Fawning On The Big East

It is the middle of July. There is no acctual news going on in the College Football world at this time. But the Big East is having its media event for the upcoming season and there is alot being written about that. The New York Times, The Sporting News, Rivals and others are taking notice. The media days usually tend to be nothing but fodder for the College Football watching public, just another reminder that games are just 6 weeks away. Most people are so starved for news at this point in the summer that they don’t tend to take a step back and look at things.

At this point last season there was very little to be said about the Big East. Most people still were extremely skeptical of the conference and its viability as a major conference. People were still clammoring for the Big East’s right to a BCS bid to be revoked. The attidtude shown by the rest of the conferences and fan bases was to trivialize the Big East. It is never good to guess what other peoples assumptions are but sometimes it can be done well. I think that the reason that most casual fans sought the demise of the Big East was that the media questioned, for the duration of the 2005, the validity of the Big East at the big boy table. Because most fans around the country never look outside of their own conference, and if they happen too they never remove the glasses of regional bias, they end up with distorted perceptions. Even when things change and their perceptions become worn and frayed they hold on to them because they never take the time to form their own thoughts and opinions, they just regenerate second hand opinions, but they hold on to them with conviction.

I don’t think that the glowing media coverage that the Big East has gotten in the past year is ever going to dismember the perception that the Big East is the inferior conference in the BCS, even when the records clearly show that the ACC has the spot on lock for the time being. But I think the days of members of the media calling for the dismissal of the Big East from the BCS are over. The Big East has its spot and will have its spot for the duration of the BCS’s lifespan.