“To the fans and everyone in Orange nation, I’m sorry. I’m extremely sorry. We were hoping for an undefeated season. That was my goal, something Syracuse has never done here.

I promise you one thing, a lot of good will come out of this. You will never see any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of the season. You will never see someone push the rest of the team the way I will push everybody the rest of the season.

You will never see a team play harder than we will the rest of the season. God bless.”

The senior did his part in the opener, throwing for 351 yards and two TD’s, but it was not enough as the Orange were undone by a fumbled kickoff return and a subsequent fumble on the Baylor goal line. Will “The Promise” stand the test of time? Orange Nation can only wait and see.

As the league enters year three, Syracuse saw the greatest jump in overall talent, followed by USF. In fact, only one other team (Pittsburgh) even saw improvement, as the other squads declined in overall talent.

Could this signal a changing of the guard? Perhaps, but Syracuse is still the only team that doesn’t have an overall average in the 70′s and will be forced to start some freshmen in key positions this year. The real challenger to the throne looks to be Jack Virostko’s USF Bulls. The squad is now the 4th highest ranked in the conference and boasts the leagues best QB. Anything less than a Big East title will be considered an underachievement.

With a 31-28 win over Cincinnati, Rutgers coach Matt Mowell sealed up the 2012 Big East Championship and appears poised to claim his first National Championship. But while New Jersey celebrates, Cincinnati coach Taylor Raines is still fuming. With 3 seconds on the game clock, Bearcat kicker Michael Cooke lined up for what would have been the game tying field goal, but Mowell called a timeout to ice the senior kicker. On the subsequent try he missed, and the rest as they say, is history.

“It’s bush league,” said Raines. “At least give me a chance to get it to overtime so we can decide the game like men. It’s bush league. When you are playing pool and you are going for the last shot, the 8 ball, and your opponent puts his face down by the pocket, its a bush league move. This was the same in my book.”

Coach Mowell took the high road-sort of. “I love Taylor as both a coach and a person and I know he means well,” said the Rutgers coach. “I completely understand why he is upset. He is frustrated, both by the outcome of this game and the fact that he is 2-7 against human opponents in the Big East.”

Said Coach Raines in reply, “If I see [Mowell] I will literally murder him. I am going to kill him with a trident.”

It wasn’t all bad news for Raines though. Following the loss, his sixth against humans and seventh in two seasons, he inexplicably signed a 4 star and a 5 star recruit. When asked why he wanted to attend a program that continues to lose games at an alarming rate, 5 star CB Michael Brittain responded “I’d really like to play for a program that actually had a shot at a conference title, but the rules are set so that I have to sign at a program that is historically “better”, even though I know in my heart they are not. It’s unfortunate, but it is what it is.”

So what say you dynasty? Was the icing legit, or is it a cheap tactic that shouldn’t be employed by real men?

From the Big East official rules: In a two-team tiebreaker, head-to-head results determine the winner. In a three-or-more-team tiebreaker, the Big East football tie-breaker rules first apply head-to-head results among all three or more teams. If, as could happen this season, three teams end up in the tie, and all three teams have a 1-1 record against the others, the final tie-breaker rule is applied: Ranking in the BCS standings. The highest-ranked team in the BCS standings on the final day of the college football season would be awarded the berth in a BCS bowl.

So, who is going to take the crown? A look at the human-coached teams (conference records in parenthesis):

Pittsburgh (4-1) BCS 9 Games remaining: WVU, @ Cincinnati

The front runner. The only team in the conference that controls its own destiny, Pitt simply needs to win out. History could point to them doing just that. Pitt coach Clay McCullough had more success against WVU coach Quinn Arnau (5-2) and Cincinnati coach Taylor Raines (3-4) than any other human opponents (3-17 against Tanner, Virostko, and Mowell combined).

Syracuse (5-2) BCS 13 Games remaining: Boston College

The leader in the clubhouse, Syracuse is hoping Pitt loses one of its final two games which would create a true logjam at the top. If a tie cannot be broken by head to head record, the conference champ would be decided by BCS ranking. Syracuse figures to finish in top 10, but would a strong finish by Rutgers or Cincinnati allow them to leapfrog the Orange? Upstate New York can only sit back and watch now.  

USF (4-2) BCS 18 Games remaining: @ Miami (Fl), UConn

Don’t let the BCS ranking above fool you- that does not take into account the heartbreaking loss to Pittsburgh on a last second field goal. The Bulls can only hope that Pitt, Cincy and Rutgers somehow end up with 3 losses, as USF would win a head-to-head tiebreaker with Syracuse. Their dream scenario? Pitt loses to WVU and Cincinnati. Cincinnati loses to Rutgers. Rutgers loses to WVU. Stranger things have happened. I think.

Cincinnati (2-2) BCS 16 Games remaining: Rutgers, @ UConn, Pittsburgh

After rising as high as number 3 in the polls, the Bearcats are reeling. Shocking conference losses to Syracuse and West Virginia have the Bearcats currently on the outside looking in. However, wins against Rutgers, UConn and Pitt would likely vault coach Raines’ squad ahead of any other two loss Big East teams in the BCS, giving them the title.

Rutgers (2-2) 17 BCS Games remaining: @ Cincinnati, Louisville, @ WVU

Similar to Cincinnati, Rutgers needs to win out. But unlike Cincinnati, Rutgers won’t get a chance to give Pitt a second loss (they gave them their first and only already). Game against Cincy tonight is elimination game.

WVU (2-3) BCS 23 Games Remaining: @ Pittsburgh, Rutgers

The crushing loss to Louisville, coupled with Syracuse’s escape against UConn eliminated the ‘Neers from title consideration. Still, they can play spoiler down the stretch and build on that momentum for 2012. Also, by winning out, Coach Arnau would assure himself a tie atop the human v. human standings after year one.  

McCulloughstedt’s Panthers Face Off Against the Mountaineers of West Virginia

Coach Mculloughstedt leads Pitt Into Battle

Known for running an extreme amount of screen passes and fueds with officials, Coach McCulloughstedt faces off against the Mountaineers of West Virgina and Coach Arnau in a Big East matchup.  Will Arnau be able to concentrate for 28 minutes? Or will the inevitable screaming at the XBOX 360 by Coach McCulloughstedt be too much of a distraction? Known more for is fantasy football prowess than for his playcalling, McCulloughstedt is looking to improve his standing in NCAA Football and win his first conference title in SAMD history . Will Coach McCullough climb out of the cellar in this dynasty ? Having fist pick of teams will certainly help, but only time will tell.

With a new and improved home stadium Coach Arnau of the West Virginia Mountaineers looks to bring his power ball control offense and aggressive defense to the Big East.  After  a self imposed television and internet blackout, Coach Arnau is back.  Coach Arnau obtained a set of corrective lenses during the offseason as well as upgrading his first generation DLP HDTV.  Still without cable television, Arnau is more focused than ever and is ready to make a “Quantam Leap” forward in SAMD II

There is no doubt there are lot of changes in the Big East this year.  There is a plethora of new, young, talented head coaches chomping at the bit to take charge of a league that is there for the taking.  Each Coach pushing his weight around and trying the rest of the league to see what they can get away with.  After Sunday’s Media Days it is apparent that Coach Mowell at Rutgers has thrown the first punch.

To fully understand the dynamics of this story we need to flashback to these coaches days in the Pac 10 together.  Two years ago, six first time head coaches were matched up against each other on the West Coast.  Each experienced different degrees of success.  There were National Champions, large bowl wins, top recruiting classes and sellout crowds but it was behind the scenes that the story gets interesting.

First there was a recruiting scandal that rocked the league.  Certain coaches were recruiting in the gray area and were landing top talent that helped accelerate their teams in the early years of the dynasty.  Next it was improper meddling that led to top talent players leaving their schools early while other stars on a certain team remained in school. There were rampant rumors of performance enhancing drugs centered around an unknown, un-recruited linebacker dominating the defensive end position.  The arguments spilled over to the field when a coach was accused of paying off the referees and having them not review obvious mistaken calls.  The battles became so heated that they were played out in the media.  Many times the commissioner of the Pac 10 had to step in to mediate the battles between the league coaches. 

After years of battling each other, the league disbanded and each of the six coaches were drawn to take their talents to the big stage.  Each of the six were lured away to the NFL by lucrative contracts.  Coach Raines was the last to defect to the National Football League.  He was hesitant and it was apparent that his heart was never in the pro game.  In the end Raines left in the middle of the night, abandoning his owner like a young Bobby Petrino.  The remaining fraternity of head coaches were not far behind.  They were all let go and were left wondering where the future would take them.

Phil Fulmer infamously skipped SEC media days in 2004 and was fined $10,000. Mowell could be subjected to similar penalty.

Skip ahead to present day.  This summer, in an effort to put past differences behind them the Super Six have returned to the college game-this time on the East Coasttwith the goal to create a super conference.  Each has vowed to put their egos behind them and work for the good of the league.  Each member down the line showed up for their media day scheduled appointment on Sunday and represented their new colors with pride.  That is until we got to Rutgers.  When it was Coach Mowell’s turn on the stage he was nowhere to be seen.  Was he fearful that McCullough had a court subpoena for him like the fans of Alabama?  That is to TBD.  Maybe he was just making a point that old wounds don’t heal.

5 of the 6 teams have joined the Dynasty as of last night. We are still waiting on Mowell, who is having issues with his Xbox. He called me personally last night to ensure me that he was 100 percent committed to the dynasty again and would do everything in his power to get the situation resolved today. I will continue to monitor the situation.

 As for Bret, he is not joining at this time, thanks in part to the $100 hit he would have to take in order to get a second copy of the game and an Xbox live subscription. He is welcome to join at any time should he change his mind.

Matt Mowell's XBox 360.

 Hopefully we can get this thing kicked off tonight . . .

 Some other housekeeping items:

 -Custom schedules: leaving as-is for season 1.

-Game sliders: leaving as-is for now. Can tweak anything if coaches raise objections

-Game clock: see post below. Currently set at 7 minute quarters. Can always change.

Coaches-

There has been some confusion over the clock rundown feature that is new to this year’s game. Coach Arnau, being his typical rash self, has gone so far as to say it should be banned without really understanding it. To that I say- Quinn, imagine if everyone dismissed you outright, without really getting to know what you were all about?

ANYWAY, the feature in question is a part of the new “gameplan” settings you can adjust during the play call screen by pressing X. Everything from the way corners cover to the way receivers run routes can be assigned one of three settings: conservative, balanced (the default) or aggressive. If corners are set to aggressive, for example, they are prone to get more interceptions, but are also more likely to blow an assignment.

There is also a setting on there which I believe is called “tempo”. If you choose aggressive, your team will lineup much faster but will fatigue faster (think no-huddle spread teams that put up 50 points a game like Oklahoma and Houston).  Conversely, if you set it to “conservative”, there is an automatic rundown of the play clock (and game clock if it is running) of about 10-12 seconds after you break the huddle.

As for turning it off, there are two reasons why I don’t think we need to jump to that. First and foremost, it may actually be a good thing. Consider this scenario that played out frequently during the last dynasty: Player A has the ball in a tied game with 1 minute to go in the third quarter. In a real football game, Player B would have at least one more chance to score (and probably more) no matter what player A does, barring the greatest, longest drive in the history of the sport. However, with 5 minute quarters Player A could, if they got a mere 3 or 4 first downs, run out the clock on the entire third quarter and most, if not all of the 4^th. Terribly frustrating and not at all realistic. Of course, the solution (longer quarters) would make for equally unrealistic (and frustrating) games. So in order to combat this, we can use the clock rundown (if some teams are going to run down the clock anyway, might as well make it go by quickly as opposed to sitting there watching the QB barking numbers for 25 seconds a play) AND make the quarters longer. Does that make sense?

Oh, and the second reason – I am not even sure we CAN turn it off. . .

-Commish