College Football Rankings: Big East Shut Out Of Week 12 USA Today Poll

The Big East is terrible. We all know this.

No Big East teams are ranked in the USA Today coaches poll for Week 12, and the only one even receiving votes is Syracuse.

Syracuse, in turn, is highly unlikely to win the Big East and the automatic BCS berth that comes with a conference championship, despite being one of just three currently bowl-eligible BCS teams. That’s the consequence of a 45-14 loss to Pittsburgh earlier this season.

The smart money’s favorite to win the Big East might actually be South Florida. The Bulls get Pittsburgh at home this week, and would be able to take a share of the Big East lead with a win over the Panthers.

But that share of the lead would also assume that West Virginia doesn’t come on strong for the rest of the season. The Mountaineers have to travel to Pitt, but could be the Big East champion if they win out.

Basically, whichever Big East team wins the automatic BCS bid is likely to embarrass the conference by losing in January. So it’s all a competition for a dubious honor at this point.