Big East Power Poll: Week One

by Mike Rutherford on Sep 3, 2008 2:23 PM EDT in Football

This might be the least intimidating lineup since Sabrina, the Teenage Witch replaced Hangin' with Mr. Cooper on ABC's TGIF.

I'll run out of obscure, mildly humorous '90s references one of these days, but not this one.

1. West Virginia (1-0, 0-0)

Last Week: Beat Villanova (48-21)

This Week: At East Carolina

A loss by the Mountaineers in Greenville this weekend, and all of the sudden the Big East bashing has reached near 2004 proportions.

2. South Florida (1-0, 0-0)

Last Week: Beat Tennessee-Martin (56-7)

This Week: At Central Florida

The Skyhawks would have kept it within five touchdowns if Lester Hudson had started at quarterback. USF now enters a dangerous situation, taking on a Central Florida squad that will undoubtedly be going for broke in what could very easily be the final meeting between the cross-state rivals.

3. Cincinnati (1-0, 0-0)

Last Week: Beat Eastern Kentucky (40-7)

This Week: At Oklahoma

For the second year in a row, I'm about 80 times higher on the Bearcats than everyone I know. We'll see if that statement is still true in five days.

4. Connecticut (1-0, 0-0)

Last Week: Beat Hofstra (35-3)

This Week: At Temple

The powers that be in the Temple athletic department have planned an entire marketing campaign around this one game. It's safe to say that makes this a dangerous situation to be walking into.

5. Rutgers (0-1, 0-0)

Last Week: Lost to Fresno State (24-7)

This Week: Off

Go crazy Knight nation, your loss was slightly more tolerable than Pitt's.

6. Pittsburgh (0-1, 0-0)

Last Week: Lost to Bowling Green (27-17)

This Week: vs. Buffalo

Oh, Wanny. Wherever you go, there you are.

7. Louisville (0-1, 0-0)

Last Week: Lost to Kentucky (27-2)

This Week: vs. Tennessee Tech

The sudden and, seemingly, complete collapse of the Louisville football program is one of the worst things that could have happened to the Big East conference.

8. Syracuse (0-1, 0-0)

Last Week: Lost to Northwestern (30-10)

This Week: vs. Akron

A home game against a middle-of-the road MAC team has never meant more to the head coach of a BCS conference program.

Tweet Comment 2 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Gotta be a WVU fan this year; they're becoming my second favorite team I swear

by BR7 on Sep 3, 2008 4:26 PM EDT reply actions

Just like last year

Even after the UK performance, there’s definitely still hope of doing passably well in the Big East. The offense can’t stay this bad all year, it just can’t. The defense will be at least competent, at best a strength. We should keep getting better as the year goes on, as our new players gain experience, and most importantly, the Big East is really not that strong this year. Lots of talent at the very very top, but the rest of the league is a general scrum, which, if we improve to borderline competent on offense, we should be right in the middle of.

by bartenpa on Sep 3, 2008 8:22 PM EDT reply actions