This week's polls have been released. Here's how the Big East fared, from the top of the polls to the bottom, and what it means.
(AP/Coaches)
The Cardinals were off last week, leaving them pretty steady between 15-20 in the eyes of most voters. The last two contests for the Cardinals have been rain-soaked road trip victories, which have not provided any headline-grabbing material for most college pundits. The conditions made it so even Louisville fans and those of us who watched all of both contests did not have a ton to takeaway regarding the 2012 Cardinals. But all that changes this week with Louisville kicking off conference play on the road at Pittsburgh. It's an 11 a.m. ET kickoff, and the Cardinals cannot afford to sleepwalk their way into an early deficit against Ray Graham and the Panthers' rushing attack.
The Scarlet Knights did not win with the same shine or pizazz they showed in their Arkansas win two weeks ago, but they were able to lean on their veteran defense to keep Connecticut out of the end zone in a 19-3 win on Saturday. Jawan Jamison put up his fifth 100-yard game of the season, carrying the ball 28 times for 110 yards. This Rutgers team will not always be able to move the ball through the air like they did on the Razorbacks, but the backup plan with Jamison and a top-5 scoring defense is good enough to keep them in the Big East hunt and nationally ranked as long as they avoid turning over the ball.
The Bearcats break into both Top 25 polls after only receiving enough votes from the Coaches last week. We have seen less of Cincinnati than any team in the Big East, but its victory against in-state rival Miami seemed to affirm its style of winning in 2012. The always-opportunistic defense forced four turnovers, including three interceptions -- one returned for a touchdown -- of star quarterback Zac Dysert, and the offense rode a revolving door of running backs to 272 team rushing yards. George Winn and Ralph David Abernathy IV, in particular, have incredible breakaway speed and could potentially be a threat to score six anytime a tackle or assignment is missed. But given the schedule so far, that Top 25 ranking will likely be taken away at the first loss until the Bearcats take down a quality opponent. After what we saw in Week 6, the Virginia Tech win looks less and less convincing.
Others receiving votes: Those three teams have separated themselves from the rest of the conference at this point, but there is still a majority of the conference schedule left to play. But no other teams got any votes in either poll this week. The hope for the Big East's sake is that those three avoid upsets and stay in the Top 25.
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