West Virginia vs South Florida: Breaking Down the Big East Title Implications

Given the mediocrity throughout the Big East this season and the fact that the conference doesn’t have a championship game, the Big East is the most confusing conference when it comes to picking a winner.

As it stands right now, Louisville would win with a 5-2 conference record, but the Cardinals have finished their season already.

They have already clinched at least a share of the Big East Championship, but they need help in order to win it outright. They beat West Virginia but lost to Cincinnati, the other two teams in competition for the league’s BCS Bowl bid with 4-2 conference records.

Both the Mountaineers and the Bearcats have shots to win the Big East. In order for WVU to win, it obviously would need to beat South Florida tonight, but then Cincinnati would have to beat Connecticut on Saturday to force a three-way tie because of Louisville’s win.

If that happens, the team with the highest BCS Ranking would go win the conference, and since West Virginia is the only team ranked right now, it would win the tiebreaker.

Should the Mountaineers lose tonight, Cincinnati would win the Big East if it wins on Saturday. If both teams lose, Louisville would win the conference outright.

Fans of the conference will be praying West Virginia is the one who comes on top in all of this, because sending another unranked team to the BCS would be disastrous for the future of the conference. Its expansion is predicated on the fact that it has an automatic bid to the BCS, so without that, the league is as good as done.

Luckily, that is the most likely option. South Florida is 1-5 in conference play, and while Connecticut is 3-3, they have been blown out in every road game they’ve played in conference.

But it all starts with a West Virginia win tonight.