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Our series on coaches we love to hate is coming to a close. Go ahead, shed that tear.

Earlier this week, I asked you to vote for the biggest Big East villain in recent history. All week, it was a dead heat between vagabond Todd Graham and traitor Rich Rodriguez, ahead of Bobby Petrino, Brian Kelly and Randy Edsall.

The winner, as of 8 a.m. this morning: Rodriguez -- but he was just barely ahead of Graham. With 3,206 votes in, Rodriguez got 29 percent of the vote; Graham got 28 percent. Petrino was next, followed by Kelly and Edsall.

Here is a little of what you had to say, with a few entries for coaches not included in the poll.

John Ready in Youngstown, Ohio, writes: I think you should add Steve Kragthorpe to the list. He absolutely ruined the Cards. I am a die hard Louisville fan, but found it hard to watch the Cards during the Krag-era. He may not be a villain, but he has been quite vilified for his job (not) done during his tenure.

Mark in Marlboro, N.J., writes: With regards to the poll about the biggest villains, they all have their faults. Graham was a horrible coach, Edsall didn't take a much better job, Rich Rod went for the money and Petrino is a bad guy, even before his latest episode. As the father of a Cincy grad, I don't get on Kelly as much as their fan base. He made the program relevant taking them to two straight BCS Bowl games. My son went to school thinking the hoop squad would be playing in the Final Four. With a name like Kelly, you can't deny the man the opportunity to coach at Notre Dame

Jordan in Lakeland, Fla., writes: He may not be the winner, but I am not sure how you could not include Jim Leavitt in your list of villians.

White Dog777 writes: All the other coaches seem to have made upward mobile decisions but Randy Edsall leaving UCONN for his dream job at Maryland? Plus the way he left the team and not flying back from the Fiesta bowl with them was in my mind bush league. I really hope UCONN kicks the snot out of them in Maryland on Sept. 15th.

Bradenton Bull writes: IMO it's Brian Kelly for leaving UC high an dry right before playing UF in the BCS Bowl. UC ended up getting killed, which obviously greatly contributed to the negative perception of the Big East.. That blow out was killer to the conference. Not saying they would've beat UF, but I don't think they'd have gotten worked over like that.

Calmteer writes: Todd Graham and Petrino should be running away with this vote. The other three all put in their time and left their schools much better than they found them and all brought their schools multiple Big East championships and BCS games.

Eric 72785 writes: They did not point out that RichRod left the day after losing a game against a TERRIBLE team... that had we won, would have placed WVU in the NC. He literally (threw) away a number 2 ranking, with zero shot at not being in the big show ... *uck RichRod.

IAM4WVU87 writes: Funny Rodriguez and Graham receiving an almost equal number of votes, and now that are coaching in the same conference. Those poor $@%!$@%! have no idea what they're in for.

Is there such a thing as a Big East coach being hated because he wins too much?

The answer is clearly no when you look at the current group of head coaches. Three of them have never coached in a Big East game. Three are going into their third seasons in the league and are barely above .500. Paul Pasqualoni has a bushel-full of victories, but nearly all of them came at Syracuse two decades ago.

So let us take a dip back into history to find an answer. Here are the all-time winningest coaches in Big East history, by overall percentage. I am using this statistic because many of the biggest winners do not stick around the Big East for long.

• Larry Coker, Miami: 35-3 (.921)
• Dennis Erickson, Miami: 42-6 (.875)
• Brian Kelly, Cincinnati: 34-6 (.850)
• Bobby Petrino, Louisville: 21-4 (.840)
• Butch Davis, Miami: 51-20 (.718)
• Bill Stewart, West Virginia: 28-12 (.700)
• Rich Rodriguez, West Virginia: 60-26 (.698)
• Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech: 108-48-1 (.691)

The conclusion is an easy one: Much more than one hated coach, Miami was a hated team because of all the wins it racked up while playing in the Big East from 1991-2003. That includes two national championships and seven Big East titles, more than any other school. Coker was never vilified or hated. The man is impossibly nice.

Davis' image took much more of a hit at North Carolina because he left the place in scandal, with two major investigations hanging over the program. While at Miami, he was lauded as the man who saved the program from NCAA sanctions. It is hard to hate a coach who won 10 games only once in his career.

Erickson simply took over for Jimmy Johnson and continued what was started.

But the assignment is to find a coach hated for winning. Let's look at some of the other names on the list. Kelly and Petrino were hated much more for the way they left their programs, as documented earlier in this series. Kelly only coached three years in the Big East; Petrino only two in the Big East. I can't imagine their short stays struck fear into the hearts of opponents, despite all the victories.

So let's turn the focus to Rodriguez. He, more than any of the aforementioned coaches, probably fits the bill. In his final three seasons in Morgantown, Rodriguez won two league championships and had three 11-win seasons. His team went undefeated in league play in 2005, one of only two teams to accomplish the feat in the past seven years. He won with swagger and style, and some of the best athletes in Big East history.

But I used the word probably. Because as great as Rodriguez was, his on-field coaching career in the Big East will be defined by what he didn't do in 2007. West Virginia was ranked No. 2 in the country going into the regular-season finale against Pitt in the always heated Backyard Brawl. Win, and the Mountaineers would be playing for the school's first national title. Pitt was already out of the bowl picture, entering the game at 4-7. West Virginia was a 28 1/2-point favorite.

Slam dunk, right? Well, you guys know what happened. Pitt pulled one of the biggest upsets in the series, and Rodriguez went packing to Michigan. The loss will always follow Rodriguez, despite all of his wins in the league. On the day he needed a win most of all, he failed. But that loss did not make him a villain in Morgantown. Leaving did.

That is why it is hard to anoint any Big East coach as somebody hated for winning.

Current Big East coaches' career records in the league:

• Paul Pasqualoni, Syracuse and UConn: 112-63-1
• Doug Marrone, Syracuse: 17-20
• Butch Jones, Cincinnati: 14-11
• Charlie Strong, Louisville: 14-12
• Skip Holtz, USF: 13-12
• Steve Addazio, Temple: 0-0
• Paul Chryst, Pitt: 0-0
• Kyle Flood, Rutgers: 0-0

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Last May, Bill Stewart joined his colleagues at the Big East spring meetings to tackle league business and catch up with old friends.

One of them, Cincinnati coach Butch Jones, was particularly saddened by the news of Stewart's sudden and tragic passing Monday. When Jones took a job as receivers coach at West Virginia in 2005, Stewart was there as quarterbacks coach. The two grew close in the two seasons Jones spent with the Mountaineers. They then had the opportunity to face each other on opposite sidelines as Big East head coaches.

"Just one year ago, he was sitting in the meetings with us and we were sitting on the beach together talking," Jones recalled Tuesday. "Things like this put things into perspective in all aspects."

Here is the way Jones will remember his good friend:

You think of Bill Stewart the man and how much his wife Karen and his son Blaine meant to him. The best word that describes him is family man. They were everything to him. That was first. Him and I have been through a lot of wars together on the same team and also competed against each other. He was an individual of high integrity. We had that special bond from the positions we coached, and our friendship really grew. He was one of the guys who took me under his wing. He was a mentor to a lot of people. A father figure but extremely competitive. He had a love and passion for the state of West Virginia and that university. He used to talk about the old blue and gold, so I will always think about the passion and the affinity he had for Morgantown and the people in that community.

USF coach Skip Holtz also shared his fondest memory of Stewart.

He’s one of those guys that when you would have a big win, your phone would ring and it would be Bill Stewart. But the thing that makes Bill so classy is when you had that heartbreaking loss, your phone would ring and it would be Bill Stewart. I have great respect for him not just as a football coach but as a man and the way he handled everything. We lost one of the good people in this business, without a doubt. Thoughts and prayers go out to his family and the entire West Virginia family because he was a special individual.

Earlier today, you saw my compilation of recent Big East coaches who have left their respective teams in, well, not the greatest ways.

Now it is your time to vote: Which coach do you think is the most hated or vilified in recent Big East history? Because let's be honest: there are no villains in the league right now. No coach has been in the league longer than four seasons; no coach has done anything to draw the ire or disrespect of their fellow coaches or fans.

So we have to dip back into history, and there we find plenty of guys who ruffled feathers. Your choices:

Randy Edsall. Hightailed it out of UConn after the Fiesta Bowl loss to Oklahoma, forgoing the team charter plane home to run off with Maryland. Never told his players in person he was going to leave.

Todd Graham. Hightailed it out of Pitt after a 6-6 season filled with failed promises and underachievement. Said goodbye via text message, and has since said it was a mistake to take the Panthers job. And his kids didn't like Pittsburgh. Now enjoying sunny Arizona.

Brian Kelly. Hightailed it out of Cincinnati after a 12-0 regular season for Notre Dame. Waited until the end of his team banquet to tell his players of his departure after they already found out from news reports.

Bobby Petrino. Hightailed it out of Louisville after a 12-1 season and an Orange Bowl appearance for the Atlanta Falcons, after having conversations with Auburn, Florida, LSU and the Oakland Raiders while still coaching the Cardinals.

Rich Rodriguez. Hightailed it out of West Virginia for Michigan, where he failed spectacularly in three seasons with the Wolverines. He may still be the most hated man in Morgantown.

What do you think? Did I forget anyone? Please leave your comments down below or in the mailbag and we will recap the results and some of your thoughts Friday.

Last spring, I sat in Bill Stewart's office in the West Virginia football complex for a long chat, as I had the previous two Aprils. Of course, this visit carried a distinctly different vibe, as Stewart was preparing to coach what he thought would be his final season as Mountaineers coach before handing the reins over to Dana Holgorsen.

Stewart never really wanted to participate in the peaceful transition of power, which became even more obvious just a few weeks later. Outwardly, though, he maintained his ever-rosy persona when I asked him what he planned to do with his life after football.

"I'm only going to be 59 this year," he told me. "I was born to coach. I was born to lead."

Sadly, and incredibly, Stewart didn't have much time to write a new chapter in his life, dying of a heart attack Monday just a couple of weeks shy of his 60th birthday.

His three-year run as West Virginia's head coach coincided with my three years covering the Big East for ESPN.com. I would always tell people who asked about the league one thing: There's not another football coach like Bill Stewart.

Nobody loved West Virginia more than the New Martinsville native who spoke reverentially about "the old Gold and Blue" every chance he got. You could have never pictured Stewart leaving the Mountaineers for a supposedly bigger job the way Rich Rodriguez did before the 2008 Fiesta Bowl. Which is why, in the hours after Stewart led the the team to an upset of Oklahoma in that game as interim coach, West Virginia leaders got swept up in the euphoria and emotion and named him permanent head coach.

It was a hasty decision that in retrospect was probably the wrong call. Stewart hadn't even been a coordinator during his career as an assistant in Morgantown, and his one stint as a head coach, at VMI, was a failure. He could deliver a rousing speech, he could connect on a personal level with his players and -- despite the perception caused by his "aw shucks" manners -- he knew football.

But Stewart lacked an obsessive focus on details that mark most successful coaches at powerhouse schools, and his teams often reflected that. The Mountaineers in the Stewart era lost games to less talented teams because of untimely mistakes, turnovers and penalties. Fans believed his teams underachieved, and their case was only strengthened when Holgorsen won the Orange Bowl with Stewart's players last season.

But if the worst thing you could say about Bill Stewart was that he didn't spend every waking minute breaking down film or yelling at his assistants, so be it. He was a people person, through and through. On one of my first spring visits, we sat in his office talking for more than 90 minutes even though he had to attend a high school coaches' clinic that was underway. He asked me more questions than the other way around. On another visit, I was scheduled to drive back to Pittsburgh at the end of the day. Stewart worried that I would be driving into storms and kept checking the weather reports throughout the day. He asked me to let him know that I got back safely that night. How many BCS conference coaches would do that?

But that's how Stewart was, a genuinely nice and thoughtful person. His players -- some of whom, like Noel Devine, had wildly different backgrounds -- clearly loved him as a father figure. Players, media members and others who knew him got used to receiving daily inspirational text messages from Stewart while he was coaching.

And if Stewart was not the right guy to follow Rodriguez, then whose fault was that? If someone handed you your ultimate dream job, would you say no? Rodriguez's departure created an ugly rift, and Stewart helped unite the West Virginia family once again. His tenure was hardly a disaster, as the Mountaineers won nine games in each of his three seasons, including a share of the 2010 Big East title. The program recruited well on his watch, and he's responsible for bringing stars like Geno Smith, Tavon Austin and Bruce Irvin to campus. Things could have gone a whole lot worse after Rodriguez left, but Stewart maintained the strength of the program and made it possible for Holgorsen to excel immediately. He was a nice guy who didn't finish anywhere near last.

Stewart was an American history buff who was convinced that his legacy would look better down the road. He might have been right about that, though the controversial end to the relationship between him and Holgorsen did him no favors. What I'll choose to remember about Stewart was his overwhelmingly decent, fundamentally caring personality. There was no head coach like Bill Stewart, and there weren't many people quite like him, either.

Former West Virginia coach Bill Stewart has died of an apparent heart attack, the school announced Monday.

Though Stewart's departure as head coach was a mess, there is no doubt he loved his Mountaineers. This is a sad day for college football, and thoughts and prayers are with West Virginia and the Stewart family.

Stay tuned to the blog for more reaction.

USA Today has come out with its thorough annual study into expenses and revenues at every single Division I public school, and the results are not all that surprising.

Only 22 schools among all Division I public schools operate in the black, generating enough revenue to cover all athletics expenses. UConn and Louisville are the only two Big East schools that fit that category among the six public league schools that provided information to the news organization.

According to USA Today, revenue generated across all schools increased by $190 million. But spending across 227 public schools in Division I rose by $267 million from a year ago. Subsidies across all schools also have grown. Rutgers receives the greatest help among the Big East schools when it comes to subsidies, at 47.3 percent of its revenue. West Virginia was the only Big East school getting less than 10 percent of its revenues from subsidies.

Check out the interactive database to see where your school stands. Syracuse (private) and Pitt (state exemption) are not included.

John Marinatto officially began his job as Big East commissioner on July 1, 2009. Since then, the league has dramatically changed. Here is a brief timeline of events.

Sept. 10, 2010: Villanova begins studying a proposal to move up to FBS level and have its football program join the Big East, at the request of Marinatto.

Nov. 30, 2010: TCU accepts an invitation to join the Big East, a move that is widely praised as being good for both parties, despite the geographic distance. "If you don't dream, you're living in a memory," TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte said at the time. "Who wants to live in a memory? Every single time we have an opportunity to think about where we're going to go, that's the leadership of our chancellor that says, 'Guess what? We dare to be great academically and athletically.' This decision today is great for TCU. We're heading in an arena that we've always dreamed about. The BCS does not define TCU, TCU defines the BCS. The academic institutions that we're going to be associated with is unbelievable. This is a great time to be a Frog."

April 10, 2011: Villanova is no longer a viable candidate for expansion, after several football schools balked at the idea.

May 2011: Big East turns down new television deal, reportedly by a 12-4 vote.

Sept. 18, 2011: Pitt and Syracuse accept invitations to join the ACC, the first in a seismic shock wave to rock the Big East. Syracuse athletic director Daryl Gross said, "It's more of what's in the best interest of our institution and what opportunities do you have for your institution that you look at things going on with your current conference and try to make the best decisions that are long-term decisions. These are very sophisticated, complicated processes that we go through to ensure the sustainability of our athletic department."

Sept. 26, 2011: Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy confirms UConn's interest in the ACC, should the league expand to 16 teams.

Oct. 10, 2011: TCU leaves the Big East for the Big 12, and is only responsible for a $5 million exit fee. “The Big 12 is a perfect fit for TCU," Del Conte said in a statement. "With our historical ties to Baylor, Texas and Texas Tech, as well as the close proximity to the other league members, we couldn’t be more excited to have the Big 12 as our new home."

Oct. 28, 2011: The Big 12 adds West Virginia, further destabilizing the Big East. The Mountaineers were chosen over Louisville.

Oct. 31, 2011: West Virginia sues the Big East to get out of the required 27-month waiting period in order to switch conferences. West Virginia does not hold back with its allegations, repeatedly blaming Marinatto and the Big East for "breaching fiduciary duties to the football schools."

Nov. 4, 2011: The Big East sues West Virginia in an attempt to force the school to say in the Big East for the full 27-month waiting period.

Nov. 19, 2011: West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck calls the Big East a "sinking ship" in an interview with the Charleston Gazette. "We were fortunate to get out," he said. "We got out when the ship was seriously going down. I mean, only the tip of the sail was showing."

Dec. 7, 2011: Boise State and San Diego State are added to the Big East as football-only members, while UCF, Houston and SMU are added as full members. Marinatto said the league made a "bold and creative step by going West."

Jan. 24, 2012: Navy joins as a football-only member beginning in 2015. "It's a marriage our membership has longed for for many, many years," Marinatto said.

Feb. 8, 2012: Memphis officially joins the Big East in all sports.

Feb. 15, 2012: West Virginia and the Big East formally settle on allowing the Mountaineers to join the Big 12 for the 2012 season, ending all legal matters between the two.

March 7, 2012: Temple returns to the Big East, this time as an all-sports member. The Owls will begin football play in 2012, to make up for the loss of West Virginia.

April 26, 2012: BCS officials announce there would no longer be automatic qualifier conferences at the conclusion of its meetings in Hollywood, Fla., a blow to the Big East. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany later tells a group of reporters there are questions about where the Big East fits in revenue distribution from the BCS.

May 7, 2012: Marinatto resigns under pressure.

Seventeen players on Big East teams during the 2011 season have been selected to the National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society, it was announced Wednesday.

To qualify, college football players from all divisions have to maintain at least a cumulative 3.2 grade-point average throughout their college career. A total of 721 players from 232 schools qualified this past season, making this the largest class since the program was created in 2007.

Cincinnati

• Alex Hoffman, OL
• JK Schaffer, LB

UConn

• Harris Agbor, S
• Corey Manning, TE
• Dave Teggart, K

Louisville

• Chris Philpott, K

Pitt

• Myles Caragein, DT

Rutgers

• Scott Vallone, NT

USF

• Chaz Hine, C
• Joel Miller, WR

Syracuse

• Torrey Ball, DT
• Kevyn Scott, CB

West Virginia

• Ricky Kovatch, RB
• Cody Nutter, LS
• Keith Tandy, CB
• Tyler Urban, TE
• Casey Vance, LB

It was a so-so day for the Big East in the NFL draft, with only 12 players getting selected. But plenty of players from around the league have inked free-agent contracts, so their dreams of playing pro football are still alive.

Here is a list of undrafted free agent signings through Monday. If I missed somebody, do not hesitate to let me know. Also, I am including West Virginia because these players were in the Big East for their careers. Also including Temple because this is now the blog home of the Owls.

CINCINNATI

• Zach Collaros, QB, Tampa Bay
• Randy Martinez, OL, New York Jets (invited to minicamp)
• JK Schaffer, LB, Jacksonville
• Monte Taylor, DL, Seattle
• D.J. Woods, WR, Tennessee

UCONN

• Kashif Moore, WR, Cincinnati
• Mike Ryan, OT, Cincinnati
• Gary Wilburn, CB, Tennessee

LOUISVILLE

• Josh Bellamy, WR, Kansas City
• Dexter Heyman, LB, Kansas City

PITT

• Chas Alecxih, DT, Miami
• Zach Brown, RB, Buffalo (tryout)
• Max Gruder, LB, Atlanta
• Buddy Jackson, CB, Indianapolis
• Brandon Lindsey, DE/LB, Pittsburgh
• Lucas Nix, OG, Oakland
• Greg Williams, LB, Houston
• Antwuan Reed, CB, Cleveland

RUTGERS

• Eric LeGrand, DL, Tampa Bay Bucs
• Justin Francis, DL, New England Patriots
• Joe Martinek, FB, New York Giants
• Desmond Stapleton, OL, Pittsburgh
• Desmond Wynn, OT, Tampa Bay

USF

• Patrick Hampton, DE, Green Bay (minicamp tryout)
• Chaz Hine, C, Tampa Bay
• A.J. Love, WR, Minnesota
• Darrell Scott, RB, Dallas
• Jeremiah Warren, OL, New England
• Quenton Washington, CB, Tampa Bay
• Jerrell Young, S, Jacksonville

SYRACUSE

• Antwon Bailey, RB, Washington
• Dorian Graham, WR, Baltimore
• Michael Hay, OL, St. Louis
• Nick Provo, TE, Baltimore
• Kevyn Scott, CB, Miami
• Phillip Thomas, S, Philadelphia

TEMPLE

• Pat Boyle, OL, Detroit
• Morkeith Brown, DE, Tampa Bay
• Derek Dennis, OL, Miami
• Stephen Johnson, LB, New Orleans
• Adrian Robinson, DE, Pittsburgh
• Rod Streater, WR, Oakland
• Wayne Tribue, OL, Denver

WEST VIRGINIA

• Don Barclay, OT, Green Bay
• Julian Miller, DE, Cincinnati
• Cody Nutter, LS, Tampa Bay
• Eain Smith, S, Washington
• Tyler Urban, TE, Tampa Bay

The NFL draft has come and gone. So how did the Big East fare?

Not great.

The Big East only had 12 players drafted -- the lowest total since 11 were selected in 2006. USF and Pitt did not have a player selected, breaking some pretty long streaks. At least one Pitt player had been selected in each of the last 12 NFL drafts headed into this year; USF had at least one player taken in five straight drafts.

In compiling the numbers, I did count West Virginia because the three players drafted -- Bruce Irvin, Najee Goode and Keith Tandy -- spent their entire careers playing in the Big East. Since Temple now lives in this blog, many of you will probably be happy to hear that the Owls also had three players drafted -- Bernard Pierce, Evan Rodriguez and Tahir Whitehead -- tying a school record.

For those interested in the new members entering the league in 2013 and how they stacked up against those leaving -- Boise State had a school-record six players drafted. SMU (four) and San Diego State (four) ended up with the same number of picks as Cincinnati, which led the Big East.

Here is the breakdown of players selected by school:

• Cincinnati (4)
• West Virginia (3)
• Syracuse (2)
• UConn (1)
• Louisville (1)
• Rutgers (1)

Here are the players that were selected:

Round 1

West Virginia DE/LB Bruce Irvin, Seattle

Syracuse DE/LB Chandler Jones, New England

Round 2

Cincinnati DT Derek Wolfe, Denver

UConn DT Kendall Reyes, San Diego

Cincinnati RB Isaiah Pead, St. Louis

Round 3

Rutgers WR Mohamed Sanu, Cincinnati

Cincinnati DT John Hughes, Cleveland

Round 4

Cincinnati TE Adrien Robinson, New York Giants

Round 5

West Virginia LB Najee Goode, Tampa Bay

Round 6

West Virginia CB Keith Tandy, Tampa Bay

Syracuse OG Andrew Tiller, New Orleans

Round 7

Louisville DE Greg Scruggs, Seattle

Here are a few of my thoughts:

• Eleven Big East players invited to the NFL combine went undrafted, which seems like a pretty large number to me. Generally, those invited to the combine have a decent shot of being drafted. Keep in mind only 20 total Big East players snagged invites to the combine. So the percentage of players drafted who attended the combine in February was less than 50 percent.
• USF running back Darrell Scott decided to leave school early to enter the draft. But he never got picked. Scott ended up signing as a free agent with the Dallas Cowboys. He was one of 18 underclassmen who entered the draft but was not selected. Syracuse safety Phillip Thomas and receiver Dorian Graham also are underclassmen.
• Speaking of Thomas, I was surprised he went undrafted. I thought he was one of the most valuable players on the Syracuse defense last season before he ended up getting suspended for the final few games of the season for a violation of team rules. He obviously had some baggage because of that, but not any more than other players who have gotten into trouble. At one point, Mel Kiper had him listed as one of the top five safeties available in the draft.
• Other surprise undrafted players? I thought for sure Pitt offensive lineman Lucas Nix would get picked. NFL teams are always in the market for stocking up on quality offensive linemen, particularly ones listed as 6-foot-5 and 317 pounds. I would say he and Thomas were two players that went undrafted that I had penciled in as getting drafted. Nobody expected a Louisville player to go, so it was a pleasant surprise to see Scruggs come off the board.
• I watched the third round Friday night waiting and waiting for Sanu to come off the board. You guys know I guaranteed he would be picked in the first three rounds. What surprised me, though, were some of the receivers who were drafted ahead of him. I thought Houston might take him as a complementary receiver to Andre Johnson with the fifth pick in the round. But instead the Texans went with DeVier Posey of Ohio State, who was suspended for accepting cash and tattoos from a Columbus tattoo-parlor owner. Posey played in three games all of last season. NC State receiver T.J. Graham was next to come off the board to the Bills. Sanu had a higher draft grade than those two players.

You saw him beat up on Big East quarterbacks the last two years, so you know what West Virginia defensive end Bruce Irvin can do when he is playing at his best.

And yet, Irvin turned out to be the biggest draft-day surprise Thursday, when Seattle took him with the No. 15 overall pick, eliciting a chorus of "Who?" among the uninitiated. Most experts had pegged another Big East player -- Syracuse defensive end Chandler Jones -- to go to the Seahawks.

Jones did eventually go in the first round, at No. 21 to the New England Patriots. They were the only two players with Big East ties selected on the first day of the draft, which turns out to be more than most everybody expected. A few months ago, most wondered whether the Big East would even have one player taken in the first round.

A few months ago, most had Irvin pegged as a second or third-round pick. Scratch that. A mere 24 hours ago, most had Irvin pegged as a second or third-round pick. His measurables are undeniable. He can run like a cheetah, as he proved at the NFL combine with his blazing 4.41 in the 40-yard dash. He can take down quarterbacks like a possessed man-child, as evidence by his 23 sacks in two years with the Mountaineers.

The Seahawks called him the best pure pass-rusher available in the draft, which is why they made him the first defensive end selected Thursday night. So why all the shock? The doubters? The haters?

For one, Irvin is a raw talent, having only played two years on the highest level in college football. He played in a defensive formation that nobody uses in the NFL. He struggled on non-passing downs, so much so that West Virginia took him out of the starting lineup after five games so he could return to his duties as a pass-rush specialist.

Listen to him when he says, "I've heard I'm a one-trick pony. But the crazy thing is I got 23 sacks in two years and I've never been coached. If I get a little coaching, just imagine what I can do."

He has a background that no doubt scared some teams off, when in fact, they probably should have taken a much harder look to see how the adversity he overcame built his character and gave him an unparalleled work ethic. Irvin could very well be homeless in Atlanta today, had he not accepted help and made the conscious decision to change his life. There are many others who have failed given the same opportunities.

Granted, Irvin did not help his situation when he was arrested last month and charged with destruction of property and disorderly conduct. Those charges have since been dropped. Was it a reminder to some teams to throw up a red flag?

That hardly matters now. Seattle coach Pete Carroll is fully aware of what Irvin has gone through, having recruited him out of Mt. San Antonio Junior College while still coaching USC. Most of all, he is fully aware of the incredible potential Irvin has to fill a need that the Seahawks sorely need.

Coaches often say players succeed or fail in the NFL based on the organization that drafts them, and whether or not they have NFL coaches who believe in them. Drafting Irvin so high is a huge risk. But every team takes a risk of some kind in the NFL draft, so that should not make this pick any more shocking than Miami drafting a quarterback who went 7-6 last year at perennial underachiever Texas A&M.

Drafting is all about projecting, same as in recruiting. There is no complete player in the draft. Every pick is a guess. Seattle is guessing Irvin will be worth the risk.

The spotlight is firmly on Irvin and the Seahawks now. He has the potential to be great. Now in addition to learning a new system and accepting the coaching, he will have to deal with expectations that come with being a first-round pick. Folks will want him to live up to some preconceived notion of what first-round picks should do. If Irvin is as ferocious rushing the passer in the NFL as he was in college, I believe he will not only meet those expectations.

He will exceed them.

The BCS as we know it is set to change.

How it changes remains up in the air, as another round of discussions on the future of the BCS are set to resume in South Florida this week. But what seems almost certain is a radical shift that could have huge ramifications on the Big East.

I am not talking about the addition of a playoff.

I am talking about the loss of automatic qualifying status.

Imagine this nightmare scenario -- not only does the Big East lose a guaranteed spot in the BCS every year, it loses a portion of its incoming teams to boot. Which is the scarier proposition?

It is no secret that AQ designation for the so-called six top leagues in the nation has been on the chopping block for several months now, as ideas have been bandied about toward improving the college football postseason.

Let us not kid ourselves. The Big East has been one of the biggest benefactors of AQ status since its inception in 1998, especially of late. Three times in the last five seasons, the Big East had the lowest-ranked conference champion of the six AQ leagues. Three times in the last four seasons, the Big East representative had three or more losses. The ACC is the only other league that has had multiple teams with three or more losses make it to BCS games in the same span.

UConn would never have made a BCS game in 2010 without AQ status. You could argue the same for West Virginia last season. The Mountaineers were ranked No. 23 in the final BCS standings after going 9-3, with an unsightly loss to Syracuse on its ledger. Nationally, folks may have forgotten about the way West Virginia had to fight back to get into the BCS, because the Mountaineers so impressively and thoroughly dumped Clemson in the Discover Orange Bowl.

But the fact is over the last two seasons, UConn was unranked and West Virginia was in the bottom of the Top 25. And the league finished with tri-champions in the last two seasons as well, another mark against a conference that has not had a team win a national championship since Miami in 2001. The Big East and ACC are the only two leagues that have not played for a national championship since the BCS expanded to five games in the 2006 season.

It is not hard to imagine that BCS games would look elsewhere if they no longer had to take automatic qualifiers. The three lowest-rated BCS games since 1999 involve Big East teams -- the 2012 Orange Bowl between West Virginia and Clemson; the 2009 Orange Bowl between Virginia Tech and Cincinnati; and the 2011 Fiesta Bowl between UConn and Oklahoma. Look at those years -- proof again that recent history has been unkind to the Big East.

But I have not gotten to what could be the scariest part of all. If AQ status is stripped all together, what happens to schools set to join the league in 2013? After all, Boise State has been on a mission to be a part of an automatic qualifying conference. It is a huge reason the Broncos decided to leave the Mountain West for the Big East, despite having to split up its athletic programs and being nowhere near the East Coast.

If staying where they are proves to be as valuable as leaving for the Big East, would Boise State re-consider? Would San Diego State, which joined the Big East in a similar move of convenience? Remember, TCU was able to leave the Big East without a waiting period. Incoming schools are not subject to a waiting period, either, if they change their minds before joining in 2013.

So the Big East could very well be thrown into flux once again, depending on the outcome of the new-and-improved BCS. That is obviously the worst-case scenario. Boise State and San Diego State stand to benefit greatly in the Big East, with more national exposure and more money. They have pledged their word.

Commissioner John Marinatto has declined comment on the BCS, but he does not have to say anything for all of us to realize this is a crucial time for the league.

The BCS will look a whole lot different in 2014. That may be enough to impact where the Big East stands.

West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck has been outspoken in his reasons why West Virginia had to get out of the Big East.

He expounded on his comments in a detailed interview with Big 12 blogger David Ubben, shedding more light on the state of the league during expansion mania last fall.

Perhaps most striking was the utter lack of foresight in the league after Pitt, Syracuse and TCU all decided to leave:

"I think it was pretty obvious that the league was going to struggle. We hadn’t added a new member since 2005. Sitting in these AD meetings, there was no expansion committee to speak of," Luck said. "You’re down to five members with no clear-cut expansion candidates, with no activity, so at that point, I think people -- and not just me -- realized that we needed to look around and make sure first and foremost that we were going to be in a conference that maintained high standards and high-quality opponents."

No expansion committee to speak of? That just points to the mismanagement of the entire operation -- especially since the Big East was supposed to be considering future expansion options after adding TCU in 2010. Complaints about the way the league has handled expansion are nothing new, and Luck obviously has his own agenda. He called the Big East a sinking ship in a previous interview.

But he was still a member of the Big East after the raid of last fall, and was obviously involved in meetings to figure out what to do. I think it is safe to say that every athletic director with a football team in the league was frustrated with the way the league handled the losses of three key teams. Everybody certainly put calls out to try and get out.

As Ubben writes:

The Big 12 needed a 10th member, both to fill its schedule and television contract.

West Virginia looked around and saw Rutgers as the only original member of the Big East when the Mountaineers joined in 1991.

"We didn’t really leave the Big East. It left us," Luck said. "We had joined a conference that had certain schools like Virginia Tech, and now we were finding ourselves with only one original member.

"The conference had fundamentally changed."

Whether you like or dislike Luck, it is hard to argue with his final point. The league has fundamentally changed. Is it on the outside looking in now that it is mostly comprised of schools that came from non-automatic qualifying conferences? That is up for debate. But I do think his insider's view on the Big East in the aftermath of realignment is worth noting.

Read the mailbag. Then have a great weekend.

Steve in Seattle writes: With Bobby Petrino out at Arkansas, I think it'll be three straight years that Rutgers will be playing a team after it fired its head coach. I was able to find out Jim Leavitt in '10, Butch Davis in '11, and now Petrino. Could be four if you count Greg Robinson before the '09 season. Thoughts?

Andrea Adelson: Let's check and see how Rutgers fared in those three instances you mentioned -- loss to USF; loss to North Carolina; loss to Syracuse. Well, if you are a Rutgers fan, then maybe you don't want to see how Rutgers fared in those instances! More to your question -- Arkansas is still going to have a terrific team no matter who the head coach is, and will still be favored to win the game. Is Arkansas in disarray right now? Absolutely. Will they be at a disadvantage without Petrino? That probably depends on the situation. Plenty of interim head coaches have kept the ship running properly, when the talent was in place to do so.

Eric in Miami writes: If it's all about football, is there any possibility that Pitt & Syracuse would be allowed to leave in July of 2012 in all sports except football? And then have the football programs released in January of 2013?

Adelson: I am not sure I understand why either school would want to do that, or why the Big East would want to do that.

Tony E. in St. Petersburg, Fla., writes: So I must admit, one thing as a Mountaineer, I for one have grown to love the Big East regardless of our departure. I have great respect to all the programs and I think as long as the Big East can manage to hold onto USF, Rutgers, Cincy, and Louisville the league can become what it was 8-10 years ago before the ACC raided it. However, with the departure of WVU, do you think the league can accomplish a new prestige it had within the next 4-5 years? I understand the arrival of Boise State is big and the way Louisville and Rutgers recruit could really turn the league around, but with WVU being the face of the Big East for so long... does that hurt them in anyway? Also who takes the honors of being the best tailgating school now that we're gone, because my vote goes to USF!

Adelson: Thanks for visiting your old friends here at the Big East blog. I appreciate the continued support. Your question is one that will be an interesting one to see develop in the coming years. I actually have a video debate with Christian Fauria coming up soon on the blog on this very topic. There is no question the Big East takes a hit from a national perspective without West Virginia, the team many have come to identify with the Big East. I don't know that the league can recover its image after the second realignment decimation. I wonder if the Big East will always be looked at as the league that could not keep is major programs all together because of mismanagement and a misplaced sense of priorities (ahem, basketball!). Boise State absolutely helps, but this league is in desperate need of one team or two to just run away with the conference year after year. I think the Big East will always be a competitive league. But people want to see a dominant league. It is hard to envision that happening in its future configuration. Furthermore, we have no idea if this league is going to have the same members in four to five years.

Thomas Lewis in Manchester, N.H., writes: Which scenario would you find more remarkable - (1) WVU winning the Big XII conference in 2012 (which I completely believe IS possible); (2) Pitt/Syracuse playing in (I won't go as far as to say winning it) the ACC Championship game in 2013 or (3) Boise State winning the Big East championship in 2013? Curious to hear your thoughts on this as I don't think any of the three is impossible.

Adelson: Thomas, throwing me a fastball down the middle with the last question of the week. It is really much easier to judge what happens in 2012 than 2013. I am not trying to cop out of an answer here. But there are really so many questions about Boise State going into this year, questions that are going to determine the future course of this team. Namely, we have no idea who the starting quarterback is going to be this year, if he will be any good, and if he will be starting in 2013. That is huge when trying to judge one program against another. I do not think option 2 is going to happen, though Pitt would have a better chance than Syracuse. I think West Virginia is an absolute candidate to win the Big 12. I have said that for months. Boise State should be in the mix for the Big East title, but I don't think the Broncos are waltzing in and winning it without a fight. Louisville should be pretty strong in 2013, if Teddy Bridgewater continues to develop. Cincinnati could be really good, too, depending on some of its young talent as well.