Did someone steal JP’s password or is he just calling me a buffoon? I hope he is just calling me a buffoon.

While we are ranked as top 3 BCS conference, we are still filled with young, up-and-coming programs. We have 2 teams that have been FBS schools for less than 15 years. The Big East has some traditional powers but also some very green programs. No other BCS conference has such a mix of teams.

It will take a while for pundits and others to warm-up to the new Big East. They can only ignore stats for so long.

Coaches use some of our school’s as stepping stones because of the youth of some of your teams but also because there has been a ton of turnover with the “elite programs.” Michigan and Notre Dame are too of the biggest jobs in college football. Not many people turn them down.

Having said that, I think with time, these jobs will not be stepping stones. WV, to me, is not a stepping stone job. Fraud was just an idiot and left because of a temper-tantrum.

I point back to Auburn in ’05. They went undefeated in the SEC and did not get a shot to play for the national championship.

When you have more than two undefeated teams, no matter how good or bad those teams look, the “traditional powers” will get into the game, before the up-and-comers.

Also, if Colt McCoy holds onto that ball for one more second Cincy is in the title game over TCU. While we may not be considered a top tier BCS program by the national media, we are looked at more highly than those other crap conferences.

I am sure you won’t like my answers…since we rarely see eye-to-eye, but I think the old perception versus reality thing really works against the Big East. Sagarin’s numbers, where our conference mean is third among the BCS 6 is a quantifiable, unbiased figure that is built throughout the season – it is kind of like a house of cards that gets higher and higher because it considers each team’s results and factors in the results of the teams they play, and the teams they play…etc. It is complicated. In fact, if you print out the Sagarin ratings, in the first six weeks of the season, it actually says on the sheet “Biased.” After those first five or six weeks, it says “unbiased,” which indicates that the house of cards is now large enough to be weighted by who all has played who.

I don’t have any idea why Rod left our program, because we are on par with all the top schools in terms of facilities and such, so I think that was a real blow to the Big East. Kelly leaving for ND, however…well I posted about it last night. I don’t think you can blame the guy. He was coaching at a school reticent to follow through on promises it made to him just last year and the Bearcats play in something like the third smallest stadium in FBS.

Also, Leavitt and Edsall are progam originators and both have had chances to leave, and haven’t yet. Schiano had a shot to take both Michigan and Miami, and didn’t leave. So, it is n’t like everyone bolts from the conference. Syracuse needs to become relevant again, and I am not hopeful because they keep hiring assistants who have never been a head coach, anywhere. I think it really hurt that Louisville was unable to keep Petrino…think how much better the perception of the conference would have been if they hadn’t gone into a nosedive, but Petrino was one of those ego coaches who had to see what he could do at the next level and he found at fast, much to Arkansas’ liking. And much, as I hate to say it…Wanstache has improved Pitt…

…so all in all, I don’t think the conference is sub-par, at all. Granted, there are way too many bowl games, but we put what, 6 of 8 into the postseason. Only the SEC’s 10 rivals that number.

Regarding the fact the so many top-level coaches have left our conference, what I think you need to consider, Schmitty, is that none of these guys are making lateral moves. Rod didn’t leave us to coach Arkansas. D’antonio didn’t leave to coach Baylor. Kelly didn’t leave to coach to coach Iowa State. These guys all left for progams with name cache.

That sucks for us as a conference, but all it takes to change perceptions is a prolonged streak of success. Think of the Colts in the pros. An epitome of excellence, right? Well in 1997, they were 0-10 to start the season!

You are absolutely right about a 12-0 Notre Dame team, but ND is engrained in college football’s DNA and that is why they would get the spot over a (likely) more-deserving Big East team. One reason we should have a freakin’ playoff…but that is a whole other discussion. Still, undefeated really doesn’t happen that often…five teams this year, but only three in BCS conferences…is kind of an anomaly. If the BE puts forth an undefeated team, I think it gets its shot unless it is an odd year like this one. Remember, 07. Hell, we had a loss and still were in line to meet Ohio St., until…you know.

…believe me, I can be as big a jerk as anyone, and I know it, too!