Bad two weeks for Big East

It hasn’t been a good opening two weeks for the Syracuse University football team, especially after a total defensive cave-in Saturday’s 42-28 loss to Akron, but it hasn’t been a good two weeks for the Big East in general.

 

The conference went 4-4 in Week One, with Pittsburgh the biggest loser in being upset by Bowling Green, although Louisville’s one-sided loss to Kentucky, Rutgers’ second half collapse against Fresno State and Syracuse’s 30-10 loss to Northwestern would have been award winners if not for that.

 

Saturday, the league went 4-3, with Rugers having a bye. Syracuse looked comatose on defense in its 42-28 loss to Akron, supposedly great West Virginia was crunched by East Carolina, and Cincinnati was slapped down hard by Oklahoma. It could have been worse. Pittsburgh had a very difficult time with improving Buffalo, South Florida had to go to overtime to down Central Florida, and Connecticut needed an overtime touchdown to get by Temple, an improving and dangerous team.

 

All of it points to the increasing parity in college football, at least among teams outside of the top five or 10, and it also shows that the Big East, which had appeared to regain its big time status last year, still has a ways to go to catch up to other major conferences.