If the BCS ever had one good idea it should follow through on, it’s this: the elimination of automatic qualifying status.
Case in point: the five-way hodgepodge of nastiness that is the, ahem, “top” of the Big East right now. With Cincinnati losing 20-3 to Rutgers and Louisville beating UConn 34-20, there are now two teams with 4-2 conference records (Louisville and Rutgers) and three teams with 3-2 conference records (WVU, Cincy and Pitt).
A break down of key wins, losses and remaining games for these teams can be seen below; if this doesn’t interest you (i.e., you hate mediocre football), feel free to move on to the next post.
Still with us? Cool.
Here are the Big East Standings as they appear today following the games (conference records in parentheses):
1. Louisville -- 6-5 (4-2)
2. Rutgers -- 8-3 (4-2)
3. WVU -- 7-3 (3-2)
4. Cincinnati -- 7-3 (3-2)
5. Pitt -- 5-5 (3-2)
6. UConn -- 4-6 (2-3)
7. South Florida -- 5-4 (1-4)
8. Syracuse -- 5-5 (1-4)
For now, let’s take Pitt out of the equation because they’re 1-2 vs three of the Big East’s top four teams and they still have to play West Virginia next week. If for nothing else, it just makes this less confusing. The Backyard Brawl should provide some clarity in eliminating one of the two when it comes to conference standings, but the Panthers probably have the longest shot of the top five of winning the Big East as it stands today.
Here’s what we have left:
Louisville
Key Wins: WVU, Rutgers
Key Losses: Cincy
Remaining Games: USF
Rutgers
Key Wins: Cincy
Key Losses: Louisville, WVU
Remaining Games: UConn
West Virginia
Key Wins: Cincy, Rutgers
Key Losses: Louisville
Remaining Games: Pitt, USF
Cincinnati
Key Wins: Louisville
Key Losses: WVU, Rutgers
Remaining Games: Syracuse, UConn
Trying to explain this is headache-inducing, but we’ll give it a try:
Under the BCS guidelines, we’d have a four-way tie assuming the aforementioned four teams win out.
Put it all together and West Virginia is probably in the best position to end up in the BCS in that scenario because of BCS rankings. In the “Mini-Conference” scenario, “Teams A & B are 2-1 (UL, WVU), and Teams C & D are 1-2 (Cincy, RU). The higher ranked of the 2-1 teams earns the bid. If the 2-1 teams tie for the highest ranking, the bid goes to the team that won the head-to-head match up.”
In a three-way tie, the following applies:Scenario I:
All three teams have either a 6-1 or 5-2 record and have each won one game and lost one game against the other tied teams in the mini-conference. In this case, the highest ranked team amongst the three earns the bid. If two of the three teams are tied for the highest ranking, the bid is earned by the team winning the head-to-head match up.
All three teams have 5-2 records, and within the mini-conference, Team A is 2-0, Team B is 1-1, and Team C is 0-2. Team A earns bid regardless of ranking.