Going out with a bang - Big East dominating BCS foes for one final year

West Virginia is already playing in the Big 12, and UConn is ineligible this year to repeat the feat of a 9-9 Big East team winning the National Title.  Louisville's departure for the ACC was the final blow in the future Big East possibly climbing back to the top of the hoops world.

But while the BCS football schools have destroyed a great Golden Era for the Big East, at least the conference is going out with a bang by dominating those BCS schools this season.  Through Sunday's games, Pomeroy now has the Big East and the Big Ten head-and-shoulders above every other conference.

Big East schools have gone 20-12 against BCS schools so far, but that just starts to tell the story.  If you throw out the nail-biters, games in which one team won by fewer than six points or in overtime, the Big East is 15-5.  Only five times has a BCS school beaten a Big East school by 6 or more in regulation (FL>MU, Miss>Rutg, OK St>USF, Ala>Vill and Bayl>St. John's), while the Big East has in turn beaten 15 BCS schools by 6 or more points.

Team	Proj Conf Wins	Losses	Natl Rnk	Record vs. BCS 20-12 (15-5 when decided by 6+ in regulation)
Louisville	15	3	3	def. Missouri 84-61, lost to Duke 71-76
Syracuse	14	4	4	def. at Arkansas 91-82
Pittsburgh	14	4	7	lost to Mich 67-62
Cincinnati	11	7	16	def. Oregon 77-66, def. Alabama 58-56
Notre Dame	10	8	21	def. Kentucky 64-50
Georgetown	10	8	31	def. UCLA 78-70, lost to Indiana 82-72 OT, def. Tenn 37-36, def. Texas 64-41
Marquette	9	9	38	def. Miss St 89-62, def. USC 72-64, lost to Flo 82-49, def. Wisconsin 60-50
Connecticut	8	10	53	def. Mich St 66-62, def. Wake For 77-71, lost to NC St 69-65
Providence	7	11	71	lost to PSU 55-52 OT, def. Miss St 73-63
Rutgers	7	11	75	lost to Mississippi 80-67
Seton Hall	6	12	80	lost to Wash 84-73 OT, lost to LSU 72-67, def. Wake For 71-67
St. John's	6	12	90	lost to Baylor 97-78, def. South Car 89-65
Villanova	5	13	99	def. Purdue 89-81, lost to Alabama 77-55, def. Vandy 62-52
South Florida	6	12	102	def. Georgia 64-53, lost to Oklahoma St 61-49
DePaul	5	13	105	def. Auburn 80-76

When you add it all together, the Big East calculates just 0.031 behind the Big Ten for the top conference top to bottom, and almost twice as far ahead of the next best conference - the ACC.

Marquette projects to finish 9-9 and in 7th place in a very tough Big East - a record that Pomeroy believes right now would make MU one of seven NCAA locks as the 38th best team in the country.

Pomeroy's top 10 conferences		Rating
1	Big Ten Conference	0.862
2	Big East Conference	0.831
3	Atlantic Coast Conference	0.7817
4	Big 12 Conference	0.774
5	Southeastern Conference	0.741
6	Mountain West Conference	0.74
7	Pac 12 Conference	0.7393
8	Atlantic 10 Conference	0.6948
9	Missouri Valley Conference	0.6671
10	West Coast Conference	0.625

Not a bad finale.   Hopefully the new Big East or whatever conference MU ends up in will be great as well, but it's going to be hard to top the fun of this golden era starting with Steve Novak beating UConn through the twists and turns of conference play this season.