Big East Scheduling Shows Need for Expansion
With a 12 game schedule now in college football, conferences need more than 8 teams to be able to
Rimington Award finalist center Ryan Blaszczyk should have a lot to celebrate this season after the Scarlet Knights' games with Howard and Texas Southern.
generate a decent schedule for its fans and alumni. Nowhere is this more evident than when looking at the Big East.
For a conference whose future membership in the BCS seems to be consistently questioned around the country, there’s an even greater need to show a tough non-conference schedule. Sure, there’s some decent non-conference foes on the log. West Virginia plays Auburn and Colorado. South Florida visits the Seminoles of Florida State. Rutgers visits Maryland. Pitt has its annual matchup with Notre Dame. Louisville has games at Kentucky and Utah and home against Southern Miss. UConn plays Carolina and visits the Irish. Cincy plays at Oregon State and has Illinois and Fresno State at home. Syracuse, the newly crowned doormat of the Big East plays Minnesota, at Penn State, and Northwestern at home before settling in to earn its first victory versus Maine.
But, then there’s the inevitable patsy games that seemingly all schools schedule, but in the Big East, it’s even worse as every member is playing at least one Subdivision opponent! Opening week matchups alone see the Mountaineers ringing Liberty’s bell, South Florida waffling Wofford, Pittsburgh icing the Penguins of Youngstown State, and Louisville hosting Indiana (State). Two Big East teams are double dipping with Subdivision schools. Rutgers hosts Howard and Texas Southern which should give the Rutgers cheerleaders something to cheer about. And, the Bulls of South Florida play the aforementioned Wofford and Charleston Southern.
What this means for college fantasy football players is that picking up a Big East player or defense is a guarantee of good statistics for the weekend, especially when Subdivision opponents crawl into town. (Why can’t we say “1-AA” anymore?)
Expansion of the Big East would enable its teams to play one more Division 1 opponent each season, thus eliminating the need to dip into the Subdivision for cream puff games. There are still plenty of D-1 opponents that Big East teams could schedule that would be guaranteed W’s, but wouldn’t be cannon fodder for Big East bashers.
Who’s Temple playing this week?
