The Big East Conference may not have a championship game, but the final week of the regular season finds the title still up for grabs. 

Louisville has completed their schedule, finishing with a conference record of 5-2.  West Virginia and Cincinnati each currently stand at 4-2, and will claim a share of the conference title with wins this week.

If all three teams finish 5-2 in conference play, West Virginia will receive the conference's automatic bid to a BCS game, since the tiebreaker goes to whichever team is ranked the highest in the BCS standings, and that school happens to be West Virginia.

The Mountaineers have a quality program, a great fanbase and the most name recognition of the three.  Cincinnati has an up-and-coming program that is beginning to increase attendance, and were also Big East champions in two of the last three seasons.  Both are good teams who have their BCS dreams tantalizingly within reach.

However, if you are not a fan of one of those two teams, you should be rooting for them to lose this week, so that Louisville wins the conference outright and gets the BCS berth.

Let me make perfectly clear that I am not a Louisville fan at all, but rather just a neutral third party who can't help but admire what has happened with Louisville football this season.

Louisville has had some success in the past decade, winning the conference in 2006, only their second season in the Big East.  They then went on to win the Orange Bowl over Wake Forest.

However, fate has taken a cruel turn for the Cardinal faithful since then.  Their coach, Bobby Petrino, jumped to the NFL right after the Orange Bowl, and became head coach of the Atlanta Falcons.  When he returned to college football after only two seasons, he didn't give the school he abandoned so much as a second thought, signing with a higher-profile Arkansas team.

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Petrino's replacement was Steve Kragthorpe, who couldn't come even close to the success that Petrino had at Louisville.  He finished with an overall record of 15-21 in three seasons, and the Cardinals never made a bowl during his tenure.

Louisville then hired Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong, who has proven to be an excellent hire.  The Cardinals won a bowl game last season, and have clinched at least a share of the Big East title this season.

He has also proven his loyalty to the school that gave him his first head coaching job.  Urban Meyer retired at Florida after Strong's first season at Louisville, leaving an opening that many thought would be filled by Strong.  However, Coach Strong decided to stay at Louisville, passing up the higher-profile job in Gainesville.

That type of loyalty is refreshing in a college football landscape that sees head coaches switch schools much more frequently than in the past.

The Cardinals players have also showed quite a bit of determination this season, as they started off 2-4 before winning five of their last six games to capture at least a share of the conference title.  Anyone who can't root for that type of resiliency and gritty determination has some serious emotional issues.

It's not that I'm anti-West Virginia or anti-Cincinnati, it's just that when faced with the facts, it is difficult not to root for Louisville to win the Big East and go to a BCS bowl.