If the Big East is a Dying Star, It’s Going Out Like a Supernova
Leave a commentJanuary 3, 2013 by ryanoudoak
With Louisville’s upset of the Florida Gators last night, there is little doubt which program has made the biggest statement this bowl season. Sure Arizona’s thrilling comeback victory in the New Mexico Bowl to start the season was exciting; Boise St.’s victory over Washington was a statement that the Broncos could stay relevant in a down year but Washington was a bi-polar team all year; Texas, Michigan St., and Virginia Tech all finished with a victory following disappointing seasons; and Clemson finally got that big win over an SEC team and helped erase the memory of that 70-33 lashing at the hands of West Virginia last year.
Nobody has made the statement that the Cardinals have, however. Louisville went into the SEC’s backyard against a team that was complaining that they should be in the National Title game just a few short weeks ago. They were installed as a 14-point underdog and given little to no chance at competing, let alone winning. They took control of the game on the very first play of the game, with a 39-yard INT return for a TD, and never looked back. On a night after college football fans watched N. Illinois pull every trick out of the bag in a futile attempt to keep it close against Florida St., the same fans were watching those futile ploys from an SEC powerhouse. It took a trick play on the last play of the first half to give the Gators their first TD of the game and get them back to within two TDs of Louisville at halftime. They started the second half with an onside kick that stank of desperation, although HC Will Muschamp tried to claim that it was their plan from the beginning. Louisville recovered and, after two personal fouls for unnecessary roughness and one ejection all against Florida’s players, the Cardinals lined up at the 19-yard line of the Gators and QB Teddy Bridgewater calmly threw what was only the 7th TD pass of the season on the Gator secondary. Louisville scored a TD on the first play of both halves and won the game by 10 points.
Going into the game, everyone expected Florida’s defense to be the story in the game, but instead it was Louisville’s defense that proved impenetrable. While Louisville, behind sophomore QB Teddy Bridgewater, regularly drove down the field on the Gators defense using a mix of run and pass while piling up 338 yards, Florida’s offense didn’t find the end zone against the Cardinals defense until there was 2:13 left in the game. Both of Florida’s first two touchdowns came on special teams with the gadget play to end the first half and a KO return for a TD after Louisville’s final score midway through the fourth quarter.
So where does that leave us in the bowl season? There are still statements to be made with five bowl games left on the schedule, including two top-5 matchups on Thursday and next Monday night. The SEC has three teams left to play and can improve on their conference’s 3-3 record in this bowl season; the Big XII has two teams left and can still finish 6-3 as a conference; and Notre Dame still has a chance to make the biggest statement of all and break up the stranglehold on the BCS Championships that the SEC has enjoyed for 7 years. Statements by conferences are yet to be fully articulated, but which conferences have made the biggest statements so far?
Here are the conference records so far:
| conf | #teams | wins | losses | winning % |
| ACC |
6 |
4 |
2 |
66.67% |
| Big East |
5 |
3 |
1 |
75.00% |
| B1G |
7 |
2 |
5 |
28.57% |
| Big XII |
9 |
4 |
3 |
57.14% |
| C-USA |
5 |
4 |
1 |
80.00% |
| MAC |
7 |
2 |
4 |
33.33% |
| MWC |
5 |
1 |
4 |
20.00% |
| SEC |
9 |
3 |
3 |
50.00% |
| Sun Belt |
4 |
1 |
2 |
33.33% |
| Pac-12 |
8 |
3 |
4 |
42.86% |
| WAC |
2 |
2 |
0 |
100.00% |
| Ind |
3 |
1 |
1 |
50.00% |
The winning percentage of the WAC and the C-USA jump out, (100% and 80%, respectively), but the WAC gained their record by beating up on a couple of MAC schools (Toledo and Bowling Green). C-USA, meanwhile, earned a victory over Iowa St. from the Big XII for their most impressive victory. Neither of these statements is impressive by a conference and only serves to lay a basis for the lower conference pecking order. The MWC and the MAC had the best opportunities to make statements from the lower conferences but they have both had disappointing post-seasons. Nevada and Boise St. from the MWC went 1-1 against the Pac-12 and Mid-American Conference-member N. Illinois failed to compete in the Orange Bowl against Florida St.
The argument over which conference that has made the biggest statement in the bowl season so far has to center around the ACC and the Big East. The ACC finally scored a victory over the SEC when Clemson came back to beat LSU in the final moments of 2012. That victory came hours after Georgia Tech destroyed Southern Cal in the Sun Bowl. The only blemish that day came when NC State lost to Vanderbilt and their only other loss in the bowl season was Duke falling short against Cincinnati from the Big East, which brings us to the Big East. Only five teams from the Big East were invited to bowl games this season, but three of them have already taken home bowl trophies. Pitt has a good chance of running that record to 4-1 on Saturday afternoon which would also give the conference a 2-0 mark over the SEC. Rutgers gave the conference their only loss with a disappointing overtime defeat to Virginia Tech while Syracuse suffocated Geno Smith and the WVU Mountaineers.
A conference that has been taken off life support in the last few weeks, with Louisville joining Pitt and Syracuse in jumping to the ACC while Rutgers has decided to move to the B1G and Boise St. has announced they will stay in the MWC rather than make the awkward move to the East Coast, the Big East is making a huge statement in what could be their second to last season of existence.
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