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The Big East Bowl Recap
Jan 6th
Well the 2009-2010 bowl season is just about over. Only the BCS National Championship between Texas and Alabama remains. The Big East finished its bowl season with a postseason record of 4-2. We’re going to recap the Big East’s bowl season starting with the scoreboard, followed by our commentary on the results.
| Meineke Car Care Bowl | |
|---|---|
| Pitt UNC |
19 (10-3, 5-2 Big East) 17 (8-5, 4-4 ACC) |
| AllState Sugar Bowl | |
|---|---|
| Cincinnati Florida |
24 (12-1, 7-0 Big East) 51 (13-1, 8-0 SEC) |
| Konica Minolta Gator Bowl | |
|---|---|
| WVU Florida State |
21 (9-4, 5-2 Big East) 33 (7-6, 4-4 ACC) |
| PapaJohns.com Bowl | |
|---|---|
| South Carolina UConn |
7 (7-6, 3-5 SEC) 20 (8-5, 3-4 Big East) |
| International Bowl | |
|---|---|
| USF N. Illinois |
27 (8-5, 3-4 Big East) 3 (7-6, 5-3 MAC) |
| St. Petersburg Bowl by Beef ‘O’ Brady’s | |
|---|---|
| UCF Rutgers |
24 (8-5, 6-2 C-USA) 45 (9-4, 3-4 Big East) |
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.
Big East Bowl Preview
Dec 19th
We are less then 24 hours away from the first bowl game of the college bowl season. I’m not calling it the Capital One Bowl Week, because A. we are not sponsored through Capitol One and B. a week is 7 days, not 20 days. So we will be discussing it as the College Bowl Season. I plan on previewing every Big East team bowl game and what to expect. We will go more in depth for the Pitt-North Carolina game next week.
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.
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