Here’s hoping that this evening’s Beef ‘O’ Brady’s bowl is more indicative of what’s to come from this year’s bowl season than Saturday’s blowout victories by BYU, Northern Illinois and Troy.
To repeat: the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl was a good game. Was it the cleanest game? No. Will it go down as the best bowl game of 2010? Probably not. But it was a hard-hitting, tight matchup that featured some great highlights, including an amazing one-handed touchdown grab by USM quarterback Austin Davis on a trick play.
Louisville’s 31-28 victory over Southern Miss was also a much needed boost for the Big East, who has zero margin for error right now. No disrespect to Conference USA or USM, but a Louisville loss would have been a real head-shaker.
Outside Hartford, Connecticut, you could argue that no one is expecting UConn to beat Oklahoma, but the rest of the Big East is going to have to pull off wins against mid-level ACC, Big 12 and SEC teams. Syracuse aside, the rest of the conference certainly has the talent level to match up against their competition.
The Big East has taken a lot of PR punishment this season -- and rightfully so -- but a few years back, the conference was winning major football games. Prior to the 2008 season, the “new” Big East was 3-0 in the BCS, and in 2006, had 3 teams who finished the season in the top-20. Cincinnati and West Virginia have both come thisclose to playing in national championships.
Yes, the much-maligned conference has a recent history of moderate success worthy of a BCS automatic bid.
Now, it just has to prove it can keep it going.