Big East Conference: Looking Ahead to 2009

For the first time in four seasons, the Big East champion went to a BCS bowl and lost. It has been since the 2004 season when Pitt lost to Utah, that the Big East lost a BCS bowl.

In looking at all of these seasons, only West Virginia has repeated as conference champions and they shared it with Connecticut in 2007.

West Virginia has been the class of the conference since the 2005 defections of Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College. They have finished in the top three of the conference every year since 2002. For now, it can never be a stretch to say they will be one of the early favorites again to win the conference.

The good news for the rest of the conference is that Pat White is gone.

Connecticut surprised everyone going from a 4-8 record in 2006 to 9-4 and a share of the Big East title in 2007.

The nations leading rusher, Donald Brown is leaving early for the NFL, which may hurt the chances of the Huskies winning the conference.

Cincinnati has turned in back-to-back 10+ win seasons. In 2008, the Bearcats were picked to finish in the bottom half of the conference but managed to win it all.

Playmaker return man and wide receiver, Marshwan Gilyard is done at Cincinnati.

Rutgers has maintained a certain level of success going 8-5 each of the last two seasons. This is nice, but they have yet to get back to the great success they had in 2006, when they went 11-2. The Red Knights were able to string together a run of seven straight wins to finish 2008.

They do lose quarterback Mike Teel and receivers Kenny Britt and Tiquan Underwood.

South Florida has been a team that everyone has been waiting for to break out. In recent years, they have managed to reach as high as a No. 2 ranking during the season. Unfortunately, they haven’t been able to finish there.

With quarterback Matt Grothe leading the offense and George Selvie leading the defense, perhaps 2009 is the year the Bulls finally fulfill those expectations. The problem is losing 4 o-line starters.

The Pitt Panthers finished in second place in the conference last season with a 9-4 record. This was a 180 degree turnaround from finishing at seventh in the Big East in 2007. The question remains how they will do without LeSean McCoy, who is opting to go to the NFL.

I honestly think this is a six team race. All of these teams have shown what they are capable of and have enjoyed success, but also endured the agony of defeat. I think this maybe one of the hardest conference races to predict next season.

There are changes in the conference that are going on behind the scenes.

Big East conference commissioner, Michael A. Tranghese, will be stepping down at the end of June this year. He has been commissioner since 1990.

Prior to his appointment as commissioner, Tranghese worked for Big East founder, Dave Gavitt, and helped to create the conference in 1979.

He helped guide the conference through the 2004-2005 seasons when several teams left for the ACC and the acquisition of others from Conference USA to fill in the gaps.

Tranghese will be replaced by senior associate commissioner John Marinatto. He is an alum of Big East member Providence. Marinatto also served as the athletic director for Providence.

I am not sure what direction the new commissioner will want to take the conference. I think it could be one of the hardest conferences to be the commissioner for, due to the difference in football and the other sports. It will be interesting to see where he decides to take the Big East in the coming years.