Big East Preview

Predicted Order of Finish 

1. Cincinnati - I am going out on a limb here and picking the Bearcats to win the Big East.  West Virgina is the heavy favorite, but Cincinnati has the talent to win this league.   Offensively the Bearcats return senior quarterback Zach Collaros and senior running back Isaiah Pead.  Collaros has played in big games before filling in for Tony Pike the year Cincinnati went 12 and 1.  Defensively the Bearcats return 10 starters.  This could be a good or bad thing because this defense was one of the worst in the nation.  I am going to be positive and see this as a good thing.  With good skill position players on offense and the whole defense returning I expect Cincinnati to win this league.

2. West Virgina - The mountaineers are the conventional pick to win this years Big East and it is easy to see why.  West Virgina is loaded offensively with Tavon Austin, a top notch offensive line, and Heisman dark horse Geno Smith at quarterback.  Defensively the Mountaineers biggest upgrade may have come with the hiring of new head coach Dana Holgrosen.  The defensive minded coach needs to fix a defense that was one of the worst in the NCAA last year.  If he can do this we might see West Virgina back in a BCS bowl.

3. South Florida - The Bulls could make a serious run at the Big East crown in my opinion, but it relies on one man, quarterback B.J. Daniels.  Daniels is an enigma.  I have watched him play multiple games and sometimes I come away amazed and other times horrified.  If head coach Skip Holtz can get him to play to his potential look for the Bulls to make a run at the Big East title.  Surrounded by other solid players and with the only even relativity weak spot along the offensive and defensive lines South Florida is no longer under the radar. 

4. Connecticut - The Huskies are coming off an 8-5 season with a BCS bowl appearance.  Repeating last year is going to be a tough task.  Not impossible, but tough.  The good news is sixteen starters are back from last years team.  The bad news is that two of those returning starters are not at the quarterback or running back position.  The loss of last years offensive player of the year in the conference, Jordan Toddman, will seriously put the offense back a few steps.  The other big departure from last years team is head coach Randy Edsall.  New coach Paul Pasqualoni must prove he can take this team to the top.

5. Pittsburgh - The Panthers parted way with head coach Dave Wannstedt after last seasons disappointment.  New head coach, Todd Graham, will inherit a talented roster.  Dion Lewis is gone, but new starter Ray Graham should fill in nicely.  Defensively the unit is solid all around led by linebacker Max Gruder.

6. Rutgers - The Scarlet Knights had a terrible year last year.  Greg Schiano will look to put that in the rear view mirror as there is potential for a promising season ahead.  The offense returns nine starters which will help the cause.  The defense however needs to step up their game from last year.  A favorable conference schedule should help with most of the Scarlet Knights big games coming at home. 

7. Syracuse - The Oranges' surprising bowl victory last year will be a very difficult task to repeat.  The loss of leading rusher, Delone Carter,  will put this offense back greatly.  On the defensive side of the ball the Orange are looking to replace their two leading tacklers, Derrelle Smith and Doug Hogue, which will be a difficult thing to do.  The Orange may be in for a long year after last seasons success.

8. Louisville - The Cardinals inexperience are the reason I picked them to finish last in the Big East.  The loss of eight offensive starters coupled with probably starting a freshman quarterback make this shaping up to be a long season.  Defensively the Cardinals are solid, but I have a feeling the offense is going to put them in a lot of tough situations. 

Players to Watch

1. B.J. Daniels - Daniels has the talent to carry his team to a Big East title, but can he put together consistently good performances without one of his signature "uh oh" games?

2. Geno Smith - The West Virgina quarterback like Daniels has unbelievable talent, and many are saying he is a dark horse to win the Heisman.  The question is can he handle the pressure and stay healthy and carry his team to the title?

3. Keith Tandy - The West Virgina corner was fifth in the nation with seventeen passes defended last season, and led the Big East in interceptions.

Despite UT Windfall, SEC Remains Strongest

Continued financial support from TV partners -- the most important of which was ESPN -- put a halt to the destruction of the Big 12 Conference and provided powerhouse Texas millions of reasons to stay home and stop the carousel of conference realignment this week.



With the Big 12 down to 10 members because of moves by Nebraska and Colorado to the Big Ten and Pac-10, respectively, ESPN told conference officials it would maintain payouts according to its contract that runs through 2016. It's a bigger commitment for ESPN than fellow TV partner Fox Sports Net just because FSN's contract with the Big 12 ends in 2012. So ESPN will continue paying for 12 schools and getting 10 for a longer period of time.



Also, the remaining members of the Big 12 get "buyout" money from the two programs leaving the conference and Texas has a green light to create its own, school-specific television network.



Those factors make Texas the king of the conference by almost every possible measure -- especially because several of the remaining Big 12 schools agreed to take a smaller portion of the buyout money so UT could have more. They did so to keep Texas in the conference, and ensure that the conference remains alive for them.



Still, the Big 12 itself lags behind the just-enhanced Big Ten and Pac-10 as a top-to-bottom national TV draw. And everyone trails the Southeastern Conference, at least in terms of what other entities are willing to pay to broadcast games.



That's because the SEC makes more with less. It has deals with ESPN and CBS that total $3 billion and run through 2024 -- and it earned that kind of support despite having fewer major TV markets in its region than other conferences. So, people clearly must be interested across the nation.



At least the people signing the checks believe viewers are interested. Or, maybe ESPN and CBS overbid three years ago when they signed the deals, hoping to prevent the formation of an SEC Network similar to the already successful Big Ten Network.



Either way, TV money pumps essential financial life into the SEC despite the fact that it has just two top-15 TV markets in the region (No. 8 Atlanta and No. 13 Tampa). Even crediting Florida markets to the SEC, which might be a reach because of competition from the Atlantic Coast Conference which has Florida State and Miami, the SEC's other big makets are all outside the top 15. They are -- No. 16 Miami, No. 19 Orlando, No. 27 Raleigh-Durham and No. 29 Nashville.



Conversely, the Big Ten and revamped Pac-10 can each claim seven top-25 markets. Had the Pac-10 completed the Texas acquisition, it would've had 10 top-25 markets but that did not happen.



With realignment seemingly slowing down, the real impact of the moves might not be felt until the Big 12 attempts to update its existing TV deals. When that happens, the conference will find out of the comparative windfall continues. It's hard to imagine the Big 12 will ever be a more valuable TV property than the SEC, though.



Meanwhile the Big Ten makes up for its slightly lower payout from outside networks with its own Big Ten Network. The revenue from that entity, whose financial model includes a portion of cable subscribers' bills coming directly to the BTN, helps the Big Ten reap bigger per-school TV revenues than the SEC.

CBS Sports Set for Another SEC Season

CBS Sports announced highlights of its 2010 college football season featuring the Southeastern Conference, which include Florida-Tennessee, a prime-time doubleheader the first weekend of October and a Notre Dame game.

CBS Sports serves as the exclusive national network broadcaster of SEC home games and has first choice of available games each week for which will be the "Game of the Week." As part of its 15-year deal with the conference, CBS also carries the SEC Championship Game.

This marks the second year of the agreement and things such as Florida-Tennessee and Georgia-Florida represent obvious choices long before the season begins.

Notre Dame appears on the CBS schedule because the Notre Dame-Navy matchup is a Navy home game (although it will be played at New Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey). Notre Dame, with all it's home games broadcast by NBC and most road games then picked up by ABC/ESPN, last appeared in a regular season game televised by CBS in 2008. That game was against Navy as well.

Here's a look at the schedule CBS announced (all games are Saturdays unless noted otherwise):

• Sept. 18 -- Florida at Tennessee, 3:30 p.m.
• Oct. 2 -- Doubleheader, 3:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.
• Oct. 23 -- Notre Dame vs. Navy, Noon
• Oct. 30 -- Georgia vs. Florida, 3:30 p.m.
• Nov. 13 -- Doubleheader, Noon and 3:30 p.m.
• Dec. 4 -- SEC Championship Game, 4 p.m.
• Dec. 11 -- Army vs. Navy, 2:30 p.m.
• Friday, Dec. 31 -- Sun Bowl, 2 p.m.
  

ESPN Family Likes Trojans on TV

Eight games involving USC were among 25 Pac-10 Conference games ESPN and its family (ABC, ESPN2) announced this week as part of its overall college football schedule for the 2010 season.

This comes at a time when the NCAA might be nearing an announcement of its own about penalties for USC resulting from improper benefits during Reggie Bush's career with the program.
Still, the Trojans -- with first-year coach Lane Kiffin, who bolted from Tennessee to take the job, and heralded quarterback Matt Barkley remain a solid TV draw and no sanctions have been announced at this point. Plus, they might not take affect as early as this season (and maybe ESPN did a smart thing by announcing a schedule in advance of any NCAA action in order to get an A-list team slated for tube time before it could be prevented).

Along with USC's eight appearances, the schedule includes five games featuring Oregon (and that progam's success on the field as well as its problems off should make for interesting TV) and four four Stanford, which boasts hotshot quarterback Andrew Luck, who has already been projected as the No. 1 pick in the 2011 NFL Draft by ESPN's Todd McShay.

Here's the just-announced schedule of games ...

• Thursday, Sept. 2 -- USC at Hawaii, 11 p.m., ESPN
• Friday, Sept. 3 -- Arizona at Toledo, 8 p.m., ESPN
• Saturday, Sept. 4 -- UCLA at Kansas State, 3:30 p.m., ABC
• Saturday, Sept. 4 -- Oregon State vs. TCU, 7:45 p.m., ESPN
• Saturday, Sept. 11 -- Oregon at Tennessee, 7 p.m., ESPN2
• Saturday, Sept. 11 -- Stanford at UCLA, 10:30 p.m., ESPN
• Friday, Sept. 17 -- California at Nevada, 10 p.m., ESPN2
• Saturday, Sept. 18 -- Nebraska at Washington, 3:30 p.m., ABC/ESPN2
• Saturday, Sept. 18 -- Arizona State at Wisconsin, 3:30 p.m., ABC/ESPN2
• Saturday, Sept. 18 -- Iowa at Arizona, 10:30 p.m., ESPN
• Saturday, Sept. 18 -- Wake Forest at Stanford, 11:15 p.m., ESPN2
• Saturday, Sept. 25 -- Oregon State at Boise State, TBA, TBA
• Saturday, Sept. 25 -- UCLA at Texas, TBA, ABC
• Saturday, Oct. 2 -- Washington at USC, 8 p.m., TBA
• Saturday, Oct. 2 -- Stanford at Oregon, 11:15 p.m., ESPN
• Saturday, Oct. 9 -- USC at Stanford, 8 p.m., ABC
• Thursday, Oct. 21 -- UCLA at Oregon, 9 p.m., ESPN
• Saturday, Oct. 30 -- Oregon at USC, 8 p.m., ABC
• Saturday, Nov. 13 -- USC at Arizona, 8 p.m., ABC
• Thursday, Nov. 18 -- UCLA at Washington, 8 p.m., ESPN
• Saturday, Nov. 20 -- USC at Oregon State, 8 p.m., TBA
• Friday, Nov. 26 -- Arizona at Oregon, 7 p.m., ESPN
• Saturday, Nov. 27 -- Notre Dame at USC, 8 p.m., TBA
• Thursday, Dec. 2 -- Arizona State at Arizona, 8 p.m., ESPN
  

College Football: ESPN's Initial Big East Slate

Fourteen Big East Conference games, including four Thursday night games, four Friday night games and two games the Friday after Thanksgiving, were part of the schedule of college football games ESPN unveiled earlier this week.

The slate includes:

• Thursday, Sept. 16 -- Cincinnati at NC State, 7:30 p.m., ESPN
• Thursday, Sept. 23 -- Miami at Pitt, 7:30 p.m., ESPN
• Friday, Oct. 9, -- Connecticut at Rutgers, 7:30 p.m., ESPN
• Thursday, Oct. 14 -- USF at West Virginia, 7:30 p.m., ESPN
• Friday, Oct. 15 -- Cincinnati at Louisville, 8 p.m., ESPN
• Friday, Oct. 22 -- USF at Cincinnati, 8 p.m., ESPN2
• Friday, Oct. 29 -- West Virginia at Connecticut, 8 p.m., ESPN2
• Wednesday, Nov. 3 -- Rutgers at USF, 7 p.m., ESPN2
• Thursday, Nov. 11 -- Pitt at Connecticut, 7:30 p.m., ESPN
• Friday, Nov. 26 -- West Virginiat at Pitt, TBA
• Friday, Nov. 26 -- Louisville at Rutgers, TBA
• Saturday, Dec. 4 -- Pitt at Cincinnati, TBA
• Saturday, Dec. 4 -- Connecticut at USF, TBA
• Saturday, Dec. 4 -- Rutgers at West Virginia, TBA

College Football Schedules Shaping Up

We're three days away from the Super Bowl, but that's not the only game on the mind of sports TV programmers -- because ESPN has already announced game times for seven college football games for next fall.

The slate includes several Atlantic Coast Conference teams, a doubleheader on Labor Day and four Thursday night games.

Here's the initial list:

• Saturday, Sept. 4. -- LSU vs. North Carolina (in Atlanta), TBA
• Monday, Sept. 6 -- Navy vs. Maryland (in Baltimore), 4 p.m., ESPN
• Monday, Sept. 6 -- Boise State vs. Virginia Tech (in Landover, Md.), 8 p.m., ESPN
• Thursday, Sept. 16 -- Cincinnati at N.C. State, 7:30 p.m., ESPN
• Thursday, Sept. 23 -- Miami at Pitt, 7:30 p.m., ESPN
• Thursday, Oct. 28 -- Florida State at N.C. State, 7:30 p.m., ESPN
• Thursday, Nov. 4 -- Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech, 7:30 p.m., ESPN