Big East Sports Blog

If I were coaching a team in a bowl game this holiday season, I would not want to see my team name opposite the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. Rutgers, a team that started 1-5 on the season, finished the regular season at 7-5 after a 63-14 thumping of Louisville on Thursday night. With 6 straight wins Rutgers not only solidified their bowl eligibility, but they may have played themselves into a better bowl game with the hot streak. Meanwhile, with bowl eligibility on the line in this game as they looked to improve to 6-6, Louisville showed little fire in getting crushed. As a result, 6 Big East teams will be bowling in 2008-2009 with Louisville & Syracuse on the outside looking in. The win by Rutgers means they will likely play in the new St. Petersburg Bowl, the PapaJohns.com Bowl or return to the International Bowl where they easily handled Ball State a year ago. My pick? I would love to see Rutgers in the Papa John’s Bowl against a SEC opponent. Nothing against the MAC and Conference USA, both of whom have solid bowl-eligible teams this season, but Rutgers against a SEC team looks like a very nice bowl game matchup.

The WVU Mountaineers continue to control their own destiny in the Big East after surviving a scare at home against Louisville last night, 38-31. The game featured 7 turnovers, 4 by Louisville and 3 by WVU, as fumbles plagued both teams. Louisville trailed by 17 in the 3rd Quarter and was able to tie the score at 31-31 before Pat White’s 50-yard run proved to be the winning touchdown.

With the loss, Louisville drops to 5-5 (2-3 Big East) on the season while West Virginia improves to 8-1 (3-1 Big East) with 3 games remaining for WVU. The Mountaineers are @ Cincinnati on Nov. 17th, host #13 and Big East leading UConn on the 24th and host Pittsburgh on December 1st. If they can win out, WVU would earn the Big East’s automatic BCS Bowl game berth.