Root for the Big East. Root like hell.
by adselver15 on Dec 7, 2009 8:32 PM EST
20 comments
I'm serious here. Year in and year out, the media, the polls, and the bowl selection committees always shun good Big East teams. Hell, we're seeing it this year: a 6-6 Florida State team playing in a New Year's Day bowl. This is just wrong. If FSU were in the Big East they'd be in Toronto, not Jacksonville. Every year the Big East has to prove itself and most of the time they do. I don't care how much you hate UConn or Rutgers or Pitt or whoever: root for them to win their bowls and root HARD for them to win their bowls. Let's give the Big East the media respect it deserves. Because a team's respect by the bowl committees should be based on what's being done NOW, not what was done 40, 50, or 60 years ago.
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Yup
I always do…even when it’s Rutgers (although it is NOT easy).
"(BARF)" - Donovan McNabb, during his game winning drive against Virginia Tech in 1998
Just remind yourself
We whooped the living dogshit out of Rutgers this year, and would be in a bowl game as well if we played their same girly schedule. GO BIG EAST.
That's right
We are one.(No matter how much we hate the others). Go When they look good, so do we. Spread the word, GO BIG EAST
Syracuse University Orange. Born to run(and kick (bleep) since the late 1880s.
of course
I always do that too. They’re like our siblings. Even UConn, who is like your 2nd cousin who’s always in and out of prison, but you still root for him because he’s family.
do you really want West Virginia as one of your siblings?
It may try to procreate with the other siblings…
If I may again defend FSU
If it doesn’t affect Syracuse (which it did once in that ’05 game), I root for the ’Noles (football only). Went there for my first two years of undergrad before I transferred, and my brother went there as well. It really is a nice school, truly.
Do they, on play, deserve to be in the Gator Bowl? Of course not. But the bowls aren’t about that. And it’s not like the Big East’s bowls just go down the line — FSU would probably be in the Gator either way. After all, didn’t we get screwed out of the Gator Bowl in ‘01 and end up in the Insight.com Bowl? It sucks, yeah. But the Bowls are about fun, and FSU-WVU is a fun matchup. Plus it worked for the Gator — game sold out pretty much the second it started to be talked about that they’d invite FSU for Bowden’s final game.
Half right
You’re entirely correct in that the Gator Bowl made a good call from a business perspective in picking FSU. Bowdens last game, in Jacksonville. It’s a no-brainer financially, and a nice parting gift. But from a matchup and who-deserves-it-more perspective, wouldn’t you (errr, maybe not, since you root for FSU) rather see WVU face off against Virginia Tech? C’mon now, you can’t tell me that WVU-VT wouldn’t sell out fast. Maybe not overnight fast, but that would be a dream scenario for fans of both conferences. Heck, VT and WVU don’t play each other anymore during the regular season because the rivalry is so hot. Nothing is better for TV than a good-ol fashion barn burner from two schools straight outta hick country. Maybe even throw in a live taping of Jerry Springer for the pre-game show with a couple fans of each team to REALLY get things started off right (j/k)
Instead VT gets to face off against Tennessee in the Chick-fil-a bowl. Not that I feel bad for VT, since they stole the Gator from SU in 2001, but honestly I could care less about that game. The only compelling detail is that the two schools are relatively close geographically. So I say why not stick FSU in the Chick-fil-a bowl instead? The two teams are more evenly matched and it’s sure to sell out quickly for the same reason the Gator sold out so quick.
As a fan of the BE, we already saw USF beat FSU this year, so I’m not thrilled about this game one bit. But I’m sure as heck glad we don’t have to see ND in this game instead, so at least I can salvage that much.
As far as I know
WVU travels VERY well; they’re probably the best traveling team in the Big East right now (well, at least since we were actually good). I wouldn’t be surprised to see a large WVU constituency in Jacksonville (and they’re probably a louder one than any ND constituency).
There will be a large WVU contingent there
They sold out their allocation (20k tickets) the day they went on sale. Count tickets purchased in the general pool and from scalpers, I’m sure there will be around 30,000 Mountaineer fans there.
We ain't the SEC
There is no good reason for a self-respecting Orange fan to cheer for UConn or Rutgers.
None.
That way leads to the madness that is the SEC Superiority Cult.
Absolutely Wrong
Rooting against teams in your own conference no matter what the circumstances is the standard in the SEC. By rooting against UConn and Rutgers that makes us more like the “SEC Superiority Cult”’, not less.
You really want to see UCF whoop up on Rutgers, who finished 4th in the BE? You really want to see UConn fall to South Carolina, who had a losing record in the SEC? That is absurd. You root for Rutgers and UConn win their respective bowls games for the same reason you root for them to win their OOC games during the regular season: RESPECT. The Big East has gained respect during the regular season and needs to follow that up with a strong showing during the bowl season.
As of right now
The only fans who should be rooting against Big East teams are Pitt against WVU and vice-versa. If the Big East wins its games, it gets respect. If it gets respect, then by the time Syracuse is good again we’ll be playing in the good bowls.
No, but I just don't care a lot
I mean, I’ve been around teh internets defending Cinci recently (and even making a case for the Bearcats in the title game), but there’s no reason to get emotionally involved with football teams that aren’t Syracuse (or, if you’re me, and lived in Wisconsin before living in Syracuse, the Green Bay Packers). It’s silly, and leads to the kind of BS that SEC message board trolls spout all the time, because they don’t pay attention to football played north of the Mason-Dixon line or west of the Mississippi.
Nothing UConn or Rutgers do in bowl games is going to have anything to do with us getting back on the map in football (except to the extent that it helps their recruiting, which hurts ours).
Disagree
Like I said, it is standard for SEC fans to root against the other teams in their own conference, be it in a bowl game or the regular season because of the intense rivalries. By rooting against Rutgers and UConn and anyone else in the BE thats bowling, you’re more like an SEC fan, not less. Get it?
And if winning their bowl game really helps UConn and Rutgers that much more on the recruiting stage, then so be it. The fact that they ARE playing in a bowl game and SU isn’t should be all the convincing a recruit would need. A win or a loss in that game matters less. I would rather see the BE go 6-0 and win by a combined score of 463-0. Beat them all, and beat them down. This only makes the Big East, and Syracuse, look better as a whole and from a recruiting perspective, it will help all teams recruit nationally versus the other conferences even better. And you can sure as hell bet if the BE finishes the bowl season 3-3 or less, the conference will be roundly mocked for that kind of performance. Is it fair? Nah, but thats college f’ball.
Rebuttal
okay drothgery, lets play this game. the SEC is undeniably the best conference top-to-bottom in the country. that by a large margin statistically, economically, talent-wise, and coaching-wise. that said, they have the option of NOT cheering for those in their own conference because they hate the other teams so much, the level of competition and rivalry is beyond your comprehension. Im a die-hard Alabama fan and I can tell you that the rivalries with Auburn and Tennessee are like SU-Georgetown, lets say. on crack. I would never, everrrr cheer for them in anything. Ever.
Now, having said that, the big east is nowhere close to SEC level. We dont have the option, the luxury, of NOT cheering for our conference teams in really any non-conference matchups, especially bowl games. we should cheer and cheer hard for each and every big east team but ultimately our respect as a conference will come from what happens on the field and not in the stands :-/
We’ll get there soon guys, the quest for respect is underway.
~Luke B.
Respect
When? How? Why? 12-0 Cincy is not playing for a title. Respect had nothing to do with it. They had more respect than Boise St. (and maybe TCU), but was not going to out-respect Texas and Florida.
A 12-0 Syracuse would not play for the title. The only thing more foolish than that is our ridiculous desire to schedule as if we have a chance at going 12-0 and needing a high SOS.
Rutgers showed us how to do it. Schedule garbage teams. Beat garbage team. Win at least one BE game and go to a bowl. Win three… go to a decent bowl. Win five… go to a better bowl yet. Win 7 and go to a BCS bowl.
Instead… we’ll do it the hard way. Scheduling like this is 1994 and we need to have OOC opponents to offset Temple and Rutgers sucking so badly.
One good BCS opponent is all we need. The rest should be beatable garbage
Agree and disagree
I mean, I think we should subscribe to the Kansas State school of scheduling right now (though no playing two FCS schools; no sense playing a game that doesn’t count for bowl eligibility).
But if you relabeled the 2009 Bearcats as ‘Syracuse’, the 2009 Orange as ‘Rutgers’, and the 2009 Scarlet Knights as ‘Cincinatti’, and play that season finale in the Dome rather than in the snow at Pitt, then I bet we’re a clear #3 in the human polls, and pushed by the computers into the title game.
Respect is earned, it doesnt come overnight
The Big East has been rebuilding for the last several years, the SEC and Texas and Oklahoma and USC have been historically dominant. If they go undefeated people say “Oh snap, here they come again!” while if a Big East team goes undefeated, people write it off as a fluke. Easy conference schedule against teams that do not get recognition. Sure we here at TNIAAM love our BE schools, but nationally the in-conf schedule does not have any respect. That is why undefeated Cinci with a quality OOC road win doesnt play for the championship. That is why an undefeated Pitt or WV or USF doesn’t play for it next year. We need a 10 team conference. We need coaches with national recognition (cough Strong). We need Heisman candidates (no BE player has ever won the Heisman, BC and Miami had winners in the early 80s). There is still a laundry list of things that we “need” to do to play in the championship, the most important? A playoff system.
~Luke B.
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