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BIG EAST

Conference Overview: Big East success revolves around the three best teams; West Virginia, Louisville and Rutgers. With Heisman candidates, quarterback Patrick White and running back Steve Slaton, WVU and coach Rodriguez are thinking championship. At Louisville, the house that former coach Bobby Petrino built is still intact with the nation's best quarterback, Brian Brohm and new coach Steve Kragthorpe's NFL experience. Rutgers continues to stay on the rise and could cause problems for teams with Heisman candidate, running back Ray Rice.

Contenders: The Big East has three teams in the AP preseason Top 25. WVU leads the pack with the No. 3 ranking, Louisville is No. 10 and Rutgers rounds the group out at No. 16. Both WVU and Louisville have their sights set on the BCS title game and the only thing standing in their way is each other and Rutgers, who by admission of their head coach Greg Schiano is not ready to even compete for the Big East title. Watch out for USF's dual-threat quarterback, Matt Grothe. The Big East's Rookie of the Year last year will only get better, so look for the Bulls to nab a possible upset over any of these heavyweights looking ahead to January. With that said, don't be surprised if the Big East produces its first national champion since Miami in 2001, that is, if they don't beat each other first.

Pretenders: UConn and Syracuse finished at the bottom last year and expect them to stay there, but also expect Pitt to join them after losing quarterback Tyler Palko. - gavin p. godfrey

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