And just what might that be, you ask?
Well, maybe America’s best conference, and tonight the fourth-ranked Mountaineers will have a chance to help prove that as they play their final game in the Maryland series for at least the next two years on ESPN.
Now Maryland is a proud representative of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
You might remember them and their big-headed claim to being America’s top conference after they pilfered Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College away from the Big East.
You don’t hear much from the mouths that once roared in the Big East.
Scores like Oklahoma 51, Miami 13, and LSU 48, Virginia Tech 7, or Wyoming 23, Virginia 3 tend to take the drum section out of your marching bands.
Let’s see if we have this straight: Miami and Florida State are unranked; Duke has the longest losing streak in the nation; North Carolina has lost to East Carolina; North Carolina State has lost to Central Florida.
All that and still there exists this perception out that there that the ACC is one of the nation’s elite conferences and that to find the Big East you need sonar, not radar.
There is one word to sum up that perception.
Wrong!
Perhaps someone didn’t hear it, so let’s try again.
W-R-O-N-G!
Don’t believe it? Ask those good folks down at Auburn who invited the Big East’s South Florida to town for dinner. It was expected that South Florida would be the main course, something a homestanding SEC team would just devour.
Turned out dinner didn’t agree with Auburn.
Pass the Rolaids. Auburn wound up with an upset stomach.
Then there was Cincinnati. Cincinnati, that is, hardly considered a contender, running circles around Oregon State of the PAC-10. Circles, mind you.
What does all this say?
“It validates what we all said in at the Big East meetings in Rhode Island (in August),” said Louisville’s new coach, Steve Kragthorpe. “We felt this would be a league with a lot of parity and a lot of good teams. South Florida not only beat a good Auburn team, but it beat them there.”
Not that anyone should have really been too surprised. The Big East went 5-0 in its bowl games last year. Five-and-Oh! And remember, there are only eight football-playing members of the Big East.
“I think these victories say the same as everyone has been talking about for a year now,” said Pitt’s Dave Wannstadt. “There’s a perception out there, unfortunately, and it doesn’t change overnight. There is a perception we’re not that good. But with each win, it changes. South Florida going into Auburn and winning, that’s a great win for their program.”
South Florida’s Jim Leavitt is a low-key kind of guy who downplays almost everything his team accomplishes, and considering that it has now knocked off Louisville, West Virginia and Auburn in consecutive years, it can be assumed that it accomplishes a whole lot.
He won’t heap high praise upon his team or upon the way the Big East has moved up the ladder without anyone noticing, other than to say:
“Certainly, it was a big win. We all know the history of Auburn. You want to cherish it, you want to enjoy it, but like in life, you have to move forward.”
Which brings us back to West Virginia vs. Maryland. The Mountaineers have already knocked off the best team in the MAC and a Conference USA opponent in Marshall. Now comes the ACC, but this game has far more riding on it than just conference pride.
Indeed, that is the last thing on WVU coach Rich Rodriguez’s mind or on any of his players’ minds.
This is about trying to win a national championship for the school, for the state and for themselves. It’s about being No. 4 and knowing that any opponent from a major conference brings a bit more respect.
In many ways, this game is a more of a rivalry game than the Marshall game the Mountaineers just finished. Certainly, Maryland’s national reputation is stronger, the series is longer and it’s as close as you can make it — WVU leading 22-21-2 as the hiatus approaches.
More important, however, it has always been an early-season barometer about how the year would go. The team that wins it normally has a successful season and plays in a bowl. The loser? Expect tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts and a rough winter.
By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
COLLEGE PARK, Md.— Sooner — and we hate to use that word, considering that Oklahoma’s Sooners jumped West Virginia in The Associated Press Top 25 poll this week — or later, the world is going to recognize the Big East for what it is.
And just what might that be, you ask?
Well, maybe America’s best conference, and tonight the fourth-ranked Mountaineers will have a chance to help prove that as they play their final game in the Maryland series for at least the next two years on ESPN.
Now Maryland is a proud representative of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
You might remember them and their big-headed claim to being America’s top conference after they pilfered Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College away from the Big East.
You don’t hear much from the mouths that once roared in the Big East.
Scores like Oklahoma 51, Miami 13, and LSU 48, Virginia Tech 7, or Wyoming 23, Virginia 3 tend to take the drum section out of your marching bands.
Let’s see if we have this straight: Miami and Florida State are unranked; Duke has the longest losing streak in the nation; North Carolina has lost to East Carolina; North Carolina State has lost to Central Florida.
All that and still there exists this perception out that there that the ACC is one of the nation’s elite conferences and that to find the Big East you need sonar, not radar.
There is one word to sum up that perception.
Wrong!
Perhaps someone didn’t hear it, so let’s try again.
W-R-O-N-G!
Don’t believe it? Ask those good folks down at Auburn who invited the Big East’s South Florida to town for dinner. It was expected that South Florida would be the main course, something a homestanding SEC team would just devour.
Turned out dinner didn’t agree with Auburn.
Pass the Rolaids. Auburn wound up with an upset stomach.
Then there was Cincinnati. Cincinnati, that is, hardly considered a contender, running circles around Oregon State of the PAC-10. Circles, mind you.
What does all this say?
“It validates what we all said in at the Big East meetings in Rhode Island (in August),” said Louisville’s new coach, Steve Kragthorpe. “We felt this would be a league with a lot of parity and a lot of good teams. South Florida not only beat a good Auburn team, but it beat them there.”
Not that anyone should have really been too surprised. The Big East went 5-0 in its bowl games last year. Five-and-Oh! And remember, there are only eight football-playing members of the Big East.
“I think these victories say the same as everyone has been talking about for a year now,” said Pitt’s Dave Wannstadt. “There’s a perception out there, unfortunately, and it doesn’t change overnight. There is a perception we’re not that good. But with each win, it changes. South Florida going into Auburn and winning, that’s a great win for their program.”
South Florida’s Jim Leavitt is a low-key kind of guy who downplays almost everything his team accomplishes, and considering that it has now knocked off Louisville, West Virginia and Auburn in consecutive years, it can be assumed that it accomplishes a whole lot.
He won’t heap high praise upon his team or upon the way the Big East has moved up the ladder without anyone noticing, other than to say:
“Certainly, it was a big win. We all know the history of Auburn. You want to cherish it, you want to enjoy it, but like in life, you have to move forward.”
Which brings us back to West Virginia vs. Maryland. The Mountaineers have already knocked off the best team in the MAC and a Conference USA opponent in Marshall. Now comes the ACC, but this game has far more riding on it than just conference pride.
Indeed, that is the last thing on WVU coach Rich Rodriguez’s mind or on any of his players’ minds.
This is about trying to win a national championship for the school, for the state and for themselves. It’s about being No. 4 and knowing that any opponent from a major conference brings a bit more respect.
In many ways, this game is a more of a rivalry game than the Marshall game the Mountaineers just finished. Certainly, Maryland’s national reputation is stronger, the series is longer and it’s as close as you can make it — WVU leading 22-21-2 as the hiatus approaches.
More important, however, it has always been an early-season barometer about how the year would go. The team that wins it normally has a successful season and plays in a bowl. The loser? Expect tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts and a rough winter.
