More news and notes from BE media day
Big East is well-grounded in football
by Jack Bogaczyk
Daily Mail Sports Editor
Print StoryEmail StoryLAST Monday, the Big East Football Kickoff staged a Rhode Island clambake and lobsterfest. Some juicy leftovers:
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The Big East and Big Ten would never be confused in football, right?
Or, are Rich Rodriguez and Greg Schiano the new Woody and Bo? Is it three yards and a cloud of FieldTurf silica and cryogenic rubber?
"It's a tough conference," Rutgers star running back Ray Rice told media members. "I'm not lying. It's real tough. It's real physical. You can get pounded. Week in, week out, playing in the Big East is hard."
Well, turns out there's a reason Rice said that. The Big East is the most run-oriented of the Bowl Championship Series conferences -- and not just because West Virginia stars Steve Slaton and Patrick White combined for more than 4,700 yards last season.
In these parts, you probably know that WVU rushed on 72 percent of its plays last season -- down from 76 percent in 2005. However, all eight Big East teams ran more often than they passed last season. None of the other five BCS leagues have across-the-board groundedness.
"Bottom line, it's a physical league," said Schiano, who has taken Rutgers to back-to-back bowls. "A lot of us think that to win championships, you've got to run it. Win or lose, you know you're going to come out of it sore. That's a pretty good reputation for us to have."
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NEW Cincinnati Coach Brian Kelly has become best-known for his Kickoff session criticism -- repeatedly, and to any tape recorder running -- or the Cincinnati media, which didn't have a representative in Newport.
However, that wasn't the only way the Bearcat coach showed he could be a quality quote machine in a market dominated by the Reds and Bengals. To wit:
"When this league split, I saw it just as a flat tire," Kelly said. "It clearly got to the point that it was going to have to be changed, and (Commissioner) Mike Tranghese knew how to change it. They changed it with the acceleration of quality football. They're committed to that.
"Mike and his people get it, the way revenue is shared in the Big East. It gives everyone a chance. The strength is not just at the top half here. There are some quality programs in the bottom half, and that says something."
Kelly was asked if he envisions the Bearcats having a chance to become what Rutgers did last season, a Big East and national contender:
"In college football there are cycles," Kelly said. "The Boston Celtics one day stopped winning (NBA) championships. There are cycles you run through and then things change.
"(Louisville quarterback) Brian Brohm, Pat White and Steve Slaton aren't going to be here forever. At the right time, you have to get the cycle going your way."
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When Tranghese is available to the media, the subject of potential Big East football expansion arises. However, the basketball side has 16 teams, and does the conference want the ham-handed situation it once had with "partial members" WVU, Rutgers, Virginia Tech and Temple again?
"We have no plans (to expand) right now," Tranghese said. "If we add a (ninth) team, it would help us with scheduling, but we won't add just for that. I don't think there's a strong team that would make us better. A team would have to bring a lot to the table, help us with impact with TV, with bowls. I don't see that team out there now."
Well, honestly, he does see that team, but it's named Notre Dame or Penn State -- which means the vision is kind of fuzzy, you know?
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Coaches of two of the Big East contenders don't see the need for the conference to expand to get to 12 football members for a conference championship game.
New Louisville Coach Steve Kragthorpe experienced a title game with Conference USA champion Tulsa in 2005. His team then won the Liberty Bowl, but he said there's a downside to the extra game.
"You lose a week, a full week of recruiting with that game," Kragthorpe said. "And now we're all playing 12-game regular-season schedules anyway, so if you play a conference championship that's 13 and then a bowl.
"And maybe with a conference championship game, the best team for the conference to play in the BCS doesn't win. The Big East has done just fine without a championship game."
West Virginia's Rodriguez said the fact that the Big East has eight teams (the smallest BCS conference in football) "maybe has hurt us with getting as much national attention as some others, but we're moving forward. We don't have the tradition of national championships, but, from top to bottom, we're strong.
"A title game, at one end, it gives you a second chance, but I'm sure Mike (Tranghese) will tell you, and I agree, that's there's no reason to add unless it will add value. The only reason to add one team now is to have four home games (and four road) in the conference, but that's not a good enough reason.
"Like Mike said, how can we make it any better than last year anyway, when the (league title) was decided in the last game, on the last play, in triple overtime (WVU over visiting Rutgers)?"
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Finally, Tranghese said that after unbeaten Rutgers rallied at home to hand Louisville its first loss, 28-25, on Jeremy Ito's late field goal, the Rose Bowl was very intrigued by the 9-0 Scarlet Knights.
That's because it looked like the Pac-10 champion was going to be in the Tostitos BCS National Championship game.
Then, Rutgers lost at Cincinnati before falling at WVU to slip all the way from the BCS rotation to the Texas Bowl, and Southern Cal dropped from the Tortilla Chip Bowl with a loss to UCLA.
"If USC and Rutgers had won out, Rutgers would have gone to the Rose Bowl," the Big East boss said. "To say Rutgers could have been in the Rose Bowl, that's just staggering."
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