1. UL- (6-1) 11-1
2.Pitt - (5-2) 8-3
2. WVU- (5-2) 7-4
2.SU- (5-2) 7-4

I think Beast will only have Pitt/UL ranked

5. Rutgers (4-3) 5-6
6. USF
7. Uconn
8. UC

My BE predictions and probably the best (and within the realm of being realistic) scenario for the Big East:

Louisville 10-1 (6-1) only loss to WVU - BCS Bowl
Pittsburgh 9-2 (6-1) losses to Nebraska and UL - Gator
Syracuse 8-3 (5-2) losses to FSU, Pitt, and UL - Tire
WVU 8-3 (5-2) losses to SU, MD, and Pitt - Liberty (open slot)

All 4 finished ranked in the Top 25 of the BCS rankings



Neil

Louisville 11-0 (7-0) Top 5 ranking
Pittsburgh 9-2 (6-1) Top 15 ranking
West Virginia 8-3 (5-2) Top 25 ranking
Syracuse 7-4 (4-3)
South Floida 7-4 (4-3) (will be better then people realize
Cincinnati 6-5 (3-4) (as long as they win games they should)
Connecticut 5-6 (3-4)
Rutgers 4-7 (2-5)

Quote:Cat's_Claw Posted on Aug 6 2005, 09:25 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Louisville 11-0 (7-0) Top 5 ranking
Pittsburgh 9-2 (6-1) Top 15 ranking
West Virginia 8-3 (5-2) Top 25 ranking
Syracuse 7-4 (4-3)
South Floida 7-4 (4-3) (will be better then people realize
Cincinnati 6-5 (3-4) (as long as they win games they should)
Connecticut 5-6 (3-4)
Rutgers 4-7 (2-5) 

You may want to re-examine your BE conference predictions. Some of the BE records from USF on down would not be possible based upon the top 4 predictions.

With UL going 7-0, all BE teams lose to the Cards -
With Pitt going 6-1, all 6 remaining BE teams lose to Pitt
With WVU going 5-2, all 5 remaining BE teams lose to WVU
With SU going 4-3, all 4 remaining BE teams lose to SU

Best #5 team can do in the BE is 3-4 with the Top 4 predictions you have.


Neil

I think WVU has a much better shot at beating a Pitt team that won last year on some questionable calls than we do at beating Louisville. Its our last game and it's at home on national TV at night on Thanksgiving. Oh yeah, we hate Pitt and would rather lose all of our games than lose to them. WVU lucked out big time this year with Louisville and Pitt at home. I think louisville's d will bend a lot this year. I hope we can break it and controll the game with our rushing attack.

omnicarrier Wrote:

Quote:Cat's_Claw Posted on Aug 6 2005, 09:25 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Louisville 11-0 (7-0) Top 5 ranking
Pittsburgh 9-2 (6-1) Top 15 ranking
West Virginia 8-3 (5-2) Top 25 ranking
Syracuse 7-4 (4-3)
South Floida 7-4 (4-3) (will be better then people realize
Cincinnati 6-5 (3-4) (as long as they win games they should)
Connecticut 5-6 (3-4)
Rutgers 4-7 (2-5) 

You may want to re-examine your BE conference predictions. Some of the BE records from USF on down would not be possible based upon the top 4 predictions.

With UL going 7-0, all BE teams lose to the Cards -
With Pitt going 6-1, all 6 remaining BE teams lose to Pitt
With WVU going 5-2, all 5 remaining BE teams lose to WVU
With SU going 4-3, all 4 remaining BE teams lose to SU

Best #5 team can do in the BE is 3-4 with the Top 4 predictions you have.


Neil

Actually you're right. I could see Pitt or West Virginia dropping an extra game though, especially since they're playing each other. I think Cincinnati can upset West Virginia since that game will be at Nippert so that could be one of the extra conference losses.

Cat's_Claw Wrote:Louisville 11-0 (7-0) Top 5 ranking
Pittsburgh 9-2 (6-1) Top 15 ranking
West Virginia 8-3 (5-2) Top 25 ranking
Syracuse 7-4 (4-3)
South Floida 7-4 (4-3) (will be better then people realize
Cincinnati 6-5 (3-4) (as long as they win games they should)
Connecticut 5-6 (3-4)
Rutgers 4-7 (2-5)

You have 34 conference wins and 22 conference losses. Those numbers have to equal.

UABGrad Wrote:

Cat's_Claw Wrote:Louisville      11-0  (7-0)  Top 5 ranking
Pittsburgh      9-2  (6-1)    Top 15 ranking
West Virginia  8-3  (5-2)  Top 25 ranking
Syracuse        7-4    (4-3) 
South Floida  7-4    (4-3) (will be better then people realize
Cincinnati      6-5    (3-4)  (as long as they win games they should)
Connecticut    5-6    (3-4)
Rutgers          4-7    (2-5)

You have 34 conference wins and 22 conference losses. Those numbers have to equal.

Then my prediction is null and void until further notice! :D

11-0.... UofL
9-2...... Pitt...........(L- UofL, WVU)
8-3...... Cincy........(L- Pitt, UofL, USF)
7-4...... USF..........(L- Penn St., UofL, Miami, Pitt)
7-4...... WVU.........(L- VT, UofL, USF, Cincy)
5-6...... U Conn.....(L- GT, Cincy, WVU, Pitt, USF, UofL)
3-8...... Syracuse...(W- Buffalo, Rutgers, ND)
3-8...... Rutgers.....(W- Nova, Buffalo, Navy)

ArmyMIke and Cat's Claw....


Wow...UC with 8 wins and 6 wins respectively?????


Anything is possible but wow....this doesn't seem to probable.


The Cats won 7 games last year with a Sr. laden team in a lessor conference. To say they will either do better than this (8 wins) or even slightly less than this (6 wins) is a pretty bold prediction.


Seems to me 3 or 4 wins is best case scenario but man....I hope either of you guys are right.

Go Cats!!

UL 6-1
Pitt 5-2
Rutgers 5-2
WV 4-3
Cuse 3-4
USF 3-4
Conn 2-5
Cincy 1-6

Bearcats#1 Wrote:ArmyMIke and Cat's Claw....


Wow...UC with 8 wins and 6 wins respectively?????


Anything is possible but wow....this doesn't seem to probable.


The Cats won 7 games last year with a Sr. laden team in a lessor conference. To say they will either do better than this (8 wins) or even slightly less than this (6 wins) is a pretty bold prediction.


Seems to me 3 or 4 wins is best case scenario but man....I hope either of you guys are right.

Go Cats!!

Keep in mind that this was all accomplished with a first year head coach. It took them a few games before they had the offensive playbook installed.

8 wins probably is a stretch but 6 could happen with an upset in Happy Valley.

omnicarrier Wrote:My BE predictions and probably the best (and within the realm of being realistic) scenario for the Big East:

Louisville 10-1 (6-1) only loss to WVU - BCS Bowl
Pittsburgh 9-2 (6-1) losses to Nebraska and UL - Gator
Syracuse 8-3 (5-2) losses to FSU, Pitt, and UL - Tire
WVU 8-3 (5-2) losses to SU, MD, and Pitt - Liberty (open slot)

All 4 finished ranked in the Top 25 of the BCS rankings



Neil

Based on years of following the BE:

I agree with cuseroc, except Pitt will lose to WVU in Morgantown. By the way - the team with the most to lose during the Pitt-WVU Series more often than not does. In addition my Mounties usually lose to someone they should not - so add one loss to a BE conference member.

Pitt, Syracuse, WVU and UofL could be in for a four way tie, if the UofL loses one they shouldn't. Not sure who would get the invite to the BE if that happens. Maybe WVU as they will be higher ranked as one of the wins will be against the legends in their own mind - "VT".

Oops!

Army56Mike Wrote:11-0.... UofL
9-2...... Pitt...........(L- UofL, WVU)
8-3...... Cincy........(L- Pitt, UofL, USF)
7-4...... USF..........(L- Penn St., UofL, Miami, Pitt)
7-4...... WVU.........(L- VT, UofL, USF, Cincy)
5-6...... U Conn.....(L- GT, Cincy, WVU, Pitt, USF, UofL)
3-8...... Syracuse...(W- Buffalo, Rutgers, ND)
3-8...... Rutgers.....(W- Nova, Buffalo, Navy)

You don't know much about Eastern football do you?

I know enough to formulate my own opinions. Feel free to disagree. We'll see how wrong we both are at the end of the season. But you have to admit the farther south you go the better the football gets on and off the field. But I'm open for you to teach me with you rich wealth of eastern football knowledge.

I am going to disagree and say that it doesn't get much better than that of Michigan and Ohio State and they are pretty far north

Army56Mike Wrote:I know enough to formulate my own opinions. Feel free to disagree. We'll see how wrong we both are at the end of the season. But you have to admit the farther south you go the better the football gets on and off the field. But I'm open for you to teach me with you rich wealth of eastern football knowledge.

I disagre Mike. The South may have slightly better football, but I don't think its as much better as people think. You neglect to think of what kind of and what amount of players Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey put out. Dwayne Jarrett and Brian Toal ring a bell last year. Does Jason Gwaltney ring a bell? These three are all Jersey players. Back when the eastern independents had their recruiting grounds more sealed off, Penn State built National Championship teams out of players almost exclusively from PA and NJ with some coming from other Northeastern states or maybe the occasional Ohio, Michigan, or Southern player. Schiano is trying to recruit the same areas the old man did plus Florida and the diamonds in the rough or rare high-caliber player from Canada. Football may be more popular down South but by no means is it overbearingly superior. Baseball and Basketball are far more popular in the Northeast and although the Pro-Football teams have diehard and huge followings it isn't as passionate as our baseball fervor. New York Yankees, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, and Philadelphia Phillies fans are the most passionate in the country and as you'll note only Chicago is outside the Northeast. The Mets and Yankees play its the big thing in town that weekend, the Jets and Giants play meh.

brista21 Wrote:

Army56Mike Wrote:I know enough to formulate my own opinions.  Feel free to disagree.  We'll see how wrong we both are at the end of the season.   But you have to admit the farther south you go the better the football gets on and off the field.  But I'm open for you to teach me with you rich wealth of eastern football knowledge.

I disagre Mike. The South may have slightly better football, but I don't think its as much better as people think. You neglect to think of what kind of and what amount of players Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey put out. Dwayne Jarrett and Brian Toal ring a bell last year. Does Jason Gwaltney ring a bell? These three are all Jersey players. Back when the eastern independents had their recruiting grounds more sealed off, Penn State built National Championship teams out of players almost exclusively from PA and NJ with some coming from other Northeastern states or maybe the occasional Ohio, Michigan, or Southern player. Schiano is trying to recruit the same areas the old man did plus Florida and the diamonds in the rough or rare high-caliber player from Canada. Football may be more popular down South but by no means is it overbearingly superior. Baseball and Basketball are far more popular in the Northeast and although the Pro-Football teams have diehard and huge followings it isn't as passionate as our baseball fervor. New York Yankees, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, and Philadelphia Phillies fans are the most passionate in the country and as you'll note only Chicago is outside the Northeast. The Mets and Yankees play its the big thing in town that weekend, the Jets and Giants play meh.

I agree with you, but I think Jason Gwaltney is from long Island.

Army56Mike Wrote:I know enough to formulate my own opinions. Feel free to disagree. We'll see how wrong we both are at the end of the season. But you have to admit the farther south you go the better the football gets on and off the field. But I'm open for you to teach me with you rich wealth of eastern football knowledge.

You know why there are really more good football teams in the south?

There are more football teams in the south at 1-a. Yep, bigger pool, more ranked/winning teams.

It's the same idea with the east vs west argument. Find a map of all the locations of d1a programs, and you'll see that west of texas or so is about 20% of the programs, tops.

Let's be realistic here. Human beings play for every team. Every human has a certain potential, some higher than others. Even some of the weakest in potential could get to bench well over 300 pounds. But that's an argument for another thread, probably on a body builders board.

That said, with humans on every team, there's not going to be a great deal of difference in potential of said teams. What teams like michigan, ohio state, miami, usc, oklahoma, texas, and so on have in common is that they get players that have already developed that potential a lot and build on it further, creating very competitive training programs and thus football programs. A closer proximity does help recruit even the finest of athletes, ESPECIALLY with all else being equal.

If that isn't enough for you, i'd bet there are also more PEOPLE in the south overall...tends to follow logic anyway. There aren't a great deal of "northern" states by that classification, and none can compete with the populations of california, texas, and florida outright.

Now, I'm not going to do some asinine "number of good programs per capita" calculations for you, but this is why southern football, particularly the southeast, has the best reputation for teams in terms of perception. Who is really the best? It's irrelevant, and I'll wager it changes.

Add 100 million people to the north and clone a few michigans and that perception might change!