 "Photo: File photo")
JULY 18, 1:25 A.M. - NEWPORT, R.I. - There's little to be ashamed about with the Big East these days.
The football conference almost everyone seemed to write off just a few years ago was brimming with enthusiasm on Tuesday at the conference's annual media day in Newport, R.I. After one of the greatest seasons in its history, the Big East has every right to feel proud. And with four Heisman Trophy candidates, the best days may even be yet to come.
Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese spoke about last year as a Cinderella season in his opening remarks, but added he is tired of calling his conference a flash in the pan. He wants the legitimacy many thought was taken away from it with the departures of Miami (Fla.), Virginia Tech and Boston College.
After a 5-0 record in bowl games and 11-7 record against BCS Conference opponents, it seems there's nothing illegitimate about Big East football anymore.
"The demise of the Big East football conference was greatly over-exaggerated," WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez said. "But I said at that time, in order for Big East football to get back into national prominence, every institution has to take care of themselves. If they do that, we'll get better as a league. And I think that's what's happened."
West Virginia, Rutgers and Louisville all finished ranked in the top 12 in the nation in 2006, and South Florida is expected to jump into the preseason top 25 this year. What's more, Louisville's Brian Brohm, Rutgers' Ray Rice, and West Virginia's Pat White and Steve Slaton are all listed as legitimate candidates to take home college football's top individual prize - the Heisman Trophy - an award only one other Big East player has ever won (Gino Torretta, Miami 1992).
WVU was picked by the media to win its fourth conference title in five years, ahead of Louisville and Rutgers. Syracuse, for the second-straight year, was picked to finish last.
"Every year is a new year," SU head coach Greg Robinson said. "For me, it's just day to day. I have to just get our team better."
While media may have been able to list the teams in order of expectations, other coaches see no weak spots in a conference that has grown stronger and stronger over the past few seasons.
"With our league, week in and week out it's a battle," Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano said. "You add one or two BCS teams on your schedule, that's a full plate."
Steve Kragthorpe, a Boston College assistant coach in the 1990s, comes over from Tulsa to head Louisville, which finished 12-1 and atop the Big East last season. Kragthorpe, though, gushed over the depth and quality of his new conference.
"I look at this league from top to bottom, I challenge you to find a league that has as good a parity as we have right now," he said, mentioning Syracuse as a team that is much better than people think.
If the rest of the nation doesn't quite agree, they'll certainly have their chance to see for themselves. The Big East, under contract with ESPN and ABC until 2013, has already agreed to 17 nationally-televised games this season, starting with Washington and Syracuse at the Carrier Dome on August 31. Marquee matchups include West Virginia at Maryland on Sept. 13, Louisville at West Virginia on Nov. 8, and Rutgers at Louisville on Nov. 29, each on ESPN.
If under-exposure was a dilemma a few years ago, it's not the case anymore. Like a lot in and around the Big East nowadays, things have changed.
"We don't have the tradition of national championships," Rodriguez said. "But for an eight-team league, we're really really strong. And the non-conference and bowl games back that up."
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