Which NCAA football conference is stronger: Mountain West or Big East

Big East

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by Robert Freeman

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There is an ongoing debate today in college football as to if the Big East Conference should be considered one of the conferences with an automatic bid to a BCS bowl and one of the conferences touting that it isn't is the Mountain West Conference. The Mountain West feels that the Big East Conference isn't strong enough to receive this special automatic nod and has offered themselves up to replace the normally basketball dominant conference.

The Mountain West's main argument is that over the past five years their conference has been the stronger of the two and therefore should take the place of the Big East or at least be added into the automatic bids pool. This debate has spilled over from the commissioner level to the fan level and as a fan of the Connecticut Huskies who play in the Big East, I am one of the fans up in arms over the Mountain West's attack on the Big East.

Putting my personal loyalties aside, this article will analyze the facts and statistics of the 2007, 2008, and the beginning of the 2009 NCAA football seasons to show that the Big East Conference is the stronger FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) conference out of the two. There is no need to extend five years back as the 2006 and 2005 seasons only further support the stance of this article.

The first step of this analysis is to point out the teams in each conference so everyone knows where everybody lies. The Mountain West consists of Brigham Young University (BYU), Air Force, Colorado State, University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV), Utah, Wyoming, Texas Christian University (TCU), New Mexico, and San Diego State.

The Big East has suffered many desertions over the past decade but still boasts eight teams: Cincinnati, Connecticut, Lousiville, Pittsburgh, South Florida, West Virginia, Syracuse, and Rutgers. Although the Big East has one less team then the Mountain West it still has more prestige and therefore can recruit better players to the teams that refuse to leave the conference.

Since 2007 the eight Big East teams have pulled in 13 ESPN Top 150 Prospects while the Mountain West in all its glory has recruited none. This is even after Utah's impressive undefeated season and BYU's consistent strong performance over the past few years and major wins over Alabama, Oklahoma, and others.

This year BYU has already received two verbal commitments from two prospects on ESPNs Top 150 list and has one other top player considering their school. This is impressive for one school but the problem is BYU is the only school in the conference that has a Top 150 Prospect even considering attendance next year.

The Big East on the other hand is a totally different story. Of the 22 players rated 80 or above by ESPN, 11 of them are in the Top 150 in the country and add to the verbal commitments that Pittsburgh and West Virginia have received from top players Todd Thomas and Barry Brunetti respectively.

The Big East success doesn't stop at getting recruits into the school though as the conference known as the "Beast of the East" has been turning these high school stars into NFL starters rather regularly over the years. Since 2007 the Big East has sent 62 of its players to the NFL while the one team larger Mountain West has only sent 32.

Seeing that one or two players don't make a team a look at how the teams performed as a whole would be the next logical step in this in-depth analysis. A quick look at the first week of the 2009 NCAA season shows that both leagues posted a 6-2 record each as TCU had a BYE week so no conference has the edge yet.

Looking at the final records of each conference for 2008 and 2007 shows once again that the Big East has the edge as the stronger conference. In 2008 the Mountain West had a 64-49 record for a .566 winning percentage and a 2007 record of 60-53 (.530) while the Big East posted a 61-42 (.592) and 60-42 (.594) respectively.

The Mountain West argues that these records are deceiving as the teams within their conference have played far better then those in the Big East and they use the AP and USA Today Top 25 Polls as their supporting documentation. In 2007 BYU finished the season at #14 in both polls and then in 2008 fell to #25 in the AP and #21 in the USA Today polls but was joined by TCU at #7 in both and Utah at #2 in the AP and #4 the USA Today.

The 2009 polls are gracious to the Mountain West as BYU finds themselves at #9 in the AP and #12 in the USA Today while TCU and Utah fall in place at #16 and #17. The Big East is lacking teams in the Top 25 besides surging Cincinnati who finds itself at #24 in the AP Poll and #23 in the USA Today.

Looking at the polls does show an advantage to the Mountain West, but a look at the remainder of the teams not in the Top 25 shows that the rest of the Big East teams are significantly higher than their counterparts in the west as for the past three years the Big East has consistently had 4-5 teams in the top 40 teams in the country at the end of the year whereas the Mountain West usually only has 3-4.

These rankings and records don't really mean anything unless a team gets themselves invited to a post-season bowl game and then actually wins that bowl game. In 2007 the Big East went 5-0 in its bowl games with its best win being Louisville over Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl while the Mountain West went 3-1 with its best win coming from BYU over Oregon in the Las Vegas Bowl.

A year later in 2008 the Big East went 4-2 while the Mountain West achieved a 3-2 record. The Mountain West actually had the better victories as Utah beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and TCU beat Boise State in the Poinsettia Bowl. The Big East lost its big bowl when Cincinnati fell to Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl but redeemed themselves with victories against Buffalo, North Carolina State, North Carolina, and Memphis.

After one week of this current season ESPN experts predict that 4-6 Mountain West teams will get a bowl nod while the Big East will get 5 but it is really too early on in the season to tell. No matter what way you look at the Big East still has the slight advantage over the Mountain West in bowl appearances but the true metal of a conference lies in the non-conference opponents each team plays during the regular season.

This final attribute of the analysis of these two conferences clearly points in favor of the Big East. Over the past three years Big East teams have played 12 ranked non-conference opponents while the Mountain West has only played 5. Of course the ranked opponents the Mountain West plays happen to be in the top five in the country, but their remaining non-conference opponents are rather weak.

The Big East teams consistently play teams from the other power conferences such as the SEC, ACC, and Big Ten whereas the Mountain West usually schedules a much easier schedule. Taking a look at the opponents for the past three years from both conferences, the Big East has played over 43 games against power conference schools against the likes of North Carolina, Notre Dame, Florida Sate, Miami (FL), Penn state, Oklahoma, Virginia, Kansas, N.C. State and more.

The Mountain West in comparison only played a little over 29 games against power conference schools with most games against Big 12 and Pac-10 opponents like Oregon State, Texas, UCLA, Arizona State, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech. This year the games have expanded into the ACC with games against Florida State and Clemson but overall the non-conference schedule is lacking in the Mountain West.

For instance two teams from the conference will be playing games against weaklings Utah State, Weber State, New Mexico State, and Colorado while other teams play "daunting" match-ups against Nicholls State, Sacramento State, Texas State, and Southern Utah. The Big East does have some weaker games against SE Missouri State, Rhode Island, Youngstown State, and Charleston Southern, but for the most part the schedule for the Big East is much harder.

Taking all this into consideration; schedule, bowl success, season records, and players; the Big East clearly shows that for the time being it is still a stronger conference then the Mountain West. Only time will tell if that remains true but when the Mountain West has teams such as Wyoming, New Mexico, and the Air Force Academy in its ranks, the building process will be slow and the Big East should remain on top for some time to come.

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