Big East’s top 10 teams second only to SEC

Posted Oct 1, 2009 by Brett McMurphy

Updated Oct 1, 2009 at 09:52 AM

The debate about the quality of the Big East will likely go on for years, maybe even until the end of time, but when Cincinnati climbed to No. 10 in this week’s Associated Press poll, the Bearcats became the league’s fifth member to be ranked in the top 10 since the 2007 season.

Not too bad. An eight team league and five have been ranked in the Top 10 since 2007. The only conference with a higher percentage of Top 10 teams since 2007 has been the SEC.

Besides Cincinnati, the other Big East teams to reach the top 10 since 2007 all came during the 2007 season. USF and West Virginia each reached No. 2, while Louisville was as high as No. 8 and Rutgers was No. 10.

The only league members who haven’t been ranked in the top 10 the past three seasons are Pittsburgh, Connecticut and Syracuse, although UConn reached No. 16 in 2007 and Pitt was as high as No. 17 last season.

Since 2007, only the SEC can boast of a higher percentage of league members being ranked in the top 10 than the Big East.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the percentage of teams ranked in the top 10 of the top six conferences since 2007.

SEC 66.7 percent (8 of 12)
Big East 62.5 percent (5 of 8)
Big 12 50 percent (6 of 12)
Big 10 45.4 percent (5 of 11)
Pac 10 40 percent (4 of 10)
ACC 33 percent (4 of 12)

The Devil Wears Orange: Here’s a feature on Syracuse QB Greg Paulus from the Tampa Tribune’s Joey Johnston.

The Orange appears vastly improved from last season and the addition of Paulus at quarterback is one of the biggest reasons.

Please click here to read Johnston’s story on Paulus’ amazing story.

Picks reminder: Don’t forget to participate in the weekly picks contest. While I think Syracuse is improved and this is the proverbial trap game for USF, I think the Bulls are too talented and too athletic and win by 10-14 points. Please click here to sign up for the picks contest and/or enter this week’s picks.