Was it really only four years ago that the Big East was in danger of losing it's BCS status? Miami and Virginia Tech left in 2003 and Boston College in 2004. The conference sent Pitt, one of several 8-4 teams in the Big East to lose to Utah in the Fiesta Bowl. And there wasn't much reason to think the conference was going to get better any time soon. The conference was written off by the media and the blogospher didn't even bother to poke fun.

But something happened last week that most of us didn't even notice. The Big East was granted a spot in the BCS through 2013.

The reason is simple: no one noticed the news. No one questioned the Big East's place at the adult table. The reaffirmation wasn't even a note in BCS meeting coverage. "It was quiet,'' Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said Tuesday. "The way I like it."

You'd never make it as a blogger Mr. Tranghese. You need to rub it in someones face every once in a while. The least you could do is hold up one of those foam we're #1 hands. Or one of six, I guess. How bout a little woot-woot? Oh fine!

Despite the picture on the right, you can't just point to West Virginia and say their two BCS bowl victories and three straight top ten finishes are the reason. But I won't argue with you if you do. It really has been the improvement of several teams in the Big East that has brought the conference back to respectability. Louisville was expected to be one of the better teams in the conference. And mostly, they've come through. But the real surprise has been the improvement of South Florida, Rutgers, and Cincinnati. And more recently, Connecticut.

While the conference still isn't flooding the first round of the NFL draft with players, it is putting a lot more teams in the top 25. Sure, some coaches have left for "greener" pastures. Others like Greg Schiano and Jim Leavitt have made commitments to their schools that don't involve contracts. There's a balance, and certainly enough rising programs and programs that are there to keep the Big East respectable. At least until the Big 11 10 decides to add another team. Wankers.

I did this last year, so it seems only fitting that I would do it again.

And it wasn't even close. Louisville had five players drafted, while Pitt and West Virginia had three apiece. Rutgers, South Florida, Cincinnati, and Connecticut had two each. And for the first time since 1975, Syracuse did not have anyone selected.

That's 19 players drafted. And any way I slice it, that's just not all that good for a BCS conference. Looking at the distribution of what rounds the players were taken, it was pretty well spread out over the entire draft for the Big East. But that doesn't make it feel any better. It's especially bad if you look at a team like West Virginia that has had three 11 win seasons in a row along with three straight top ten finishes. They've had exactly four players drafted in the last three years. And Chris Henry and Pac Man Jones the year before that. So we won't even go there.

The ACC? Yeah, that conference we've been quietly laughing at after Miami, Va. Tech, and Boston College left. Yeah, they had 33 players drafted this past weekend. The coaching must really suck over there or something.

Pac 10? Oh, they had 37 players drafted. SEC? 35. Big 10? 28. Big 12? 27. Hell, C-USA had 11 players drafted! Patriot League? Never mind.

Even more upsetting for West Virginia fans, two players left early for the NFL and weren't drafted. Those two being Darius Reynaud and Johnny Dingle. Yeah, sorry folks. Those Dingle-Berry photo's won't be happening anymore. Those are definitely two players the Mountaineers could have used this year, though. I'm not saying that their stock would go up any with one more year of college. But it sure wouldn't go down.

Louisville will have the most holes to fill as well. You don't replace Brian Brohm, Harry Douglas, and Art Carmody. I know there are others, but those three were special at their positions. West Virginia won't be far behind with the loss of Slaton and most of the secondary and defensive line. Rutgers, well we don't know how bad it is because we haven't seen anyone but Ray Rice run the ball. The rest of the conference should be fine. And that's not a good thing if you think about it.

OMG! Football news! February is like the worst sports month in the world! Unless you like meaningless mid-season NBA and NHL games. Sure I love NCAA basketball. But that love has been tainted by my coaches fashion sense and my teams ability to rip defeat from the jaws of victory. So I'm kind of not liking February at all.

Anyhow, some good news today football fans. The Big East released the 2008 football schedule. And while that's nothing compared to being in the stands after hours of tailgating and screaming obscenities at opposing fans and players, it is a reason for hope. The hope that another football season will soon be upon us.

And lookie, there are actually some good out of conference games this year. In September:

Cincinnati @ Oklahoma-Will the Sooners crumble again in the face of Big East might?

Penn St. @ Syracuse- When this game was scheduled Jo Pa was heard saying, "That Paul Pasqualoni is a tricky devil. We're going to have to find a way to shut down McNabb!"

Kansas @ South Florida- The Bulls can't be looking at this game the way they were a year ago.

West Virginia @ Colorado- This game fills the void left by Maryland opting out of the series. And given the size of Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen, that's quite a void to fill.

Iowa @ Pitt- Again, Iowa might not like this game as much as they did when they scheduled it.

Rutgers vs. TBA-Ah, the unknown enigma that is TBA. You just never know what team you're going to play.

Old School" is the College Football FanHouse's irregular look back at the rich history of college football, usually through the medium of embeddable flash video. Check out the Old School archive for more famous plays and infamous hair.

One of the biggest wins over Pitt in Mountaineer history. Probably a lot like this years game will be remembered by Pitt fans. Badump-bah! The Voice of the Mountaineers, Jack Fleming narrates and at the 1:44 mark you can see that there used to be a lot more guns at Old Mountaineer Field. And hats off for getting Yes to do the sound track. That #33 for Pitt is some guy named Dorsett.



Besides being against a Pitt team that was ranked and had one of the best running backs in the history of college football, this game is most remembered for the dramatic ending that seems story book for the home team and nightmarish for the visitors as Bill McKenzie kicked the winning field goal as time expired. Not some of Fleming's best work, at least until they cut in to his live play-by-play. I guess they didn't want to step on Rick Wakeman's toes while he wowed us with those funky keyboards.

Not Paul Rhoads at right. I bet you know who that luxurious mustache belongs to.

Former Pitt defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads is Auburn's new DC, replacing enthusiastic Texas-bound Will Muschamp. This would seem an excellent hire by Auburn after Pitt's defense finished 5th in the nation and shut down West Virginia's spread 'n' shred in the epic upset that kept the Mountaineers out of the national title game.

But Pitt Blather has some kind of sobering numbers:

Year - Def. Ranking - Run Def. - Pass Def.

2007 -– 5th ---– 33d --– 3d
2006 - 87th --– 107th --- 29th
2005 - 31st --- 94th ---- 2nd
2004 -- 73d --– 48th ---- 100th
2003 - 79th --– 87th ---- 54th
2002 - 12th --– 24th ---- 18th
2001 - 7th --- 26th ---- 6th
2000 -- 29th -- 17th ---- 80th

Chas notes further that the defense's slide from good to real bad happened "minute the talent previously recruited started graduating" and follows it up with a wide array of links to previous stories about Rhoads' various failings as a coach -- no sour grapes upon departure these.

But... like, I dunno. That's four good years of seven at a program that's never had much in the way of support or talent until this recent inexplicable Wannalanche of high-profile recruits. As soon as Wannstedt's guys started seeing time with regularity, things bounced back up; Pitt Blather tends to blame Rhoads for the awful run defense when it could more properly be attributed to undersized and largely overlooked true freshman holding down key spots in the Pitt line in 2005 and 2006. At Auburn, Rhoads will not have the same issues.

Picture the scene... you're sitting around your house on a Saturday morning and your girlfriend calls you and asks if you want to have brunch with her family. Normally, you'd be fairly amenable to free silver dollar pancakes, even if it means enduring some awkward conversation, but today is not a normal day. It's the high-school all-star game. Sorry, tootsie, but home boy has a date with Tom Lemming today, and no amount of waffles or eggs Benedict can interrupt.

If any of this made sense to you, congratulations, you're a junkie.

Just to remind you all, this game is sponsored by the U.S. army, so the over/under on lame Army commercials is like a million.

A lot of these blue-chippers will be announcing their college choices. When that happens, I'll put the contents in bold face, so you can skip over my pithy commentary and get right to the commitments, if that's your thing.

This was supposed to be an exhibition! An exhibition! Yes, the complete and utter insanity that has been the 2007 college football season continues unabated as #2 West Virginia, looking at a road to the national title game with only Pitt in the way, lost to the Panthers 13-9 on Saturday night. Pat White, pictured at right, was a one-handed spectator for the majority of the affair, but the entire West Virginia offense was in disarray, rushing for just 107 yards on 40 carries.

What's more, with Missouri's utter dismantling at the hands of OU (itself not an upset; somehow the #1 team in the land was an underdog at a neutral site), the BCS Championship Game itself is in complete chaos. And that's just par for the course in 2007.

I just don't know what to say at this point. Every time you think you've seen it all this season, something else absolutely unbelievable happens. Tonight, the scene of the crime is Morgantown. With nothing but an anemic 4-7 Pitt team as 28 point underdogs standing between West Virginia and a berth in the title game, the Mountaineers gagged away the game in front of their home crowd.

For those of you who watched the final ten minutes of the game, it was a complete comedy of errors. Sloppy play, unbelievably terrible officiating, and a plague of locusts couldn't stop the Panthers, who hung on for dear life to a one-score lead. Certainly, a choke job for the ages.

There's a lot of subtext to the improbable conclusion of this game. Sure, Pat White was out of commission for long stretches of this game due to injury, but that hardly explains away the 28 point spread. And maybe it's just me, but it seemed pretty evident that the officials were doing everything in their power to keep Pitt from winning the game, all the way up to an eyebrow-raising excessive celebration penalty after Pitt had more or less sealed the game with the 4th down stop.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Missouri just fell behind Oklahoma by 18 points, meaning we're heading into the second week in a row where both of the top two teams lose. I'm going to take a Dramamine and lay down. Nothing makes sense anymore.

After watching the Steelers and Dolphins struggle for four quarters to score any points on the swampy wasteland that was Heinz field Monday night, I'm really glad the Backyard Brawl is being played in Morgantown this year. Everyone in the world has gone on record bad mouthing the caretakers of Heinz Field for allowing so many games to be played there in one weekend. So I'm going to skip that and just move on to something else.

It could possibly be the last regular season game that Slaton and White share the same backfield. While the rest of the offense had a huge day against UConn, Slaton was rather limited in carries and yards. And if this the last regular season game for either one or both, it would be nice to see them on a field that will contribute to their talents. Not one that will diminish them.

Pitt fans are thinking the exact opposite. And I can't blame them. Pitt has been a team that White and Slaton have feasted on over the past two seasons for 834 yards rushing. At times, it has hardly seemed fair for the Panther defense to be on the same field with White and Slaton. But if it is to be their last game together, I'd like to see a repeat of the past two years. Just so we can all marvel in their abilities that took the West Virginia program to new heights one more time.