Weekend Notebook

Posted by John Antonik on Saturday, January 17, 2009
(1:33 pm)

The final numbers are now in and the Big East Conference had the best winning percentage against other BCS conferences with a .550 mark (11-9). The ACC had the most overall wins (17) while the SEC also posted a winning mark (11-10).

The Big 12 and the Pac-10 went .500 against BCS conferences while the Big Ten brought up the rear with a 7-13 out-of-league record against the BCS.

The Big East got bowl wins from West Virginia (North Carolina) and Rutgers (NC State) against BCS league teams.

Finally, the BCS went 50-0 against Division I-AA schools this season.

Overall, the Big East finished fourth with a non-conference record of 29-12. The SEC was No. 1 at 37-11, followed by the Big 12 (38-10) and the ACC (37-11).

The Pac-10 was just 14-17 outside of league play this season.

Of the 34 bowl games played this year, only eight games drew more than 70,000 fans and West Virginia’s Meineke Car Care Bowl appearance against North Carolina was one of them. Here were the top attended bowl games of 2008-09:

Rose Bowl, 93,293

Cotton Bowl, 88,175

BCS Championship Game, 78,468

Meineke Car Care Bowl, 73,712

Orange Bowl, 73,602

Fiesta Bowl, 72,047

Sugar Bowl, 71,872

Chic-fil-A Bowl, 71,423

Eight bowl games drew fewer than 40,000 (Eagle Bank, New Mexico, St. Petersburg, New Orleans, Poinsetta, Papa Johns.com, Humanitarian and GMAC).

With the early defections of LeSean McCoy, Donald Brown and Kenny Britt here are the top returning offensive players in the Big East for 2009:

RUSHING

Noel Devine, West Virginia, 99.2 ypg

Victor Anderson, Louisville, 87.2 ypg

PASSING

Matt Grothe, USF, 223.9 ypg

Tony Pike, Cincinnati, 200.6 ypg

RECEIVING

Mardy Gilyard, Cincinnati, 91.1 ypg

Doug Beaumont, Louisville, 62.5 ypg

Jessie Hester, USF, 44.5 ypg

Jock Sanders, West Virginia, 35.5 ypg

West Virginia baseball coach Greg Van Zant has never been a big fan of the RPI formula used by the baseball committee to help pick the 64-team NCAA Tournament field. Van Zant believes the RPI unfairly penalizes cold-weather schools that must travel south for the first three weeks of the season.

Van Zant pointed out to Baseball America that the RPI presently favors teams that play more games at home. He also indicated that statistics bear out that the home team wins 60 percent of the time in college baseball, meaning a team with equal ability playing 20 games on the road will only win eight of 20 games.

His solution is to include an adjusted winning percentage into the equation. Stated simply, a road victory would have a slightly higher rating than either a home or neutral-site win.

His proposal is presently being considered by the NCAA Baseball Committee.

Be sure to catch West Virginia linebacker Mortty Ivy later today in the 84th annual East-West Shrine Game being played in Houston at 4 pm. The game is being televised on ESPN2.

There was an interesting story about Kevin Pittsnogle in the New York Times earlier this week. Pittsnogle is presently teaching middle school in his hometown of Martinsburg and is also an unpaid assistant coach for his high school basketball team.

Pittsnogle said he is considering another attempt at professional basketball next summer.

There is a picture of Pittsnogle in a dress shirt and slacks teaching in class. His shirt sleeves are rolled up revealing all of his tattoos.

Do you ever recall any of your middle school teachers having such an impressive collection of tattoos?

Here is a link to the story: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/sports/ncaabasketball/16pittsnogle.html?ref=sports

Believe it or not, the NCAA has ruled that seventh graders are now officially classified as college prospects. The NCAA was forced to make that designation for men’s basketball only to nip a trend in which some college coaches were working at private, elite camps and clinics for seventh and eighth graders.

I find that absolutely amazing.

The Miami Herald’s Greg Cote wrote in his blog earlier this week that the Miami Dolphins may have some interest in Pat White as a quarterback in their wildcat offense and also as a wide receiver.

Most draft experts have White slotted as either a third or fourth-round pick prior to the Senior Bowl and the NFL Draft Combine.

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