The BCS should replace the Big East with The Mountain West...

[El Supremo]

as an automatic invitee.

Not only is Cincinnati greatly overrated, but their uniforms are over-designed.

At least I have some Netflix movies to watch.

[Condem]

1. God damn. Ragging on a conference other than the Big Ten.

I wake up with a swagger, again, on the 'morrow. Oh, that's right. I never lost it.

[El Supremo]

3. Not the Big 10, just the Luckeyes.

But come to mention it, Ohio State and Penn State suck too.

I rag on most teams, probably Big 12 teams the most. Only Texas and Kansas are high in my book. Oklahoma State and Kansas State are just OK.

[JonLP24]

2. It's not so much the team

it's the finesse pass happy style Cincinnati plays is no match for the physical defense Florida plays. It would be like if Texas Tech w/ Leach was playing.

I disagree they are overrated, they went 12-0. They pretty much earned the ranking they got and if they end up losing they will get the ranking they deserve.

However TCU or Boise St would be a better match-up because they will run the ball early and often. Spread pass happy offenses are no match to defenses like Florida. You know if Cincinnati is winning games like 42-39 or something like that they would have problems.

[fishwax]

4. Their defense has also taken a nose dive since the start of November

They gave up 40+ to UConn and 40+ to Pitt and almost gave up 40 (don't remember the final score) to Illinois. Those pass happy offenses rely on getting a lot of possessions since they tend to make the game longer. But that means the other team gets a lot of possessions too, so if you're defense can't get a stop it's bound to get ugly.

Anyway, like you said, so much depends on matchups in the bowl games, so teams (and conferences) can wind up looking better or worse than they really are.

Still, you gotta be proud of the Mountain West, right? 4-0, including 2-0 against BCS schools, with a chance to go 5-0 if TCU wins. Pretty good year for the MWC :toast:

[JonLP24]

6. I like the Mountain West

As you know Colorado State is my #2 team behind Arizona State so I have a soft spot in my heart for the MWC. The rivalries intrigue me a lot. TCU is pretty new so I don't know where they fit maybe vs New Mexico. But I like the Colorado State vs Wyoming vs Air Force games. Utah vs BYU. UNLV vs San Diego State.

So I'm very proud especially Wyoming's showing. Even though I like CSU I also like Wyoming. Just think if TCU didn't get the BCS bid they would have been playing Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl. :scared:

[fishwax]

8. That Wyoming game was exciting

I was proud of their showing too :) Maybe one of these years CSU can get back to bowl shape too. The season started so well. Alas.

Just think if TCU didn't get the BCS bid they would have been playing Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl. :scared:

lol! That could have been ugly.

[fishwax]

5. They're 4-0 in bowls (and 2-0 against BCS schools)

They've had a good bowl season. They got several wins against BCS schools in the regular season, too.

[JonLP24]

7. LOL -- even lowly Colorado State got a BCS win

3-9 CSU defeated Colorado in the Rocky Mountain Showdown. :evilgrin:

[SteelPenguin]

9. Wish I could Disagree

Cincinnati is very overrated. They were gifted their 12-0 season by the Big East in an attempt to squeak into the BCS Championship. The day an injury depleted Pitt team lost to NC State earlier in the season, it was decided and by the time Pitt started obliterating the Bearcats in the last game of the year the Big East freaked.

Go back and look at the tape of the Pitt Cincinnati game, the supposed Big East Championship and tell me what you see. You see a Cincinnati team that minus a Gilyard runback would have seen the first half finish 31-10 Pitt, and those 10 points were gifted by numerous non-existant penalties by the referees. It should have been more like 31-6 (or even 31-3). The Pitt offensive line pushed them 3,4,5 yards back every play and gained consistent yards on the ground. The Bearcats could simply not stop Pitt, and couldn't get anything into gear and moved down the field thanks to the refs.

Sound familiar to this game?

That game was so fixed to get Cincy the win it's not even funny. Utterly blatant facemask penalties called by line judges, waved off. Blatant holds and pass interferences by the Bearcats ignored, etc. They wanted them in this game, and they ended up getting them back in it and winning it for them. I'm never a tin foil hat guy. It was just so blatant in the game it was incredible. There is no way you can watch that game with an objective knowledgable eye and say that that the Ref's weren't in on it.

The sad thing is that it makes the Big East look ridiculously bad, and you can't blame people for thinking it. They're putting forward their number 3 ranked undefeated "champion" and they go up against a team which is essentially designed to obliterate them...and without their Head Coach, and a demoralized team to boot.

Pitt would have lined up much better against Florida. They probably would still have lost (lets be real), but they wouldn't have had to bring their linebackers up to try and contain the run. The Pitt front four would have held their own, and then Tebow wouldn't have had a wide open secondary. Pitt's much more like Alabama in this regard. It would have been a far better and closer game, Dion Lewis would have gotten a national debut and wowed some people and while Florida would still most likely have won it wouldn't have been embarrassing like this.

As a Pitt fan I just hope that they get the nod from the Big 10 in their expansion talks. Or that they go to being a Big 14 and wrap in Missouri, Pitt and Rutgers or something like that...The Big East is as good as done. With Kelly gone, Cincinnati is going to fall apart, and the Big East is basically Pitt and West Virginia with a bunch of former good schools, and Conf-USA Refugees. If 3/4'rs of your league was in the Conf-USA 5 years ago, what does that make you? (answer: Conf-USA 2 Electric Boogaloo)

The Mountain West top tier is great, and while the argument about their bottom half I think is comparable to the Big East, at least their top half is winning their bowl games.

This game just disgusts me, even though before the game started (hell after the Pitt/Cinci game and we found out they'd be playing Florida) I could have told you that not only would exactly this result happen, but that immediately people would be saying how crappy the Big East as a whole is.

Sad part is that I have to agree at this point.

Fuck Cinci. Fuck the Big East.

Dear Big-10, Please accept these flowers and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies from the Pitt Panthers who desperately want to be your friend to rescue us from this abysmal conference. We're an AAU school, with a rich athletic history in Football, Basketball and more, a solid former rivalry with Penn State, easy setup for a new rivalry with Ohio State, good academics, and we'd solidify the regional footprint of the conference.

Please?

[Condem]

15. I think it will be Rutgers, Steel. Sorry.

Gigantic TV market. I don't think it will be Mizzou. Pitt is probably the second choice.

[SteelPenguin]

16. i'm hoping for a "Big 14"

Mizzou, Pitt AND Rutgers, with two 7 team divisions.

[northzax]

22. I like to think

(although you will never see a pundit admit it) that this game shows that the BCS system works. any idea what the Alabama defense would do to Cincy? every single player is 20 pounds heavier, two inches taller and a step faster. it would be ugly. or the Cincy defense trying to stop McCoy and company? Texas might have hung 60 points on them. So yeah, Cincy, you got your BCS shot, and seriously came up wanting, just as the polls would have predicted all season. Sure, you're 12-0, but it doesn't take a professional analyst to see that you aren't going to match up well against the real big boys.

[dakota_democrat]

23. As much as this post went into RANT territory

I kind of thought the same thing watching Cinci-Pitt. I would love to see Pitt in the Big 10, and since they already house Penn State, it would add an instant rivalry and isn't any kind of stretch geographically. Also, a Wannstedt hard-nosed team would fit right in.

I really, REALLY don't want to see Rutgers in there.

[KamaAina]

10. No.

They should just add the Mountain West and another at-large team, and bring in another bowl such as the Cotton or Capital One.

[hughee99]

11. I don't think either the Big East or the ACC deserve automatic bids...

but given the agreements to get the BCS, they can't really "kick them out" under the current system. I'm not sure any other conference deserves to get the automatic bids in their place either. Hell, even without the automatic bids, the Big 10, Big 12, Pac 10 and SEC would have someone in the BCS bowls every year.

[trumad]

13. Well then--- No big ten as well...

Make it a requirement that the play a conf championship.

[hughee99]

17. I don't have a problem with no automatic bids at all.

If the conferences are strong enough, the winner shouldn't need a rule to get into the BCS. As far as conference strength goes, both the Big 10 and Pac 10 are both considerably stronger conferences than the "Big Least" or "OKCC".

[lazarus]

12. this will never happen

But I'm going to propose it anyway. :)

In European football (soccer) leagues, there is a division between the upper teams and the lower teams. Every so often (I'm too lazy to look it up), a team will get demoted and another team will get promoted, based on how well they perform

We could do the same thing with conferences. Say, every five years we evaluate how the conferences have performed in both rankings and bowls. If a team in the BCS doesn't reach a particular benchmark, then they get demoted and the best non-BCS conference is in.

[CBR]

14. As a lifelong WVU fan, each year I tend increasingly to agree that

the Mt. West deserves it more. I wish WVU could find another conference :-(

[TZ]

18. Why don't we kick out the PAC10

Since they obviously are seriously overrated!! :sarcasm:

This kind of stuff is such bullshit since conferences change from year to year. Up and down...You swore the Big 10 was incapable of beating the PAC10 or SEC and look how well they've held up this year.

[joeybee12]

19. At least UCONN beat South Carolina...did Kelly coach...

...I have sooooooooooooooo stopped watching college games that I don't know if there was some agreement that he might stay through the bowl game before moving on to America's Team.

[bigwillq]

20. Kelly did not coach (nt)

[SteelPenguin]

21. No he bolted weeks ago

I wonder if somehow Cinci had squeeked into the National CHampionship game if he'd have left. I bet he saw nothing to gain from staying to coach the sugar bowl. If they win, he gets credit, but he already was leaving on a high. If he leaves and they win, he gets credit still for coaching them, and if they lose, they can say "well he wasn't there." Meanwhile if he had stayed and coached this game and gotten destroyed it'd take some of the shine off his new position....

But no. Florida was amped up for their coach, their quarterback, and to avenge losing to Alabama. Cincinnati was in shambles, and even the assistant coach who took over for Kelly had packed up his office and shipped it to his new job in Buffalo. Apparently the place has been a wreck the past few weeks.

I still think Florida would have beat the snot out of them with Kelly, Cincinnati was gifted their spot in that game, and Florida was built to push them around. The Cinci front D just wasn't strong enough to face florida no matter what. Their offense would have clicked more if Kelly was there, adn it would have been closer, but Florida would have still probably come out on top. Cinci just wouldn't have been as embarrassed.