Memo to Big East Fans: Enjoy Basketball Season

As the Big East basketball conference flexed its muscles with nine teams ranked in the AP Top 25 last week, the football playing members settled into an offseason with more questions than answers.

Gone are the days with multiple teams in the Top 15. The WVU-Louisville-Rutgers showdowns of 2006 are a distant memory as the Big East takes a long hard look at itself to determine who will emerge from the pack as a national player in 2009.

2008 wasn't the friendliest of years to the Big East as mediocre performances in the non-conference portion of the schedule combined with only one Big East team ranked in the final top 20 poll called into question the legitimacy of the league for the first time in a few seasons.  As painful as 2008 was for Big East fans, 2009 may be worse.

When the highly anticipated preseason polls come out this August, Big East eyes will probably have to wander beyond the Top 15 or 20 to find a conference team. 

Perhaps the biggest reason for this grim outlook lays in the fact that two key players to title contending teams have departed early for the NFL. When running backs Lesean McCoy of Pittsburgh and Donald Brown of UConn left early, Panther and Huskie title hopes took a dive. 

Pitt entered the offseason as the clear cut favorite to take the reigns of the conference and emerge as the new face of the Big East in the eyes of the college football nation.

However, with McCoy's departure, Pitt's title hopes in 2009 are uncertain and the chances of them being among the nation's elite are now a pipe dream at best. 

The rest of the Big East lineup is full of question marks.  Perennial favorite West Virginia losses the cornerstone of their recent success and the most recognizable player in the conference as Pat White embarks on what hopefully will be a productive NFL career.  Seasoned backup, Jarrett Brown, should provide head coach Bill Stewart with a viable option at quarterback to keep the Mountaineers in the race for the 2009 Big East title. 

Surprise 2008 champion Cincinnati losses the bulk of the defense that lead them to a 6-1 league mark this past season.  Also gone is dangerous return specialist and wide receiver Mardy Gilyard who was always there when the Bearcats needed a spark.  While Brian Kelly will be looking for players to fill in key positions, it appears that Tony Pike will be a reliable option at quarterback in 2009. 

South Florida hopes to play as well in the second half of the season as they do in the first half.  Matt Grothe looks to lead the Bulls to their first conference title and BCS bid in school history, but inconsistency in the past two seasons has plagued Jim Leavitt's squad.  Assuming George Selvie returns to bolster the USF defense, the Bulls should be in the thick of the 2009 conference race. 

Rutgers and Connecticut both lose key components of their offenses as Mike Teel graduates and Donald Brown will take the skills that lead him to the 2008 NCAA rushing title to the NFL. 

UConn's solid defense will have to carry the bulk of the weight with the reliable Brown gone as the UConn offense hopes to fare better this season in the turnover battle.

Rutger's late season surge lifted hopes in Piscataway, but the Scarlet Knights will find 2009 a little more difficult as school record setting quarterback Mike Teel moves on and his favroite receiver Kenny Britt opted to enter April's NFL draft. 

Big East outsiders Louisville and Syracuse will both be looking to rebuild in 2009.  Victor Anderson will be a dangerous weapon for the Cardinals, but an already porous defense lost new defensive coordinator Ron English, as he took the head coaching position at Eastern Michigan of the Mid-American Conference. 

Syracuse will again be near the bottom of the Big East next season as new coach Doug Marrone looks to lead Syracuse back to the respectability the program once enjoyed. 

While there are some solid teams in the league, look for the Big East in 2009 to suffer the same misfortunes the ACC endured in 2008. Don't look for an elite team to emerge from the pack in 2009 and don't be surprised if the 2009 BCS representative has two or more conference losses. 

This may not mean the Big East is a bad football conference, but don't expect the national media to cut the league any slack. 

So while the Panthers, Huskies, Orange, and Cardinals are making headlines on the hardwood, somewhere between Tampa and Storrs the 2009 Big East Champion lurks.  Which of the five or so real contenders will emerge on '09? That's an answer we may not know the answer to until the final week of conference play.