Big East Football Wrap Up: Week 3

The Big East football wrap up does not consist of, we're closing the doors on Big East football because Pittsburgh stabbed the commissioner in the back and ran out the door to the ACC (but it could have gone like that).

When we ran the NCAA Football 12 simulations, we got 4-3 for the Big East in Week 3. The conference did come out 4-3 in real life. The video game missed on the Connecticut and West Virginia picks, but we didn't.

Oddly enough or maybe not, the teams which left for the ACC (Syracuse and Pittsburgh) or are actively tried to leave for the ACC (UConn) finished the week 0-3. Syracuse got blown out by the Trojans in L.A. exactly as we expected. In fact, the struggling USC offense put up nearly as many points in that game (38) as they had in their first two games combined (42). Connecticut could not have gotten a bigger head start to their game against Iowa State. The Cyclones' quarterback Steele Jantz started the game 0/4 with 3 interceptions. The Huskies had 10 points after that first quarter. They eventually lost at home 24-20. Pittsburgh hilariously collapsed in Iowa City against Iowa and blew a 24-3 second half lead to lose 31-27. They'll fit in the ACC just fine. In my preview of the game, I expected a lower scoring game than that final but did say that Iowa quarterback James Vandenberg would light up the Pitt secondary. He finished with 399 yards passing and three touchdowns.

South Florida rolled against the Florida A&M Rattlers 70-17 and put up a Big East record with 745 yards of offense. I think it is safe to say that nobody's breaking that record. Cincinnati beat Akron handily 59-14. Their third-string defense lost the shutout, but it was still an impressive performance. Louisville took home the Governor's Cup by defeating rival Kentucky 24-17 (a close game in that series, shocking I know). Will Stein was knocked out early with a shoulder injury and freshman Teddy Bridgewater came in and led the Cards to victory with his first two passing touchdowns.

Last but not least, West Virginia survived a Maryland comeback attempt with a final score of 37-31. Big East commissioner John Marinatto was at that contest, at an ACC venue. It was there at Maryland's Byrd Stadium that he found out from a reporter and not any of the schools that were leaving the Big East, that the conference he ran was moribund. By the way, West Virginia might have filed papers to join the SEC as its 14th member.