Will A Big East Team Ever Play For The National Championship

[FirefightnRick]

In reading up on how the BCS is calculated I came across THIS WEBSITE, which is run by Jerry Palm who has his own talk show in Indiana. He had the director of the BCS on his show on December 4th. By looking over some of his FAQ I have my doubts if a team from the Big East will ever play for the national title.

Just a couple of notes of interest he had to say.

The computer ratings are also more of a mystery because many are proprietary, so exactly how they are computed is unknown. Each poll is a consensus of the opinion of its voters. That is 113 Harris voters and 62 coaches, so it can be said that the polls are a consensus of 175 opinions. Each computer rating though is basically the individual programmer's opinion. That means that the computer ratings piece of the BCS is a consensus of six opinions. And the "best" and "worst" opinions do not count. So it can be said that Richard Billingsley's opinion, for example, is more important than any one writer's or any one coach's. Is that a good idea? I think it is fine, but draw your own confusion.

The BCS is between a rock and a hard place. The good thing about giving this much power to the pollsters is that it increases the chance that the fans will get what they want each year, which is the #1 and #2 teams in the polls playing each other for the title.

The coaches have shown that are not above messing around at the top of their poll. In 2001, after the Big XII title game, Colorado was still right behind Nebraska in the coaches poll. However, after a week of hand-wringing in the media over the possibility of the Huskers playing for the National title without winning its conference, the coaches switched their votes the following week in an effort to affect the outcome. It almost worked. Note that after the bowls, in which both NU and CU got creamed, Nebraska was back ahead of the Buffs.

In 1997, we have the legendary example of the coaches switching their #1 votes from undefeated Michigan to undefeated Nebraska after the bowls so as to provide a lovely parting gift to Cornhusker coach Tom Osborne, who had announced his retirement.

In '09 Cincy finished 3rd at 12-0 but were still over .1100ths of a point out of contention. I just don't see the voters ever giving a team from the Big East a solid chance even if it is set up like it is and gives their Champion, who is currently 8-4 and not even ranked, a piece of a BCS bowl game. It just seems like more serving of crumbs to me?

Thoughts?

Rick

[GrayEagle]

By sheer numbers the Big East has had a lesser chance. They only had eight teams where the others had a minimum of ten.

The fertile recruiting areas are Texas and Florida. The addition of TCU will open up Texas to the Big East. They have some Florida players from the addition of South Florida. West Virginia, Pitt, Syracuse and now TCU have been high in the polls at season's end.

TCU will also reduce the stigma of them being thought of as a basketball conference that plays football and they should be getting even better recruits. I expect them to add UCF and if/when they get Boston College back as rumored and/or possibly add Notre Dame they will be a fairly solid conference.

Before this can happen they need to split from the non-football colleges. That will change their perception among the pollsters.

[FirefightnRick]

Neither Syracuse, Pitt, UConn, S. Florida or Rutgers have ever finished in the BCS rankings higher than 16th since the BCS inception in 2000.

Just for reference, here is the breakdown of the Big East in the BCS since the the current BCS system was put in place in 2006.

2010...TCU, Ranked 3rd, 12-0. BCS average=.9102

2009...Cincy, Ranked 3rd, 12-0. BCS average=.8836(West Virginia finished 16th at 9-3).

2008...Cincy, Ranked 12th, 11-2. BCS average=.5384(Pitt finished 20th at 9-3). Oklahoma was first at 12-1 with a BCS average=.9757

2007...West Virginia, Ranked 9th, 10-2. BCS average=.6751.(S. Florida finished 21st at 9-3 and Cincy 22nd at 9-3).

2006...Louisville, Ranked 6th, 12-1. BCS average=.8042. (West Virginia finished 13th at 11-2, and Rutgers finished 16th at 11-2).

Rick

Edited December 6, 2010 by FirefightnRick

[Quoner]

By sheer numbers the Big East has had a lesser chance. They only had eight teams where the others had a minimum of ten.

The fertile recruiting areas are Texas and Florida. The addition of TCU will open up Texas to the Big East. They have some Florida players from the addition of South Florida. West Virginia, Pitt, Syracuse and now TCU have been high in the polls at season's end.

TCU will also reduce the stigma of them being thought of as a basketball conference that plays football and they should be getting even better recruits. I expect them to add UCF and if/when they get Boston College back as rumored and/or possibly add Notre Dame they will be a fairly solid conference.

Before this can happen they need to split from the non-football colleges. That will change their perception among the pollsters.

Why would BC go back after the way their divorce went down?

[KoldBeer]

Neither Syracuse, Pitt, UConn, S. Florida or Rutgers have ever finished in the BCS rankings higher than 16th since the BCS inception in 2000.

Just for reference, here is the breakdown of the Big East in the BCS since the the current BCS system was put in place in 2006.

2010...TCU, Ranked 3rd, 12-0. BCS average=.9102

2009...Cincy, Ranked 3rd, 12-0. BCS average=.8836(West Virginia finished 16th at 9-3).

2008...Cincy, Ranked 12th, 11-2. BCS average=.5384(Pitt finished 20th at 9-3). Oklahoma was first at 12-1 with a BCS average=.9757

2007...West Virginia, Ranked 9th, 10-2. BCS average=.6751.(S. Florida finished 21st at 9-3 and Cincy 22nd at 9-3).

2006...Louisville, Ranked 6th, 12-1. BCS average=.8042. (West Virginia finished 13th at 11-2, and Rutgers finished 16th at 11-2).

Rick

WVU would have played for the title in 2007 if they wouldn't have lost to Pitt in the last game of the regular season. A Big East team might play for it someday but it's going require the Big East team going undefeated and everybody else losing at least a game. I don't see a Big East team getting picked ahead of a SEC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-10 team if they have the same amount of L's.