If the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl sounds new to you, that’s because it used to be the St. Petersburg Bowl.

The Big East Bowl lineup will now look like this:

BCS Bowl – Big East Champion
Champs Sports Bowl – Big East vs. ACC
Meineke Car Care Bowl – Big East vs. ACC
New Era Pinstripe Bowl – Big East vs. Big 12
Papajohns.com Bowl/AutoZone Liberty Bowl – Big East vs. SEC or C-USA
Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl – Big East vs. C-USA

The 2010 Big East Bowl Season will be as follows:

Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl – 12/21/10, 8:00 PM, ESPN
Champs Sports Bowl – 12/29/10, 8:00 PM, ESPN
New Era Pinstripe Bowl – 12/30/10, 3:00 PM, ESPN
Meineke Care Car Bowl – 12/31/10, Noon, ESPN
AutoZone Liberty Bowl – 12/31/10, 3:30 PM, ESPN
Papajohns.com Bowl – 1/8/11, Noon, ESPN

All in all, it’s a pretty impressive bowl lineup. The Big East set out to structure its bowl season so that it included top opponents and attractive locations. From the looks of this lineup, I’d have to say that they did a pretty good job.

Dan:
A 4-2 bowl season record might appear pretty good at first glance. But some people would have you think that it’s actually a poor record for the Big East this year. I’ve seen a few articles that pointed out that Cincy was blown out by Florida and WVU lost to a 6-6 FSU team, turning the Big East’s two losses into pretty awful losses.

I don’t buy it though. Sure, Cincy did get blown out by Florida. But you have to attribute some of that poor play to Brian Kelly leaving the Bearcats without their head coach for the bowl game. He did make a lot of the offensive calls, afterall. At any rate, Cincy lost to a great Florida team. They were a team that was ranked first in the nation for most of the season. Florida was the better team. But the play of a single team certainly doesn’t reflect the overall strength or performance of the entire conference.

As for WVU, I feel like they deserve a little more criticism than Cincy. WVU played a pretty bad FSU team. Granted, the fact that it was Bobby Bowden’s final game probably fueled FSU, and it was a virtual road game for WVU. They still shouldn’t have lost that game. Where was Devine late in that game? Come on WVU. Still, the circumstances just seemed to favor FSU.

On the other hand, there were four other games that turned out pretty well for the Big East. Pitt’s win over UNC is my pick for top Big East bowl win. That’s not a homer pick. UNC may have had a mediocre season by the record, but they had a top ranked defense and a home crowd in Charlotte. Pitt went in and let Dion Lewis rack up another 100+ yard game on that 6th ranked defense. The Panthers outplayed UNC despite making a few mistakes and came away with a win. UConn’s win is my pick for the second best win. As much as the SEC will want to point to the Sugar Bowl outcome, Big East fans can point to this one. UConn, after overcoming tragedy this season, pulled out a decisive victory over South Carolina, an SEC opponent.

And what about the other two wins? Well USF blew out Northern Illinois, a MAC opponent. Rutgers rolled right over UCF from C-USA. Isn’t that enough to silence the Big East haters that claim we’re a mid-major conference? The Big East simply plays at a higher level than those conferences and it showed in these two wins.

So about that 4-2 record? Well let’s put aside the fact that it’s better than the SEC, Big 12, ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-10 this year (and yes, that will stand despite the outcome of the BCS National Championship). We can even forget for a minute that the Big East sends a larger percentage of teams to bowls consistently. What’s most impressive to me is that since 2006, the Big East now has gone 17-6 in bowl games. Until people start respecting this conference, the best thing the teams of the Big East can do is keep posting records like this.

Mike:
The Big East went 4-2 this bowl season, not too shabby if you think about it. I predicted 5-1. Looking back though, how impressive is that 4-2 record? Rutgers and USF were expected to win their games against weak opponents, Cincinnati and West Virginia laid eggs in their games, Pitt beat a decent North Carolina team in what was a practical road game for them, and Connecticut had the most impressive win by beating South Carolina. I give the nod to UConn because of the tragedy they went through this year and the fact that South Carolina is a team from a dominate SEC. They barely edged Pitt in my opinion. As the record shows, the ACC had another terrible bowl year, so how great is that win for Pitt?

Looking back at my predictions, I wasn’t too far off on some. I really thought the Rutgers game would be closer and more of a defensive game then what it was. I figured UConn and USF would run away with their games. I honestly thought Pitt would just run up and down and all around on North Carolina and that game ended up being much closer than expected. West Virginia, I have no idea what happened there, being up 14-3 and then just not using Noel Devine. That would be like Pitt not using Dion Lewis or Jonathan Baldwin. Uh, what? Looking back, I wasn’t even that far off with the Cincinnati game, I figured they would lose and by double digits, but I didn’t think it would be that ugly.

All in all, it was a good year for Big East football. They had 0 teams ranked in the Top 25 to begin the year, but should end up with 2, maybe 3, teams ranked: Pitt, Cincy, maybe WVU. It was supposed to be a down year for talent and the teams in general, yet we saw the birth of new stars. Next year should be another fun year for Big East football. You have to figure Pitt and UConn are the two front runners. WVU and Cincy are next depending on players going to the pros and coaching transition for Cincy. Rutgers could easily be around the top next year, while USF is still a question mark, and Louisville and Syracuse are still rebuilding. It’s been a year full of memories, some good, some bad. But in the end, it was another successful Big East football season.

We’re not finished with our coverage of the 2009-2010 football season just yet. Look for a BCS National Championship preview tomorrow morning. Plus, we’re going to recap the Panthers successful 10-3 season in detail as soon as the final BCS rankings are released.

Also, don’t forget that Pitt basketball is in full swing now as they’ve entered into the Big East portion of the schedule. Look for an increase in our coverage of men’s basketball now that football season is over and basketball season is heating up.

 

North Carolina comes into the game at 8-4. That’s not bad considering that just over halfway through their season they had a 4-3 record overall, 0-3 in the ACC. They bring with them one of the higher ranked defenses in the NCAA. With Charlotte only a short 2.5 hour drive away from the campus, the Tar Heels will likely be playing in front of an overhelmingly pro-North Carolina crowd.

So can Pitt overcome one of the top defenses in the league in what basically amounts to an away game? Let’s look at what our writers have to say about the game:

Dan:

North Carolina has a great defense, statistically speaking. They’re 6th in the nation overall, 9th against the run and 15th against the pass. But I’m not sold.

The Tar Heels’ biggest wins of the season (Virginia Tech and Miami) weren’t overly impressive. The defense may have held VT to only 256 yards, which is certainly respectable, but they gave up 435 yards to Miami. In their loss to Georgia Tech, arguably their best opponent all season, the Tarheels gave up 406 yards, 317 of which were on the ground. In my opinion, the defense of North Carolina is overrated due to their weaker opponents like the Citadel, East Carolina, Georgia Southern, and Duke. When faced with an offensive challenge, they just don’t appear to have the ability to come up big.

That’s all goes without mentioning the Tar Heels’ two embarrassing losses to NC State and Virginia. Virginia went 3-9 this season. Way to go North Carolina. Pitt may have a regrettable loss to NC State as well, but the Panthers certainly didn’t lose to a team as wretched as Virginia this season. Pitt’s other two losses this season were to their biggest rival, WVU, and the undefeated Cincinnati Bearcats. Those games were lost by a combined 4 points. They’re certainly respectable losses against very talented, ranked opponents.

So what do I predict? I predict a tough challenge for North Carolina’s defensive line. Moreso, I predict a challenge in catching Dion Lewis. Lewis has proven his ability to squeeze through even the tiniest hole, sometimes even emerging from a crowd of linemen. And if the Panthers can hold off the Tar Heels’ defensive line, look for Stull to find Baldwin after North Carolina starts looking for the run. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see more play action from Pitt and even a few trick plays like we saw against Cincinnati.

On defense, the pressure from Greg Romeus and Mick Williams will provide TJ Yates with a challenge, one that could force him into costly mistakes. Yates isn’t exactly the pride of the ACC quarterbacks club. Provided the secondary has a decent game, the defense should take care of business pretty easily.

Even with the expected overwhelming pro-Tar Heels crowd, look for Pitt to put on a show against UNC. Pitt is certainly down on its luck, and probably its spirit considering how close the Panthers came to finishing at 11-1 and playing in the Sugar Bowl. But the Panthers are looking to bounce back and post their first 10-win season since 1981.

Prediction: 38-17, Pitt.

Mike_B:

It’s finally that time Panther fans: the bowl game. Now I know this isn’t the bowl game we wanted to be at, especially with how we started this season. We all had BCS bowl game in our heads, but the end of the year collapse killed that dream. Now we get to play North Carolina in what is, more or less, a home game for them. This is the second consecutive year that North Carolina will play in the Meineke Car Care Bowl. Last year they lost to West Virginia. This is the second trip to Charlotte for Pitt, who lost to Virginia in their first trip.

It will be nice to see if Pitt can recover from the two heart breaking losses to West Virginia and Cincinnati when they play on Saturday. What will be even more fun to see is Dion Lewis rushing the ball again. This man has been a blast to watch all year, and it will be disappointing to not see him run again until the Blue-Gold game in April. It will be interesting to see how Lewis performs against North Carolina’s stout run defense. As many will remember, the only other time the Panthers played a team from the ACC this season, the Panthers lost to NC State in a miserable fashion, blowing a big lead.

Pitt outranks the Tar Heels in every offensive category. Where the Tar Heels win their games is with their defense, 6th against the run, 15th against the pass. It could be a long day for Lewis, Bill Stull, Jonathan Baldwin, and Dorin Dickerson, but with a nice balance, I feel like the Panthers could solve the Tar Heels defense. TJ Yates will be seeing a lot of Greg Romeus throughout the day, as he was the 10th rated QB in the ACC.

Overall, this game can be no worse than the Sun Bowl from last year which Pitt lost 3-0 to Oregon St. I feel this year’s bowl will be different with Pitt cruising to a victory and reaching 10 wins for the first time since 1981.

Prediction: 38-21 Pitt

St. Petersburg Bowl – Rutgers vs UCF

This is the first bowl game that a Big East team plays in. It is also one of the first games to kick off the College Bowl Season, kickoff is at 8:00 PM on December 19, on ESPN.

Both teams are 8-4, with UCF representing C-USA. This game will pretty much be a road game for the Scarlet Knights with it being in St. Petersburg. Rutgers looks to extend their bowl win streak to 4 games, while UCF is just happy to be bowling.

Neither team has a high powered offense and neither team has allowed many points against them. Rutgers is led by freshman QB Tom Savage and sophomore RB Joe Martinek who will be running against the number 4 rush defense. UCF is led by senior QB Brett Hodges.

I don’t expect a high scoring affair, and quite frankly there is not much interest in this game.

Prediction: 24-10 Rutgers

Meineke Car Care Bowl – Pitt vs North Carolina

This is the game every Pitt fan cares about. We all know the game time, 4:30 PM, December 26, on ESPN. This game is all about redemption for Pitt, redemption after losing a shot at the Sugar Bowl or even the Gator Bowl. North Carolina is happy to be there thanks to Florida St. going to the Gator Bowl. We will discuss this game more in depth next week.

Konica Minolta Gator Bowl – WVU vs Florida St.

This may be one of the most interesting bowls this year. Bobby Bowden’s last game, a game he weaseled himself into, against the team he coached against for 10 years. This game is at 1:00 PM on CBS on January 1. Bowden weaseled his way into this game by saying he wants his last bowl game in Florida, and naturally the Gator Bowl is quick to snatch FSU up. I can’t blame them though. If you aren’t a BCS game, it’s all about the money and hoping you can make an interesting game. My problem is, what stops other coaches from doing this? What stops Joe Paterno from saying in his last year he wants to play in the Rose Bowl even if PSU doesn’t qualify in the BCS?

Logic says WVU should run away with this game behind star running back Noel Devine, but the heart says FSU pulls out an upset to send Bowden off in the sunset. WVU is 8-4, while FSU is 6-6. FSU was a weird team this year, they looked great at times, and other times completely awful. But then again that can be said about WVU as well.

FSU has a high powered offense, but who can forget the WVU defense who shut down Pitt and Cincinnati this year? I have to go with logic over heart.

Prediction: 24-21 WVU

Sugar Bowl – Florida vs Cincinnati

Cincinnati was 1 second away from a National Title game against Alabama, but now they have to take on Florida in the Sugar Bowl on January 1 at 8:30 on FOX.

This game will be very interesting, no Brian Kelly for Cincinnati, how will the seniors react and lead the team against Florida? For Florida, how will they bounce back from the ugly defeat against Alabama? How will Tim Tebow end his historic college career?

This game has all the storylines for an instant classic. Florida can put up the points with anyone, but they can play defense as well. Cincinnati, as Pitt fans well know, can put up the points in no time at all. Cincinnati doesn’t really play defense, lets be honest, they don’t. They are on the field for so long and they allow so many points. I look forward to seeing Tony Pike and Mardy Gilyard try to figure out the Florida defense. And lets not forget Florida lost their defensive coordinator to Louisville, how will this affect them in this game?

I look for a high scoring affair in this game, and it should be a lot of fun to watch. I just wish, and I’m sure every Pitt fan wishes, it was Pitt playing Florida and not Cincinnati.

Prediction: 45-31 Florida

International Bowl – Northern Illinois vs South Florida

This game takes place on January 2 at 12 on ESPN2, and honestly this may be one of the worst bowl games out there. I’m sure USF is not too pleased in going up to Canada, and who knows what is going on with Jim Levitt’s investigation right now.

Both teams are 7-5 and honestly I don’t know much more about Northern Illinois. South Florida is a weird team, they looked amazing at home, but on the road, they looked terrible.

Prediction: 24-7 USF

PapaJohns.com Bowl – UConn vs South Carolina

It’s a great story seeing UConn in a bowl game after the tragic death of Jasper Howard. They get to play South Carolina on January 2 at 2:00 on ESPN.

You know everyone is going to be pulling for UConn, except maybe people from South Carolina, but you have to love the story of seeing UConn here. But you can never discount a team coached by Steve Spurrier. Both teams finished the year 7-5, but UConn could have finished so much better. There were plenty of close losses for this team.

UConn has a much higher powered offense and defense then South Carolina and I see UConn’s up and down year to end on an up and they can truly remember Jasper Howard.

Prediction: 31-14 UConn

Overall Record for the Big East: 5-1.

So now I have a major gripe. Remember back when it actually meant something to play in a January bowl? When playing in a BCS bowl game or one of the other major bowls meant something? Where is the prestige in a January bowl now?

Simply put, there is no prestige in playing in a January bowl any more. There are simply too many January bowl games. There are 34 bowl games, too many to begin with but that’s a subject for another time. Of those 34 games, 14 are in January. That’s 41% of the games. 28 teams playing a game in January, some of those games are just: the 5 BCS games and a couple of the other major, classic, January 1 games. But seriously, the International Bowl, Liberty Bowl, PapaJohns.com Bowl, and the GMAC Bowl, that’s four games right there that have no purpose being in January. Simply put there are too many January bowl games that are meaningless and hold no tradition, why give them the prestige and honor of being in January?

I’d love to hear others opinions on this, leave us some comments to discuss.

The Panthers are familiar with this bowl game. They played in it when it was known as the Continental Tire Bowl back in 2003.

This may not be the prestigous bowl game that Pitt fans had hoped for just a week or two ago, but it does actually look pretty appealing. WVU, who won the Gator Bowl invite, gets to play a mediocre Florida State team (6-6, 4-4 ACC). Pitt fans should look at this as an opportunity to show support for the Panthers. They’ll need support too, as Charlotte is just a short 2.5 hour drive from Chapel Hill, NC.

Tickets and packages are already available through the University of Pittsburgh and its travel partner, Champion Sports Tours. Tickets and travel packages are available as follows:

The travel packages include a single upper level ticket, official Pitt pre-game tailgate party, souvenir gift package, and hospitality staff. Upgrades for better tickets are available with each package for a fee.

Get your tickets Panther fans! Help support Pitt and show the nation that Pitt fans can travel well too!

Visit Bowl Central:
Pitt Bowl Central

Order Tickets:
Order Meineke Car Care Bowl Game Tickets!

View and Order Travel Packages:
Champion Sports Tours

Before you Pitt Blog fans get too upset, remember that the BCS Rankings mean nothing to Pitt at this point. There are three things for upset fans to consider right now. First off, there’s no way that Pitt is getting into a National Championship game this year with the NC State loss on the record. Second, if Pitt wins the Big East, they’ll get the automatic BCS Bowl bid anyway. And finally, if the Panthers finish second or third in the Big East, there’s virtually no chance that they’ll get an at-large bid. Right now, all that should concern Panther fans is the possibility of winning the Big East.

That brings us to an interesting scenario. Pitt has a good chance at the Big East title this year. The Panthers have three games left: Notre Dame, WVU, and Cincinnati. The Notre Dame game could have implications when it comes to the Gator Bowl. Notre Dame’s contract with the Gator Bowl requires the Irish to finish within 2 wins of the second place Big East team to get invited. If Pitt finishes in second place in the Big East and wants to avoid going to the Meineke Car Care Bowl, they need to beat both Notre Dame and WVU, as well as have Notre Dame drop at least one more game (to either UConn or Stanford). That would put Pitt at 10-2 and Notre Dame at 7-5. Pitt would then get an invite to the Gator Bowl.

But that doesn’t mean that Pitt must win against Notre Dame. In fact, Pitt could lose both the Notre Dame game and the WVU game and still win the Big East, thereby getting an automatic bid to a BCS Bowl Game. As long as Cincinnati beats WVU, the Cincinnati vs. Pitt game on December 5th will decide the Big East Champion.

It gets a bit more confusing when you try to map out all of the possible scenarios, but the bottom line is clear: Pitt needs to beat Cincinnati. That’s what Panther fans should be most concerned with right now. A win against Notre Dame will help Pitt, but only if Pitt loses to Cincy and Notre Dame drops another game after Pitt. Even then, it only helps the Panthers get into the Gator Bowl in an unlikely scenario. Pitt’s best shot at an exciting bowl game lies in winning the Big East.

Pitt’s loss to NC State is looking more awful by the week. NC State is now 3-5 overall and 0-4 in the ACC after losing yet again this past weekend.

The Big East had both ups and downs as far as the rankings were concerned. While Pitt moved up two spots in the BCS Rankings, Cincinnati moved up to the 5th spot (4th in the AP Poll, 7th in the USA Today Poll) after a win at Syracuse. WVU dropped from all three polls after their loss to USF. You won’t hear the Bulls complaining, however, as they climbed back into BCS Rankings at the 25th spot. USF also made its way to the 26th spot in both the AP Poll and USA Today Poll with their big win.

WVU isn’t down and out just yet. While not in the top 25, they still received a significant number of votes in both polls (30th in the AP Poll, 27th in the USA Today Poll).

We’re currently working on getting everything set up, but as soon as we’re up and running, you can expect a steady flow of Pitt sports news on our site.  In the meantime, check out our Twitter page and follow us. Following us on Twitter will ensure you’re among the first to know when we post new articles. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed by clicking the RSS link at the top right of the page. RSS is another way to ensure you receive the latest news from the Pitt Blog when it’s posted.

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