1. West Virginia
To the surprise of everyone but me, WVU tanked their season, despite having Big East level talent and having to play a Big 12 schedule. Kansas State was the surprise here, but the Big East has been completely irredeemable since Miami left. Everything else is just posturing and good scheduling. The TCU win over WVU should prove to the sports world that the Big East and Mountain West are in equal ground, but apparently bringing in one new class of freshman and changing conferences mean a team has been completely revamped. SPOILERS: No.
2. The ACC
Can you believe FSU involved in NCG talk? You're in the ACC. Just by playing in the ACC, your schedule is too weak to stay that high, and if you lose, you fall all the farther (as they did). It's like being in the Pac-12. Or Big East. Or Mountain West.
3. The MAC
Best season all around. Three teams have been ranked at one time or another, and Kent State is ranked for the first time since the early 1970's. Hell, UMass even won a game. But this year will it be the coaches, or the actual schools, that get raided for another conference?
4. The Big Ten
Despite being an academic powerhouse, their football has been questionable at best since 2003. Their only decent team is enduring a post-season ban. Michigan returned to the rankings, which is good, but being ranked #22 in the nation is not exactly a return to national power. Unless you're thinking Louisiana Tech is about to make a run at the national title game.
Which brings us up to this week. Maryland and Rutgers to the Big Ten. The Big Ten Network, made of money like it is, gets to expand into Baltimore and New Jersey. And we can all enjoy the annual football barnburner when Rutgers travels to Lincoln, Nebraska. Heck, Pac-12 vs Big Ten in the Rose Bowl? Whee! Maryland vs Utah. GO TEAM.
.... which assumes Maryland will ever compete, when they have proven they cannot. More teams means it becomes more difficult to rise to the top... Rutgers managed to do it in a terrible Big East (for football) ... meanwhile BE basketball remains among the best in the country, and new additions South Florida continues to suck. Miami basketball continues to suck within the ACC. Etc. It takes money and time, and all the best athletes are going to traditionally better teams in the conference. But HEY. Everyone gets paid. So there's that.
Meanwhile the Big 12 continues to be run by idiots (Hi! I'm Kansas! Texas gets way more money than we do out of this TV deal, and I'M OKAY WITH THIS! *drools on self*).
.....
The above was written a few months ago, apparently I forgot to post it, or else failed to do so, because of Blogspot's new layout. To speak of more recent developments:
The Catholic 7 departing the Big East was only surprising in that it's largely unprecedented. The the leadership of the Big East (if you can call it leadership) decided they wanted to be a football league, which you can do, just not when it would swell the membership to 20+ schools. The WAC grew unchecked in the 1990's, and it topped like a Jenga tower. Which is exactly what happened to the Big East. Which is exactly what I said would happen.
These days the Big East is more WAC than Mountain West. Sure, it has Houston and Memphis, but that's exactly the problem: Those are new additions. Those schools moving to the BE, in a post-BCS world, is a step DOWN. Why bother? Tired of playing UAB? That's cool bro, now you can travel to Connecticut ever year. That makes total sense.
The return of BSU and SDSU to the MWC was also predictable, because without the BCS, they have no reason to stay. As for C-USA, well.. we'll see. That's a whole lot of teams in a league no one cares about, but the same can be said for the 2014 Big East and the 2014 Sun Belt (or 2013, or 2012...). The "highest rated BCS team" gets in the playoffs starting in 2014, but how many years in a row will that be the Mountain West before they change the rules again?
Like you, I can't wait to see.......
.... which assumes Maryland will ever compete, when they have proven they cannot. More teams means it becomes more difficult to rise to the top... Rutgers managed to do it in a terrible Big East (for football) ... meanwhile BE basketball remains among the best in the country, and new additions South Florida continues to suck. Miami basketball continues to suck within the ACC. Etc. It takes money and time, and all the best athletes are going to traditionally better teams in the conference. But HEY. Everyone gets paid. So there's that.
Meanwhile the Big 12 continues to be run by idiots (Hi! I'm Kansas! Texas gets way more money than we do out of this TV deal, and I'M OKAY WITH THIS! *drools on self*).
.....
The above was written a few months ago, apparently I forgot to post it, or else failed to do so, because of Blogspot's new layout. To speak of more recent developments:
The Catholic 7 departing the Big East was only surprising in that it's largely unprecedented. The the leadership of the Big East (if you can call it leadership) decided they wanted to be a football league, which you can do, just not when it would swell the membership to 20+ schools. The WAC grew unchecked in the 1990's, and it topped like a Jenga tower. Which is exactly what happened to the Big East. Which is exactly what I said would happen.
These days the Big East is more WAC than Mountain West. Sure, it has Houston and Memphis, but that's exactly the problem: Those are new additions. Those schools moving to the BE, in a post-BCS world, is a step DOWN. Why bother? Tired of playing UAB? That's cool bro, now you can travel to Connecticut ever year. That makes total sense.
The return of BSU and SDSU to the MWC was also predictable, because without the BCS, they have no reason to stay. As for C-USA, well.. we'll see. That's a whole lot of teams in a league no one cares about, but the same can be said for the 2014 Big East and the 2014 Sun Belt (or 2013, or 2012...). The "highest rated BCS team" gets in the playoffs starting in 2014, but how many years in a row will that be the Mountain West before they change the rules again?
Like you, I can't wait to see.......
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