TicketsAndrea Adelson at ESPN posted her post-spring Big East power rankings today. You can find them here.
She ranks UC fourth. Louisville held down the top spot still living off their late-season surge from their young team and QB Teddy Bridgewater. Prognosticating the Big East has come with one assurance in recent years and that's placing West Virginia at the top and underestimating the Bearcats.
With WVU gone, the league opens up even more than already expected. And, of course, UC predicts to the middle of the pack. In related news, studies show people enjoy weekends more than work days.
Does this ranking make sense? Sure it does. Andrea does a nice job. The Bearcats lost the Offensive Player of the Year, Co-Defensive Player of the Year, leading tackler, quarterback and four NFL Draft picks.
The teams AA placed above UC all return starting quarterback (Rutgers both who played last season). Bottom line, whenever doing college football rankings, place the returning quarterbacks at the top and you'll typically look good. It's the default sportswriter template. The Times New Roman of predictions.
Just take a look at the Big East champs the last five years:
2011: Louisville, WVU, UC -- Geno Smith and Zach Collaros both were returning while Bridgewater took over for the Cards
2010: UConn -- Zach Fraser and Cody Endres both returned
2009 -- UC -- Tony Pike was back
2008 -- UC -- Tony Pike took over
2007 -- WVU -- Pat White final season
That's right, only the 2009 Bearcats and Louisville share last year involved a team with a new quarterback. UC would love to follow the Cardinals model from last year with a dominating defense and dynamic quarterback setting tone. It could happen, but predicting it would be tough to do.
Still, why would anybody in Clifton care about these rankings? UC in the middle of the pack is as much a rite of spring as mothers awkwardly pinning boutonnieres on daughters prom dates.
Last year, Brian Bennett was still writing for the Big East blog and placed UC 7th-most likely to win the Big East at 25-to-1 odds.
UC has work cut out for it this year and a number of unknown quantities will be counted on to play major roles (ie QB, RB, MLB). Even if they were returning the entire squad, though, to expect any type of respect this type of year would be ignoring the pattern. And as long as that pattern plays out in the same way it has three of the past four years, nobody will care.
--- Randomness....
--- Josh Harrison continued his hot streak with two more hits Thursday. If you missed all the information about the UC MLBearcats, here is the link to yesterday's Breakfast.
--- Tommy G cranked out a new promo for season ticket holders. This one features Tony Pike talking about the greatness of Nippert Stadium.
--- David Letterman and Conan O'Brien continue to give it to Jay Leno.
--- Wait, Bono is getting richer? You know we can stop funneling money to the guy?
--- This book about the Dream Team is moving to the top of my summer reading list.
--- That's a big pool.
--- I've done this before, but I don't care, I'm doing it again. The temps this weekend make me want to play this song on repeat. Enjoy it, everybody.
She ranks UC fourth. Louisville held down the top spot still living off their late-season surge from their young team and QB Teddy Bridgewater. Prognosticating the Big East has come with one assurance in recent years and that's placing West Virginia at the top and underestimating the Bearcats.
With WVU gone, the league opens up even more than already expected. And, of course, UC predicts to the middle of the pack. In related news, studies show people enjoy weekends more than work days.
Does this ranking make sense? Sure it does. Andrea does a nice job. The Bearcats lost the Offensive Player of the Year, Co-Defensive Player of the Year, leading tackler, quarterback and four NFL Draft picks.
The teams AA placed above UC all return starting quarterback (Rutgers both who played last season). Bottom line, whenever doing college football rankings, place the returning quarterbacks at the top and you'll typically look good. It's the default sportswriter template. The Times New Roman of predictions.
Just take a look at the Big East champs the last five years:
2011: Louisville, WVU, UC -- Geno Smith and Zach Collaros both were returning while Bridgewater took over for the Cards
2010: UConn -- Zach Fraser and Cody Endres both returned
2009 -- UC -- Tony Pike was back
2008 -- UC -- Tony Pike took over
2007 -- WVU -- Pat White final season
That's right, only the 2009 Bearcats and Louisville share last year involved a team with a new quarterback. UC would love to follow the Cardinals model from last year with a dominating defense and dynamic quarterback setting tone. It could happen, but predicting it would be tough to do.
Still, why would anybody in Clifton care about these rankings? UC in the middle of the pack is as much a rite of spring as mothers awkwardly pinning boutonnieres on daughters prom dates.
Last year, Brian Bennett was still writing for the Big East blog and placed UC 7th-most likely to win the Big East at 25-to-1 odds.
UC has work cut out for it this year and a number of unknown quantities will be counted on to play major roles (ie QB, RB, MLB). Even if they were returning the entire squad, though, to expect any type of respect this type of year would be ignoring the pattern. And as long as that pattern plays out in the same way it has three of the past four years, nobody will care.
--- Randomness....
--- Josh Harrison continued his hot streak with two more hits Thursday. If you missed all the information about the UC MLBearcats, here is the link to yesterday's Breakfast.
--- Tommy G cranked out a new promo for season ticket holders. This one features Tony Pike talking about the greatness of Nippert Stadium.
--- David Letterman and Conan O'Brien continue to give it to Jay Leno.
--- Wait, Bono is getting richer? You know we can stop funneling money to the guy?
--- This book about the Dream Team is moving to the top of my summer reading list.
--- That's a big pool.
--- I've done this before, but I don't care, I'm doing it again. The temps this weekend make me want to play this song on repeat. Enjoy it, everybody.