UC recently signed a quality Defensive Lineman out of Indiana, Jordan Stepp. He could have gone to a school like IU but here is what he had to say...I love this comment:

"A lot of people gave me heat over picking a Big East Conference school over a Big Ten team," Stepp said. "But you look at the Big East and all the teams that have been in the (national) rankings, there's a chance for a lot of teams to win. In the Big Ten, it's Michigan and Ohio State and usually one other team. It's hard to move up."

This is so valid....thanks to teams like UC, Rutgers, UCONN, and USF stepping up with WVA (and UofL before last season) this player was able to say, "hey, I'll pick UC/BE because look at all the teams that have been ranked and have a chance to win" he see's the Big 10 as "if you are not on OSU or Michigan, you aren't going anywhere" and since he wasn't "good enough" for OSU/Michigan to go after him he picked UC/Big East.

This speaks VOLUMES about Big East football!!!!!

Bearcats#1 Wrote:UC recently signed a quality Defensive Lineman out of Indiana, Jordan Stepp. He could have gone to a school like IU but here is what he had to say...I love this comment:

"A lot of people gave me heat over picking a Big East Conference school over a Big Ten team," Stepp said. "But you look at the Big East and all the teams that have been in the (national) rankings, there's a chance for a lot of teams to win. In the Big Ten, it's Michigan and Ohio State and usually one other team. It's hard to move up."

This is so valid....thanks to teams like UC, Rutgers, UCONN, and USF stepping up with WVA (and UofL before last season) this player was able to say, "hey, I'll pick UC/BE because look at all the teams that have been ranked and have a chance to win" he see's the Big 10 as "if you are not on OSU or Michigan, you aren't going anywhere" and since he wasn't "good enough" for OSU/Michigan to go after him he picked UC/Big East.

This speaks VOLUMES about Big East football!!!!!

Precisely. And this is something our football coaches are obviously trying to 'sell' to recruits. Well, this and actually winning BCS Bowl games.

Cheers,
Neil

Hopefully in the future UC will never lose a player to a Big 10 school other then OSU or Michigan.
Losing an Ohio player to Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Northwestern, Indiana or Iowa should be un heard of.
I can see MSU, Purdue, Pitt, Kentucky, WVU and Penn St getting a Ohio player every once in a while.
UC must shut out schools like Boston College & Louisville. For the most part Ohio blue chip 3, 4, 5 star players should belong to OSU & UC. Lets hope UC can begin to control there territory

That perceptions seems to be running consistent across the nation. This isn't the first recruit I've heard say something like this.

I just hope it continues...

Bearcats#1 Wrote:UC recently signed a quality Defensive Lineman out of Indiana, Jordan Stepp. He could have gone to a school like IU but here is what he had to say...I love this comment:

"A lot of people gave me heat over picking a Big East Conference school over a Big Ten team," Stepp said. "But you look at the Big East and all the teams that have been in the (national) rankings, there's a chance for a lot of teams to win. In the Big Ten, it's Michigan and Ohio State and usually one other team. It's hard to move up."

This is so valid....thanks to teams like UC, Rutgers, UCONN, and USF stepping up with WVA (and UofL before last season) this player was able to say, "hey, I'll pick UC/BE because look at all the teams that have been ranked and have a chance to win" he see's the Big 10 as "if you are not on OSU or Michigan, you aren't going anywhere" and since he wasn't "good enough" for OSU/Michigan to go after him he picked UC/Big East.

This speaks VOLUMES about Big East football!!!!!

That is a HUGE sign because it shows that the Big East is back on par, or close to par, with the other BCS conferences, at least in the eyes of recruits. Now we're getting the type of recruits that the Big Ten and SEC and other BCS conferences are getting. The last 2 years have been huge. We were kind of like Big Ten-lite with West Virginia and Louisville dominating the conference like Ohio State and Michigan. Then, when Rutgers cracked the national scene, moving up as high as #7, we got some major pub. But when Connecticut, South Florida and Cincinnati cracked the Top 25, with all the schools cracking the Top 15 (Cincinnati #15, UConn #13, USF #2) and finishing the season in the Top 25, monsterous. Cincinnati and UConn were borderline national title contenders and actually competed for the conference title. Louisville, West Virginia, South Florida and Rutgers were legit national title contenders at some point. Recruits see that and want to be a part of that. And they know that there are more spots open thanks to the Big East's emergence.

Good job UC. UCONN just landed a couple of kids. One of them picked UCONN over BCU. Things are looking up these days. Although most NE kids don't get all the crazy starts FLA, CA, Ohio and Texas kids get, many of them are every bit as good on the field as others.

SF Husky Wrote:Good job UC. UCONN just landed a couple of kids. One of them picked UCONN over BCU. Things are looking up these days. Although most NE kids don't get all the crazy starts FLA, CA, Ohio and Texas kids get, many of them are every bit as good on the field as others.

Agreed. That's the reason the ACC wanted the Boston market was because of that, but UConn is throwing a wrench into those plans. The one thing that Cincinnati (and I'm sure Louisville, and later USF and UConn) wanted was to be in a conference like the Big Ten and SEC in football, where every game was a knock down, drag out game with conference title, national and national championship implications. We saw other conferences like that, like Kentucky and Ohio State playing in major BCS conference games and wanted that. Now the Big East is getting that with all of these great recruiting classes. Even Pitt and Syracuse, when they were down, are national names. All it takes is for Pitt or Syracuse to put together a bowl team or Top 25 team and the nation is talking about them. That's the type of things the Big East enjoys now.

Recruits still see the ACC primarily as a basketball conference, with football an after thought. They haven't won a BCS game since the realignment, while The BEast has gone 3-0 in its new configuration. The BEast is FOOTBALL in football season, BASKETBALL in basketball season, and recruits have picked up on that.

The smaller conference is also seen as an advantage in getting to a BCS game - or so the perception runs...

Go cats make Indiana a recruiting ground for UC football