Ohio State is back Baby!

Throughout  most of this year I have concentrated on Temple Football in this blog.  Not because I love OSU any less than Temple, actually quite the opposite as OSU has been the team that I was raised on.  In that regard it has honestly been very hard to write about by beloved buckeyes because they have been just so bad this year and reliving every painful detail in a weekly blog was just to much.  From the Joe Bauserman Experiment to the  horrendous Miami game to the heartbreaking collapse vs Nebraska to the painful losses against Purdue, PSU and Michigan, I knew that no matter how much I b*tched that this year was an anomaly that I just had to ride it  out until the season ended.

However, I started this blog as a place to express my views about all that is happening in college football from big to small.  Luckily, for me there is currently no bigger story in college football than my Buckeyes hiring Urban Meyer.  Yet, if there is one thing that I have taken from this season is that as fans we place completely unrealistic expectations on our favorite teams and often end up disappointed.  Now, don't get me wrong when I suggest tempering expectations because I am extremely ecstatic about this hire and the direction that the Buckeyes are headed.  However, anyone who thinks OSU is going to win 5 straight championships and get the best 25 recruits in the country are in for a rude awakening.  That being said there could have been a better possible outcome from such a disastrous season.

Urban Meyer brings instant credibility back the the OSU program and from all account we should find out the final ruling from the NCAA within the next 2 weeks and hopefully this whole nightmare will finally be behind us.  I see great things ahead for the Meyer era including B1G championships and challenging for the national championship on a consistent basis.  Also, I'm excited to finally play a more aggressive style of football after all those years of Tresselball.  Tressel was a great coach and he won alot of games but it was hard to watch sometimes, especially when it got exposed against Urban's game plan in the championship game.  I'm also glad to see Luke Fickel remain on the staff. We all know he was thrust into a situation where we wasn't ready and was dealt an incredibly crappy hand, but he is Buckeye at heart and lead the program through the worst scandal in school history and I wont forget that.

Meyer However, brings some major advantages that we haven't seen recently to one of the premier football programs in America and that is where I get truly excited.  Tressel surrounded himself with loyal cronies that put him in total control of the program and were the reason that this season fell apart after he was removed.  Meyer on the other hand has stated that he wants to put together the best collection of coaches in the country and even better has convinced the OSU organization that they need to final pay for them.  If you look at his track record with assistant coaches you will understand that excitement.  Many of his former assistants are now successful head coaches at major programs around the country.  Obviously, the man has an eye for talent when it comes to putting together a staff and hopefully, we will see the results on the field as early as next year.

Urban Meyer also know that recruiting is you lifeblood and he is one of the best in the country and will also take that into consideration when hiring his staff.  Tressel was always a more laid back approach to recruiting. That's not to say he was not a great recruiter because he was but he encouraged recruits to look around and make sure that they wanted to be buckeyes.   Urban's approach seems a little more proactive, establishing who he wants and going out and making sure they come to his school.  Urban understands Ohio and that he needs to lock down the elite players from the state but will also be a force nationally.  Tressel always had success in Florida but its only been a few days and already you can see that Urban will continue that success but also improve upon it.  We have always gotten quality recruits from Florida but I think we will see more top 10 Florida kids strongly consider OSU.  He has also always had a presence in the north east and has national connections from his time at Utah and FL.  He is able to have more national success because he runs an exciting that recruits are excited to play in. As long as he continues defending Tressel's fence around Ohio which developed quite a few holes this year, and bring in elite national talent its hard not to get excited about what Meyer brings to the Table.

Pierce is back but is he gone?

Temple finished out their regular season with a solid 34 to 16 victory over Kent St.  They started out slow but finished strong thanks to the reemergence of Bernard Pierce, who posted a season best 189yd while scoring 3 tds on 24 carries at close to 8 yards a pop.  I know most of you were like me and almost had a heart attack when Gerardi took the field or even worse when it was announced that Coyer was indeed out for the game and that SA seemingly settled on Stewart even after fumbling 3 times in a handful of snaps resulting to two turnovers and easy Kent State points.  Honestly,  During the pregame recognition of seniors I could not help feel a sense of relief that Stewart will finally be graduating but at the same time I just couldn't get rid of the feeling that SA would  somehow get Chester into the game on senior day. Unfortunately, it was at the expense of losing Coyer during the first possession of the game. However, it was almost fitting that Stewart lead us to a quality win in his last home game for the owls.  In no means does this mean that I want to see Stewart get any quality time over a healthy Coyer if we are lucky enough to get a bowl game invite, but we will get to that later.
Matt Brown had a quite day rushing the ball, but again showed all the intangibles that he brings to this team including the 100 yard td kickoff return following the blocked extra point on Kent State's first score.  Those two plays had monumental impact on this game. We were still dealing with the shock of losing Coyer for the game and Chester had just turned the ball over inside our own twenty and giving up easy points against our defense that was playing well had the makings of a disaster.  Yet, those two plays took us from losing to winning while allowing us to regroup and maintain our game plan. From there as much as Stewart tried to overthrow is 6'-4" receivers It became the BP show.
After the first half that saw McManus tack on a the 1st of his two field goals and limited BP to twenty something yards, Pierce played a half that reminded us why we started a Heisman campaign for him as a sophomore.  Busting off long runs showcasing his vision, his world class speed and knack for breaking tackles  reminded us that he has the potential to be a 1st round nfl draft pick. And if the score wasnt so lopsided, aside from some late garbage tds BP probably goes for 220 and 4 tds.  I know that I have said this often before but I think that BP runs better out of the I and when he gets into a grove running downhill shows he is one of the top backs in the nation.  In that respect I think Stewart was very instrumental in BP having the best game of the season.  However, Is this the type of game that makes BP and others around him question if the time is right to start his nfl career?
This bring us to my main question.  Has Bernard Pierce played his last game in a Temple uniform.  Since we did not take care of business in the Mac we will have to wait until next week to discover if we are going bowling or not this year.  At 8-4 it would seem to be enough but after last year im not taking anything for granted until the announcement is official.  Either way I think that Pierce strongly considers the nfl after this year.   There are a few reasons that I think he has to consider it.  First, this year Pierce ran behind an OL that had several seniors with alot of playing time with lack of quality backups.  Secondly, the offense that SA wants to run is more spread than traditional which does not showcase his talents to the fullest.  Lastly, this is a senior laden team that will have several positions that will need to be shored up and might be somewhat of a rebuilding year along the OLine and defense.  This was BP's best chance for a MAC championship and it was somewhat squandered while the new coaching staff tried to figure out their best offense and staying with CS to long.  I know that BP still has the durability question attached to his pro prospects but if he can have a strong bowl showing then all sign point to him leaving, especially when you consider the nfl shelf for RB's.

Now, I dont know for sure that he will leave and i would love for him to come back and finally lead this team to wins over PSU and a MAC championship and maybe become a dark horse Heisman candidate but I cant blame the kid for thinking about his future either.  Besides there is a long way to go before he has to declare and the coaching Carousel still needs to be worked.  All im saying is hope for a Quality bowl game with a national opponent and dont take the show for granted.  Pretty soon BP might be more Adam DiMichael than injury prone

Temple hasn't been able to capitalize this year. Did they blow it?

I had an earlier blog post where I mentioned how at one point this season it was looking like we had the opportunity to win out, go 11-2, and our Big East invite was already in the mail.  In retrospect, it seems that this year was a golden opportunity to take the next step and I cant help but feel we let some of that opportunity slip through our fingers.

While I don't really want to go into it to much, there are enough opinions out there, I must say that the scandal at Penn State is an atrocity.  Anyone covering up child abuse and allowing it continue is a despicable human being. That being said I don't know all the facts(no one does) and I'm sure more facts will continue to come out and hopefully, anyone involved will be punished for their actions/inaction's. What I want to discuss is how Temple is effected from the current state of College football, including the PSU scandal.  I can assume that that we are all ecstatic that Sandusky turned down the Temple head coaching job and that this story dosent involve Temple.

Anyways, back to the the idea that Temple hasn't capitalized on the potential that was/is available this year. With all the conference realignment has been rampant across the board everyone thought this is the year that we win the MAC and get noticed as the budding quality football team that we have developed in the past few years.  While I know Villanova has had a lot to do with us being blocked from the Big East I think if at the end of this season we had won the MAC beat an ACC team and Beat a PSU team, which we were at least as good as, we would be a top 25 team. With all that considered I think it would be hard for the Big East to overlook us and better yet maybe even get some interest from the ACC.  However, a good MAC team sitting at 8-4 who may or may not get shut out of a bowl game for the second consecutive year pretty much gets ignored.  It also appears that we are not cheating enough.  How does UCF get the first invite with blatant cheating in their men's basketball and football teams, resulting in the firing of their AD and assistant football coach.  Oh, but you probably haven't even head about that because they released it during Joe Pa must pay week on ESPN.  Or what about Boise State, the key piece to "keeping the Big East together" and creating a western division, they  were slapped with lack of institutional control this September.  Its mind boggling that the Big East is trying to extend to Idaho, Texas and Fl to schools that have shown that they are showing the win at all cost mentality and apparently lack the leadership to prevent it.  Just wait until millions are on the line if given AQ status.

This brings me to my main point and that is recruiting.  Recruiting is the life blood for college football teams.  The better players you get theoretically the better team you can potentially become.  Granted, its not that simple, and coaching plays a major role but there is a reason that most of the problems with college football today stem from recruiting violations and giving the good players "extra benefits."  So far Temple has done it the right way but trying to beat PSU with MAC level recruits and trying to get our Basketball team back to the Elite Eight with A-10 recruits is a daunting task.  I appreciate the A-10 and the Mac for supporting our athletics but as a Temple Fan and alum I want more.  We already compete with teams like Villanova in BBall and Penn State in football but imagine if we could get the premier local talent in our area or even regionally.  Recruiting is a regional game and besides national top 100 players who can basically pick wherever they want to go, teams rely on picking up local talent as the core of their team. Al Golden did very well and hopefully SA will continue to recruit under the radar kids and develop them into early round nfl picks but I'm  tired of the best players from the Philly area go to PSU, Pitt, MD, Wisconsin,  or even Rutgers for football and the most talented Philly BBallers go to Villanova

With the whole PSU debacle you might think that we might be able to get in favorably with some local talent being recruited or currently committed or soon to be decommitted from PSU.  However, I think it actually goes against us.  If we could sell early playing time for highly rated commits on a upswing team about to join a AQ conference then we may have had a shot with those kids,but alas that is not the case.  What I can see happening is Penn State continuing to lose recruits but to other Big ten teams like the Wisconsins or Northwesterns of the world or even to the Big East school like Rutgers.  I dont think Temple is big enough to capitalize yet but I can see PSU regrouping and concentrating on quality players from PA who would normally not be in line for a PSU offer but have grown up Nitty lion fans,(ie Current Temple commits or recruits).  A similar thing happened at OSU this year with NCAA sanctions looming over their head.

I know I talk of theoretical situations and of situations that we can not control but I just feel there was a lot of opportunity this year, but at the same time Temple really hasn't improved its brand.  And there is no guarantee that winning more games or being being invited to the Big East or ACC would dramatically improved Temple football in the ways I have described, but I assure you that they wouldn't have hurt.  I just hope that we dont look back at this year and realize this was our chance and we didnt do enough.

Will Temple go bowling?

Temple became bowl eligible for the third consecutive year last night with a 24-21 win over Miami Ohio. Yet, as we saw last year we have to win out to even be considered.  Army and Kent State should be wins but with  this team nothing is a given and we have to continue to grow on offense and get back to playing Temple TUFF defense.  We are still in the hunt for the MAC championship but we dont control our own destiny and can only worry about what we can control.  However, with Army and Navy struggling to become bowl eligible, an invite to the Military bowl(formerly the eagle bank bowl) in DC against a national opponent would not be a bad thing.

Once again Matt Brown has showed why he has is my favorite Player. I have always disliked the idea that college recruiting and the NFL draft is based on physical stats and potential.  There is something to be said for instincts and football savvy, but those are too often overlooked for Height/Weight/40. I know I have said this all before but Matt Brown is a straight up football player in the truest sense of the word .  He is a 5'5 170lb ball of Heart and you cant teach heart. We all know BP is the franchise back but Matt Brown is an All-MAC caliber back in his own right.  Matt Brown is also better suited for the offense that we are running.  For some reason BP up the gut or starting his run East/West in the zone read is not his strength. He is an amazing I formation back but Matt Brown is built for the spread.  He is quicker(not faster) than BP and a little jitterbug that gets lost in the fray.  However, you dont start MB over a healthy BP, but you need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your players and use that to your advantage and continue the feed them both as they have shown they are both capable of 100 yards + any game.

Ok enough with my Bromance of Matt Brown but he came up clutch again in the absence of BPierce, who sat out with a concussion.  The fumble at the goal line and rushing td right after and the 1st down run on third down to ice the game were the plays of the game.  Without those 3 plays there is a substantial chance we lose that game.  Especially considering that for some reason we decided not to cover Miami's Wr Harwell all game, but we will get into that later.  Chris Coyer looked great as a runner again  but he still could use work in the passing game but that's not on him that is on the coaches.  You cant expect Coyer to make is first start and just his second game of significant playing time and only let him throw a handful of times and expect he will be ready to win a game with his arm.  That is the coaches fault for not going to him earlier,(but as much as I would like to change that I cant.)   But my real question is what is up with this play calling?   If we continue to run on first and second down we will continue to be placed in 3rd and 7/8.  We have play action role out TE dump passes in the play book and they work but why cant we run them occasionally on first down.  Its an easy throw to build CCoyers confidence early plus if its not there he has shown he can make plays with his legs.  There were 5 3rd and long plays that clearly stand out in my head as mind boggling. there were 2 plays where we ran 2 yard quick slants and even when caught were no where close to a first down, and the other 3 were deep fade routes.  We dont have a play that calls for the Wr to simply get to the sticks and pick up a first down?  All-in-all, Coyer played well and delivered a win in his first start and thats all that really matters.

In terms of our defense I did not know it was possible to look so good yet so bad at the same time.  We forced 3 turnovers and had seven sacks but gave up 360 passing yards with 230 going to one player.  This is the second straight week where we have given up over 165 yards receiving to one player.  There were times where Harwell was simply wide open after he had already put up video game like numbers.  We need to get better in the secondary but we also need our coaches to make adjustments or better yet game plan to stop school record receiving games.  This defense is based on pressure and confusion, and it worked well in terms of 7 sacks and forcing an int where Dysert threw the ball directly to Adrian Robinson, but when we were unable to get pressure Dysert picked us apart.  I know we have all seen inequality in the penalty calls that go against us vs. for us but if that's going to be the way its called we have to learn to play with it and play smart and especially not make stupid mental errors like offsides on 4th and five.  They game Miami a chance and the capitalized on the opportunity given. We should have had that game wrapped up but I could only envision another run stuffed on third down forcing us to punt with a minute left and Harwell wide open scoring the winning td with seconds left on the clock.  Thank goodness for Matt Brown and Im sure the OL had something to do with it.

Hooray game of the century, Hopefully there is no rematch of the century

The current BCS standings currently have Bama ranked third after their overtime loss to LSU.  That means if Bama and LSU win out and OK state loses then the rematch of the century could very well happen. Ugh, just thinking about the possibility makes me want to throw up.  With all the coverage surrounding the "game of the century" can you imagine if they got to add Bama-LSU rematch and all SEC national championship game to the fray.  Seriously, just writing this is making me queasy. Besides my hatred of the SEC I dont think I could handle the buildup to a rematch of a game that ended 9-6 in overtime.  I understand that this was a defensive slug fest but talk about boring.  INTs and missed field goals should not be the best highlights from the "game of the century." You would think that the supposed top two teams in the country could score more that 6 points in regulation.

This years NCAA basketball championship between UConn and Butler was a defensive struggle and was widely seen as one of the worst championship games in recent memory.  Granted, I am a UConn fan and was just excited that they won but will also admit it wasnt pretty.  And for basketball fans with no rooting interest in either team it was probably exceedingly dull. As a society we want our championships to be exciting, there is merit it playing great defense but in this case I dont think it warrants a National championship rematch.  

The last 1vs2 game was Ohio State and Michigan and that was an exciting game, which was back and forth, close and high scoring and there was a case being made then that Michigan should get a shot at a rematch for the championship.  However, those circumstances were a little different,  after that game the only undefeated team left was OSU and they had to play a one win team.  Michigan just showed that it could compete with OSU and had a resume as good as any of the remaining schools.  However, there was an overwhelming feeling that if you dont win your conference you shouldn't have a championship shot.  As much as it pains me to think about that years NCG where Florida demolished my beloved Buckeyes I dont think I could have accepted a Michigan national champion after we had beaten them the game before.  Its not fair to LSU to take care of business against Bama but then possibly lose to them for a national championship after they won the SEC.  It would be like saying that the regular season was irrelevant.  

There is still time for this all to play out and I think an undefeated Ok State or Stanford will end up being ahead of Bama at seasons end, but I could see this being the year that an undefeated Boise State gets left out again for an SEC rematch and that would be a crime.  I know Bama fans want a rematch and Espin would love to suckle at the tit of the SEC twice as hard but as football fans I think the majority of us would be against a 9-6 rematch.  

Granted, this whole post is based on the current BSC format that we have.  I would be all for a playoff system which will never happen but it makes this point mute.  The regular season would be crucial for admittance into the playoff as well as seeding and we let the teams decide it on the field and not through bureaucracy.  The arguments against are stupid and driven by money but you cant tell me that a rotating schedule of the current bcs bowls as playoff venues wouldn't make more money and be infinitely more exciting end to the football season plus you could keep rest of the bowl games. But I digress because its a pipe dream at best.  All I'm saying is that this it has alreafy become a forgone conclusion that if you win the SEC you play for a national championship.  Putting two teams into the NCG espcially from the SEC creates a bad precedent and will only serve as reason to continue their despicable over signing ways and and promote their win at all cost mentality.

The build up before the let down

I always tell my good friend and TU alum Juan that Temple loves to "build you up to let you down." It has become a running joke between the two of us but its also true.  However, I have finally realized that I can't blame temple for the expectations that I put on them. As a TU fan I was flying sky high just a few weeks ago.  We had rebounded from a tough loss to Toledo with almost dominant performances vs. Ball state and Buffalo.  The Penn State team we should have beat was leading the big ten and we still had a victory over an ACC team.  Couple that with what was being said to be an immanent invite back to the Big East Had me dreaming of a TU program we could only imagine in our wildest dreams just a few years ago.  I was thinking we were about to make the break from mid level MAC team to a team of relevance. 

Boy what a difference a few weeks makes.  I have been brought back to earth and I can not blame that on Temple because they never made the claim that they were a top 25 team or about to step up to meet the challenges of the big boys, those were my expectations.  However, I can blame coaching on not having this team play to the best of their abilities.  First I must say," ARE YOU FRICKING KIDDING ME ADDAZIO," you made we endure another half season of Chester Stewart football when we could have been playing Coyer all year.  How many TU Fans could have predicted that Stewart would not finish the year as the starter.  Im guessing its close to 99% because we have seen it not once, not twice, but three times.  He must be an amazing practice qb because it always takes coaches 4-5 games of him overthrowing receivers to pull the trigger.  

Just imagine with me for a second Coyer being the starter from the beginning of the year.  Can you imagine him gaining confidence as we pounded the rock with Pierce for the first few games.  Can you replace your memories of every 3 yard Stewart run with a ten yard Coyer run.  Can you envision a PSU game where we actually threw a few completions so they couldn't load the box on BP, or even moving the ball, even slightly, to keep the defense fresh enough to prevent that final touchdown.  Can you imagine a confident Coyer complimenting the great defensive game vs. Bowling green and delivering on a final drive last night.

Now, I want to be clear I'm not saying Coyer is so good he should have would be a Heisman contender this year.  This team never needed a Heisman qb they just needed a serviceable one and if they can get a performance like the one Coyer had last night that is just a plus.  Playing Stewart over Coyer isn't just wrong its  borderline irresponsible with regards to this team.  That being said with BP in the backfield you cant continuously run the zone read,  I thought they did a much better job of mixing together pass zone read and power running game in the second half .

One the other side of the ball our usually stingy defense fell apart.  The defense has been the heart of this team but they collapsed last night.  If you told me that we would score 31 points against Ohio I would have thought that would be an easy win considering how dominate the D has been.  Where were our line backers, the only time we heard their names called was when they watched their man run buy them for easy touchdowns or making tackles 15 yard down field, which is not good.  Our Dline constantly created a surge through the line forcing the cutback just the way you would draw it up but after the cut back there was no linebacker in sight.  Ohio's Harden ripped through us and while I do think he deserves credit for being talented we made him look like a 1st round nfl pick.  Considering our linebackers were invisible I think our safeties played well in both run and pass support but Brazil absolutely abused our corner backs. Tettleton and the offense are good but our defense should not have given up 521 yard to OHIO.

As high as my hopes were for this team at the beginning of the season I see being invited to a bowl game as the only possible goal left for this team and even that will be a longshot now, especially after we what happened last year.  Honestly, that is a major let down considering where I think this team should be but Temple never promised me anything.  However, part of being a fan is dreaming big not hoping for mediocrity and who knows maybe one day TU will get there and we will look back on these seasons and realize just how lucky we were to watch the transformation.  Until then yelling at your T.V. is encouraged   

Temple vs Buffalo- Take Notice

It seems that we always come out on our first possession and put points on the board.  This is key when you are built to play with the lead like we are.  It allows us to run the ball and be efficient in the passing game not trying to do too much.  I have talked about all of this before but its nice when you can begin to count on  team to do what they do very well.  Our stud RB gashed Buffalo for 150 yards and 2 tds and it should have been 200 yards and 3 tds in the first half alone. He has been running so well and consistent that I have horrible flashbacks when he comes of the field dinged up and dosen't play the rest of the game. Hopefully, its just the coaches being smart and holding him out with a large lead and not a nagging recurring injury that BP has a knack for acquiring. Regardless, of only playing a half and a handful of plays Pierce is 5th in the nation in rushing and tied for 1st with 17 td runs. Matt brown is really going to be missed here after next year, he is just a football player in the truest sense of the word.  He may not have the size, speed, or natural ability of Pierce but few do and Brown is such a competitor.  He is everywhere, he held the ball for McMannus on kickoff and still made tackles, he is our best returner for punts and kickoffs,  he is a great complimentary back to BP as more of a scat back impossible to find behind our behemoth OLine and had over a hundred yards rushing in the past to games.  If I saw him on defense it would be a surprise but it wouldn't be shocking at this point.  Chester Stewart did exactly what his team needed, he lead them and played error free football. We even got to see Coyer lead the team on a nice drive before stalling inside the 10.  Again we got outstanding special teams play blocking a fg and running a fake punt for a td.  The fake punt was a great call I only hope that there is not a time when we really need it and it gets stuffed because we have shown our cards.The next few games determine the MAC east and if we play like this on offense and special teams we should be be packing for the MAC championship game especially with the way the defense is playing

Temple completed their second straight shutout with the 34-0 win.  I remember the days when the only shutout we saw was when Temple failed to score.  In those days getting a shutout seemed unimaginable and consecutive shutouts a pipe dream.  Chuck heater has this defense firing on all cylinders, considering we lost a 1st rounder in Wilkerson and a second rounder in Jarrett.  Think about that for a second, this years defense is better a year removed from Temple's most successful draft ever.  We are #2 in scoring defense behind only Alabama. We are ahead of  Wisconsin, Mich St., Stanford, Penn State, and LSU that is some pretty good company.  We are also #8 in total defense and while Golden brought in the several top ranked MAC recruiting classes I do not think anyone would confuse our recruits with the aforementioned teams.  That is not to say that we do not have good players I just think that the new coaching staff is doing an amazing job.  Addazio and Heater responded to the let down game against Toledo and have this team full steam ahead.

However, long term there is a catch.  We all know what joining a conference would do for a team like Temple.  Better competition would bring more fans each week, I hate to say it but people don't get excited enough to leave the comforts of their own home to go watch us play Buffalo or Akron or most MAC teams. It would also open up the possibilities for stronger recruiting classes and the increase in revenue sharing would allow us support our commitment to our facilities.  The last and most important thing it would do I believe is it would let us keep our coaches.  Addazio is showing he can run the show out from under the shadow of Urban Meyer and Chuck Heater has Temple as a top 10 defense in the country. Even Scot Loeffler has shown well as the offensive coordinator.  Teams from BCS conferences in need of good coaching will begin to take notice. We can hope that they will stay and build Boise State of the east but I cant expect that they will stay as MAC coaches if the big boys come calling.  However, getting into a AQ conference might buy us some more time and allow them to build something too special to walk away from.

That is why if you don't already have a hatred for Villanova then you should definitely start. Temple seemed all but invited to the new Big East as an all-sports member before Nova picked up their phones.  They are so scared of us they will do anything to keep us out. Granted they should be we as we are already there fiercest competitor out of the Big five in basketball and if we got to recruit as a big east school I think we take over as the team to beat every year.  What disappoints me is that the Big East listened,  if the reports are true coming out of ESPN(which is always reporting what is in their best interest whether true or not).  How can they disregard a school like Temple and offer teams like Huston and SMU all-sports membership.  I understand that this is football driven but its a mistake for the Big east to totally disregard basketball, considering that is  what the Big East conference was started on.  Huston is having a good year in football and SMU has history as a football power but in terms of basketball they dont really come close to replacing Syracuse and Pitt.  Not to mention all the non revenue sports that will have to travel from Texas to Connecticut it just all seems stupid when you have a rising football team and good basketball team within your footprint in one of the largest tv markets that your ignoring because Villanova will lose their competitive advantage