DogsNCo@cks, yikes that sort of expains Penn State situation too. Can a new coach turn things around?

PSU beat two soft opponents so far this year with a significant road loss to BC inbetween. Not a good prognosis Penn State will make an impressive Big 10 run. As thought earlier, they'll win a few and lose a few, having a mediocre season. Home attendance has been solid early season, not sure the stadium will get filled late season, but good visitors always hold the fans. Joepa still thinks he has it. Well..........

Even when a storied program has a bad year, it's rare for the soft pre-season games to draw better than conference games. Seems we're suckers for our programs...

I suspect Penn State will be alright on the attendance account.

There are exceptions. Arizona State drew more against Northern Arizona in their first game last year than they did against Arizona at the end.

Penn State's wows have nothing to do with coaching as a lot of the Nittany Lions fans are thinking at this point. PSU has one of the best to ever coach the game.

Penn State joining the Big 10 eliminated the top dog in the east status and things will never be the same again.

Not that Penn State can't improve, do not see regular top 10 appearance as the old days.

Penn State is just not getting the requits as the old days and playing in the always difficult Big 10 will keep the school in the middle of pact.

Penn State should be playing in the Big East, however, money and other things will not allow this and so PSU fans need to learn to settle for other benefits. One of those is not the top team in the east status any longer.

Some of Penn State's problems are not due to Big 10 scheduling. Also, some of their old eastern foes they used to dominate decades ago, have gotten much better. West Virginia and Maryland, for example, used to be wins Penn State could just assume nearly every year. If they were playing these teams regularly nowadays, results would not show domination oneway.

Remember, Penn State won the Big 10 their first year, went undefeated, but Nebraska was claimed to be the national champs. Even PSU's Big 10 brethern voted for Nebraska. Those were the days of Kerry Collins and Company.

What changed for Penn State more than anything else were the scholarship limits. BC, Pitt, VA, VA Tech, Syracuse, Maryland, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan, and even the Florida schools, plus others, are challenging Penn State, even for the best recruits out of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. At one time, Penn State owned this turf; not any more. Penn State still recruits very well, but so does their competition.

Also, Penn State running the same plays for the last forty years, others have figured it out! That may be too unfair to say, but there is a predictable and conservative element to it.

As to the general topic, looks as if the BE has only one team that will be really impressive: West Virginia. If West Virginia skids near the end, there will be a fuss about the BE's BCS representative this year. It would be nice to have seen Louisville in the BE a year early.

Earlier I heard some bickering over only 8 teams in BE
well, on ncaafootball.net i saw that ucf has joined on for next year as will

The BE appears they could use L'ville a year early. The WV loss to VPI was a tough one. It is just mid-season though, so perhaps the BE will have an outstanding team for the BCS at the end of the season.

As long as WVU wins out, they will be around #10 or higher considering the teams above them right now.

UGA and Auburn both have to play each other (then there is the SEC championship game as well). Purdue has a though Big10 schedule. UVa, UM, and FSU have the rest of the ACC schedule to go, so there will be teams dropping and that gives WVU a chance to move back up.

TEMPLE OF DOOM
Big East notebook: League getting kicked around
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
BY TOM LUICCI
Star-Ledger Staff
http://www.nj.com/rutgers/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1096951896320020.xml

Some Owls still hoot for football team
phillyBurbs.com
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/42-10092004-379470.html

The USA Today in today's issue pointed out the 1999 and 2000 years when 3 loss teams such as Stanford and Purdue ventured to the Rose Bowl. It noted the BE's troubling year. Actually, if WVU went undefeated the remainder of the regular season, the BE's representative could end up looking respectable; though WVU may be their only real hope considering the number of loses of the other conference contenders.
The BCS Chair did note looking at four year patterns.

Some have thought that a future change could involve something like simply replacing the BE with another upstart such as the MWC. That goes against the grain of entrenced power and the sense of security. What will happen is the openning of access or adding bowl games perhaps with injecting more new criteria. The established BCS conferences will accommodate some change over time, but will not relinquish anything major that compromises their elite status.

The BCS is no hurry to kill its tv marketplace with schools from Utah ,Wyoming,New Mexico or schools such as TCU or SDst which are not big for tv in their own region.

Well,

You have to wonder about the stength of a conference where the #1 team next year will be a new addition from a mid-major conference.

The Big East has some serious problems. Keep in mind that had Syracuse, West Virginia or Pitt been given the ACC nod, they would have left.

If the Big 10 picks up Syracuse or Pitt, thats it for the Big East as you know it today.

The new member of the acc is Fresno State.

If another school left the BE, say for the Big 10, the BE will still survive. It may take more dipping into C-USA and further expanding the distance among and between schools and reaching outside the northeast again. Obviously, replacements are not going to be schools with huge followings and long term traditions. But they will be competitive types, or have the potential to be.