Big East Sports Blog

The Big East Conference’s first bowl game will pit Rutgers against an athletic Central Florida squad.  Conference runner-up Pitt will face Butch Davis’ North Carolina Tar Heels on December 26th.  Legendary Head Coach Bobby Bowden, in his last game, will face his old squad as West Virginia battles Bowden’s Seminoles on January 1st in the Gator Bowl.  The conference’s only BCS game features Cincinnati vs. Florida.  The Bearcats will not have Brian Kelly on the sidelines as they battle Tim Tebow and the Gators on January 1st in the Sugar Bowl.  South Florida faces Northern Illinois and South Carolina faces UCONN on January 2nd to wrap up the bowl schedule for the Big East in 2009-2010.

The Cincinnati Bearcats, behind QB Zach Collaros’ record day, escaped with a 47-45 victory in primtetime against UConn.  Although the Bearcats got the victory, it wasn’t impressive which left the Cats at #5 despite the Iowa loss.  UC will have a tough test on November 13th when they host #25 West Virginia.  The Pitt Panthers moved up 1 slot to #12 in the college football rankings with a dominating performance against Syracuse.  QB Bill Stull and the Panthers host Notre Dame on a Saturday night national game November 14th.  South Florida moved up one slot to #24 while on their bye week.  They will have a tough test when they resume action at Rutgers on November 12th in front of a national ESPN audience.  West Virginia entered the rankings at #25 with a lackluster 17-9 victory over Louisville.  Their toughest test awaits when they travel to Cincinnati with the winner likely representing the Big East in a BCS Bowl game.

When Rutgers crushed Louisville to completed the regular season for both teams they not only eliminated Louisville from bowl eligibility, but they also pivoted themselves into a stronger bowl game. As a result, Rutgers will indeed play in the PapaJohns.com Bowl as I previous predicted and will face NC State of the ACC on December 29th. Big East Champion Cincinnati gets the headline bowl as they face the ACC Champion Virginia Tech Hokies in the Orange Bowl.

The remainder of the bowl games & match-ups include South Florida vs Memphis in the St. Petersburg Bowl, West Virginia faces North Carolina in the Meineke Car Care Bowl, Pitt faces Oregon State in the Sun Bowl and Connecticut faces Mid-American Conference Shampion Buffalo in the International Bowl.