Does The Big East Deserve To Be in The BCS?

With all of the activity surrounding Big Ten and Pac-10 expansion, some people might not have noticed that last week Boise State left the Western Athletic Conference (the WAC) and joined the Mountain West.

Before considering the implications of that move, it is worth noting Boise State's recent accomplishments. Over the last five years, the Broncos have gone 53-8, they have won two BCS bowls, and they've won four WAC championships.

They have been coached by Chris Petersen since 2006. Before that, Petersen was the Broncos' offensive coordinator under Dan Hawkins, who left BSU for what has become a holy mess at Colorado.

Getting back to Boise State's record, I acknowledge that their numbers are a bit tainted given the fact that the WAC is hardly the SEC.

Furthermore, in those five years, BSU's record against BCS competition is a mediocre 4-4.

If you only look into the last four years, the Broncos' record against BCS teams improves to 4-1. However, that in itself is worth consideration as one of those five games was a bowl game.

Therefore, in those four years, Boise State scheduled exactly four games against BCS competition, or one a year. That is hardly going to earn any team—even a team with a W/L record like BSU—national respect.

Yet, the move into the Mountain West—effective in 2011—might change things a bit.

While the WAC also has Fresno State and Hawaii, both of whom are respectable teams, neither of them are considered mid-major superpowers.

On the other hand, the Mountain West boasts TCU, BYU, and Utah amongst its membership.

BYU has finished the year ranked in the AP top 20 for each of the last four seasons. During that time they have had only one coach: Bronco Mendenhall, who has been the Cougars head coach since 2005.

TCU has finished the year ranked in the top 10 for three of the last five seasons. Garry Patterson has been the Horned Frogs coach during that time. In fact, Patterson has coached TCU since 2000 compiling an 85-28 record.

Lastly, Utah has gone to a bowl each of the last seven seasons, won all of those bowls, and most notably clobbered Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl and Pitt in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl . 

The Utes have seen one coaching change during those years. From 2003-2005 they were coached by current Florida coach Urban Meyer, and since then they have been coached by Kyle Whittingham who has compiled a 47-17 record.

However, BSU will essentially be replacing Utah, as last week Utah announced that it would be joining the PAC-10 conference .

This brings me to the Big East. Traditional—by Big East standards—Big East powerhouses Miami and Virginia Tech bolted for the ACC in 2004. Boston College left in 2005.

At that point the Big East seemed to be in a state of flux. In 2004, a middling 8-4 Pitt squad won the conference championship and got the mandatory invite to a BCS bowl. They wound up getting the tar kicked out of them in the Fiesta Bowl by the aforementioned Utah Utes, 35-7.

In 2005, a 10-1 West Virginia team won the conference, went to the Sugar Bowl and surprised the college football world by beating a highly favored Georgia Bulldog team.

In 2006, newly arrived Big East member, the Louisville Cardinals went 12-1 and beat ACC champion Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl.

However, the win was bittersweet as one week after the win, head coach Bobby Petrino left Louisville to take the head coaching job with the NFL's Atlanta Falcons.

Most felt that when Tulsa coach Steve Kragthorpe took over the Cardinal's coaching duties, Louisville would continue where they left off. Louisville's record since 2007: 15-21.

Nevertheless, in 2007, West Virginia again won a (co) Big East Championship and received a bid to play in the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma.

The Big East seemed to be hanging in there, or at least worthy of consideration as a conference on par with the other BCS conferences. Then the roof fell in.

On December 16, head coach Rich Rodriguez announced that he would be leaving West Virginia—his Alma mater—to take the head coaching job at prestigious Michigan.

Assistant coach Bill Stewart took over as head coach and did lead the Mountaineers to a victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.

West Virginia has done OK since Stewart took over, but hardly as well as they did under Rodriguez. In the three years prior to Rodriguez leaving, the Mountaineers went 33-5. Since then they've gone 18-8 with no conference championships.

In 2008, once again the Big East seemed in a state of flux and up-for-grabs. This time, Brian Kelly and his Cincinnati Bearcats were the opportunistic team.

They went 11-3 in '08 and won the conference championship receiving a bid to play in the Orange Bowl where they were beaten handily by Virginia Tech. In '09 they won another championship, going 12-0 and receiving a bid to play in the Sugar Bowl against the Florida Gators.

Then, once again, the same old story played itself out. Brian Kelly took the head coaching job with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Bearcats and interim coach Jeff Quinn got embarrassed by the Gators 24-51.

And here we are in 2010; a Big East in flux once again and a rising Mountain West.

All of this begs the question: Why does the Big East deserve inclusion in the BCS—complete with an automatic bid to a lucrative BCS bowl including the $17 million payout —and the Mountain West does not?

I will begin by acknowledging that I have never been a great supporter of the mid-majors in their quest for equality. For the most part, I feel that any success they may have is tainted due to the fact that their in-conference play is littered with teams that most successful BCS teams would call "cream puffs ."

For example, over the last five years, those in the Mountain West Conference not named TCU, BYU, or Utah have a combined record of 142-161. The only other team in the Mountain West with a winning record over that time is Air Force.

The question thus becomes is the Big East any better and therefore, do they deserve BCS inclusion any more than Mountain West teams?

If the coaching carousel over the last five years is any indication, then the answer is "no."

The reason for this is that the coaching carousel is indicative of, among other things, coaches that are not invested in their teams and ultimately, their conferences.

Certainly, money and other issues play a part, but one has to believe that Brian Kelly, Rich Rodriguez, and Bobby Petrino all felt that they could achieve more at more prestigious schools in more prestigious conferences.

It would appear that Bronco Mendenhall, Garry Patterson, and Chris Petersen don't feel that way, despite the fact that all of them have had numerous job offers from more prestigious schools than the ones they are currently at.

In light of all of this expansion, as well as all the possible expansion that may take place in the coming years, one is finally left to ask if the Big East deserves to be included amongst the BCS conferences.

At this point, four of the conferences' eight teams were in mid-majors just five years ago. Furthermore, in an effort to brace itself for future expansion the Big East has reputedly been looking into adding two more current mid-majors.

And unlike the last round, these mid-majors aren't even that good.

At what point does the hodgepodge of a football conference known as the Big East finally lose its' status as a BCS conference?

At what point does it get relegated to mid-major status thus requiring its' teams to fight for BCS bowls just like the current Mountain West?

We all know the cards within the BCS are and have been stacked, but the Big East makes it look ridiculous.