BIG EAST

photo by steed media service

BIG EAST

Conference Overview: Big East success revolves around
the three best teams; West Virginia, Louisville and Rutgers. With Heisman
candidates, quarterback Patrick White and running back Steve Slaton, WVU and
coach Rodriguez are thinking championship. At Louisville, the house that former
coach Bobby Petrino built is still intact with the nation’s best quarterback,
Brian Brohm and new coach Steve Kragthorpe’s NFL experience. Rutgers continues
to stay on the rise and could cause problems for teams with Heisman candidate,
running back Ray Rice.

Contenders: The Big East has three teams in the
AP preseason Top 25. WVU leads the pack with the No. 3 ranking, Louisville is
No. 10 and Rutgers rounds the group out at No. 16. Both WVU and Louisville have
their sights set on the BCS title game and the only thing standing in their way
is each other and Rutgers, who by admission of their head coach Greg Schiano is
not ready to even compete for the Big East title. Watch out for USF’s
dual-threat quarterback, Matt Grothe. The Big East’s Rookie of the Year last
year will only get better, so look for the Bulls to nab a possible upset over
any of these heavyweights looking ahead to January. With that said, don’t be
surprised if the Big East produces its first national champion since Miami in
2001, that is, if they don’t beat each other first.

Pretenders: UConn
and Syracuse finished at the bottom last year and expect them to stay there, but
also expect Pitt to join them after losing quarterback Tyler Palko. – gavin p. godfrey