“The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”
- Mark Twain
It has become a very common topic of late – the fall of the Big East, the down-turn of a once proud football conference.
Even SI has tossed its hat into the ring, currently running an article on how the South Florida Bulls are poised to take over a “weak” Big East.
But are the rumors of the passing on of the Big East true, or merely a product of media bias and fan perception?
They must be true, right? Look at the facts. Last year’s flag bearer, Cincinnati, was embarrassed by Virginia Tech (a wise Big East defector) in the Orange Bowl. More recently, Big East teams are being snubbed by the pre-season polls left and right, even to the point of being completely shut out of some early Top 25 lists.
How can a league, as watered down as the Big East already was, survive the loss of stars such as Pat White, Donald Brown and Kenny Britt?
The death knell began with the loss of Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech to the ACC, and has proceeded to ring louder with each subsequent season.
Or has it?
If anything, the Big East has been its own worst enemy of late. The emergence of teams like Rutgers, South Florida, Cincinnati and Connecticut into the football conscience of America, while key to the future survival of the conference, has been the main reason that the current strength of the league is being questioned.
These teams had never been taken seriously by even the most casual of college football fans. Rutgers? They had set the record for futility, having only a modicum of success in the mid seventies. Cincinnati hadn’t fared much better. Connecticut and South Florida? Give me a break! These guys are a mere decade removed from the “minor leagues.”
It certainly hasn’t helped the league’s image by having one of the former stalwarts, Syracuse, fall on hard times recently.
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