Cincinnati is going undefeated. Sorry, Louispill, not this year. Come back later.

(06-17-2012 08:55 AM)TampaKnight Wrote:  Cincinnati is going undefeated. Sorry, Louispill, not this year. Come back later.

The "Wise Guys" in Vegas has Louisville as the odds on favorite & our win/loss over/under is 9.5 wins for 2012. Take their opinion of "The Ville" over anyone...they made their $$$$ on this and they are still building "Tall Building" in that city for a reason.

(06-17-2012 02:34 AM)SF Husky Wrote:  This ranking isn't worth the paper it printed on. It is garbage and the writer did no research. By end of 2012, we can bring this back and see how realistic it is. I suspect my neighbor's door could do a better job just by peeing on a piece of paper with random team names.

Usually the BIG EAST outside of 2005-2007 has been very hard to predict.

Every school has a legit shot to get to a BCS Bowl game this year. Yes going into this season Louisville is the favorite-(probably along with USF/Rutgers) but going into last year Louisville was picked 7th & Rutgers was picked 8th...we know what happened...Louisville won a share of the Title and Rutgers finished 4th...one game from getting a share of the title themselves.

(06-17-2012 08:55 AM)TampaKnight Wrote:  Cincinnati is going undefeated. Sorry, Louispill, not this year. Come back later.

Is this a joke? We should be decent....certainly the schedule is in our favor as well but I don't see the Cats being special this year at all...hope Im wrong.

(06-16-2012 08:03 AM)KnightLight Wrote:  

(06-15-2012 10:12 PM)Cubanbull Wrote:  

(06-15-2012 10:10 PM)UConn-SMU Wrote:  UConn was 3-4 last year with no QB and no secondary. Both of those issues have been addressed, the team is better, but now they'll be 2-5?

Did Athlon do any research?

The reality is that the Big East has many teams with comparable talent and it all depends on a few plays in each game a team can easily o 5-2 or 2-5 in our league

Yeah...outside of maybe 1 team per year....Big East has been pretty hard to predict...as with just 7 conf games...only takes 1 or 2 breaks (either good or bad) to go from 5-2 to 3-4 or even 2-5.

Problem is, UConn is ALWAYS the team picked to go 2-5, even when year after year we win between 5-9 games. It's getting absurd at this point.

Probably best for the conference if Rutgers or Cincy or USF to have a monster season and win a BCS bowl. Louisville would be good as well, but I don't want the Big 12 or ACC to start thinking they should invite the Cards. BE teams must win non-conference games. Cincy gets Virginia Tech at home. That would be a big win for the conference. UL has Kentucky and also North Carolina. Rutgers plays at Arkansas. That would be a tough one to pull off, but who knows? The Hogs have a new coach, new QB, and there may not be hitting on all cylinders. Too bad USF doesn't get Miami at home and FSU on the road. Florida State may be too tall an order. Lot of folks think they're Top 10 material this year, but I'm sure Miami is beatable. Need to split. UConn gets NC State at home and travels to Maryland. A split would be fine.

As for new Big East teams, Boise plays Michigan State and BYU. Hopefully the Broncos can keep it rolling, but this may be a rebuilding year. Houston's only name non-conference opponent is UCLA in the Rose Bowl. That's one pretty much a tossup. SMU has Texas A&M, Baylor, and TCU. I think the deep losses in the Ponies' lines are going to hurt and that they're probably looking at 7-8 wins, so if they could pull out one of those games, I'd be happy. UCF gets Mizzou in Orlando. That one should be winnable. They also play at Ohio State. Keeping that one a close game would be good. Memphis still has some rebuilding to do.

The Cincinnati game against Virginia Tech is technically a UC home game, but is being played at FedEx Field.

Compares Athlon, Phil Steele, and Lindy predictions.
http://preseason.stassen.com/consensus/2...l#big-east

Still think Temple will at least do better than Syracuse. Cincinnati will do better even with a lack of talent because of coaching.

Temple is a lot better than when they left the Big East. Temple could win the Big East. They would be a contender to win the MAC. Not much difference between the top of the MAC and the Big East. Temple has a solid defense. They will be in contention for the Big East title. Foolish to pick Temple last. Louisville isn't that good. 10-2? come on this isn't the Petrino Louisville teams. Lot of balance in Big East.

(06-18-2012 11:44 PM)OhioBobcatJohn Wrote:  Temple is a lot better than when they left the Big East. Temple could win the Big East. They would be a contender to win the MAC. Not much difference between the top of the MAC and the Big East. Temple has a solid defense. They will be in contention for the Big East title. Foolish to pick Temple last. Louisville isn't that good. 10-2? come on this isn't the Petrino Louisville teams. Lot of balance in Big East.

According to Las Vegas the over/under win total for Louisvillle is 9.5 wins and the Cardinals are favored in 10 out of their 12 games this year. They are underdogs @ Pitt & Rutgers.

The baseline talent is better then any of Petrino teams...they are just very young & Strong is not the "X & O coach" that is Bobby Petrino.

Also, it is a riduculous statement to say Temple is just as good as Cincinnati.

(06-18-2012 11:44 PM)OhioBobcatJohn Wrote:  Temple is a lot better than when they left the Big East. Temple could win the Big East. They would be a contender to win the MAC. Not much difference between the top of the MAC and the Big East. Temple has a solid defense. They will be in contention for the Big East title. Foolish to pick Temple last. Louisville isn't that good. 10-2? come on this isn't the Petrino Louisville teams. Lot of balance in Big East.

I disagree on the "not much difference between the top of the MAC and the Big East" comment...

(06-18-2012 11:44 PM)OhioBobcatJohn Wrote:  Temple is a lot better than when they left the Big East. Temple could win the Big East. They would be a contender to win the MAC. Not much difference between the top of the MAC and the Big East. Temple has a solid defense. They will be in contention for the Big East title. Foolish to pick Temple last. Louisville isn't that good. 10-2? come on this isn't the Petrino Louisville teams. Lot of balance in Big East.

People in the non-AQ's don't get it (and I am not sure if the new BE teams get it yet but they will). I've seen Cincinnati play in C-USA and in the Big East. I also live in Ohio and have seen all the MAC schools play. I feel qualified to make this statement: there is a huge difference in the Big East and a non-AQ conference from top to bottom and at the top. The talent level you see on a weekly basis is just better. There's better depth of this talent as well. Teams are playing 2-3 waves of position groups of guys who were recruiting by other BCS schools. Can a non-AQ team beat a team in a BCS conference? Absolutely. That is just one game however. Winning 5-7 out of 7 is another mother all together. The key difference is the grind of seven or so conference games against this talent.

Temple may eventually compete for the conference championship. It will take a couple years of adjustments and recruiting to be able to do so however.

(06-19-2012 07:54 AM)CliftonAve Wrote:  

(06-18-2012 11:44 PM)OhioBobcatJohn Wrote:  Temple is a lot better than when they left the Big East. Temple could win the Big East. They would be a contender to win the MAC. Not much difference between the top of the MAC and the Big East. Temple has a solid defense. They will be in contention for the Big East title. Foolish to pick Temple last. Louisville isn't that good. 10-2? come on this isn't the Petrino Louisville teams. Lot of balance in Big East.

People in the non-AQ's don't get it (and I am not sure if the new BE teams get it yet but they will). I've seen Cincinnati play in C-USA and in the Big East. I also live in Ohio and have seen all the MAC schools play. I feel qualified to make this statement: there is a huge difference in the Big East and a non-AQ conference from top to bottom and at the top. The talent level you see on a weekly basis is just better. There's better depth of this talent as well. Teams are playing 2-3 waves of position groups of guys who were recruiting by other BCS schools. Can a non-AQ team beat a team in a BCS conference? Absolutely. That is just one game however. Winning 5-7 out of 7 is another mother all together. The key difference is the grind of seven or so conference games against this talent.

Temple may eventually compete for the conference championship. It will take a couple years of adjustments and recruiting to be able to do so however.

Well said. That is why I scoffed at the prospect of TCU or Boise State coming in right away and just owning the Big East. Sure they have good teams and would probably finish in the top half of the conference in their first seasons but to say they would go undefeated in the BE that year like they did in the Mountain West is ridiculous.

The key is depth...the bigger the program/conference, the more depth there is. This is why non aq's hang with aq teams for a half and then generally fall away in the second half. If you compare starting line ups, except a few programs (bama, osu, usc, etc) there isn't a whole lot of difference in talent aq to non aq (obviously exceptions exist), I speak as a whole. The difference is depth.

same in hoops too....