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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

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.

Time for a little game. Think of the most vilified college football coaches today.

Your list probably looks something like this:

Bobby Petrino.
Rich Rodriguez.
Todd Graham.
Randy Edsall.

You know what they all have in common. They all were Big East coaches at one point in time. Really great Big East coaches, to boot. But alas, great coaches never stick around for long in this league, a common lament among Big East fans. Perhaps the bigger question is -- what has made the Big East a breeding ground for villainous coaches?

Consider the recent history.

Exhibit A. Petrino got his first head coaching job at Louisville, and did one heck of a job, going 41-9 in four seasons. But the Cardinals were never just right, were they? I mean, how could they be when you 1) Try to negotiate a deal to become head coach at Auburn behind your boss' back. 2) Interview at Florida, Mississippi AND LSU the following year, while pledging love and loyalty to Louisville in between. 3) Forget loyalty and interview with the Oakland Raiders after Year 3 in Louisville. 4) Finally end the misery and leave for the Atlanta Falcons after a 12-1 season and an Orange Bowl berth.

That Atlanta dream job was not quite right either, so he left with good-bye statements taped to his players' lockers before the season even ended and headed for Arkansas. You all know how well his stint ended there.

Maybe all these aforementioned Big East coaches just hate good-byes.

Edsall left for Maryland after UConn lost the Fiesta Bowl to Oklahoma in January 2011 and never told his players word one about his plans. In fact, he did not even take the team charter home with the team. What may even be worse than that -- he made Jordan Todman get up in front of the team to explain why he was leaving early for the NFL draft. Edsall just finished a 2-10 season at Maryland in which he took a beating and lost 24 transfers. He is working hard to right the ship -- but you can bet some folks in Storrs are thinking, "Karma!"

Meanwhile at Pitt, Graham also had a tough time with good-byes at the end of last season. He told his players he was leaving via text message and hightailed it for Arizona State after a 6-6 season in which he had his players buying into an "high-octane" and "high-energy" offense. This, of course, came after he pretty much begged for the Pitt job after the Mike Haywood fiasco. But his shenanigans started at Rice, where he also had a one-year stint before leaving for Tulsa. ESPN.com columnist Mark Schlabach dubbed Graham the new president of the Liar's Club after his Pitt exit.

Rich Rod? Well, he is persona non grata in two states, West Virginia and Michigan. Who can forget the drama after he left the Mountaineers for the Wolverines in 2007, a few short months after signing a new contract and pledging his commitment to his school? West Virginia sued Rodriguez in the wake of his departure, and Michigan turned out to be an absolute disaster. It sure ain't easy being hated in as many spots as these guys.

There are others who left in less-than-ideal ways. How about Brian Kelly at Cincinnati, waiting until the end of his team banquet to announce his departure for Notre Dame? This was hours AFTER players began hearing news reports that they had lost their coach. Most recently, Rutgers coach Greg Schiano left for Tampa Bay less than a week before signing day, not even telling his loyal assistants, who were out on the road recruiting without any idea about what was happening.

His departure was tame compared to the rest. As for the others, I think they would make an excellent subject for a new television series.

"College Football Coaches Behaving Badly."

Now that signing day is inching closer, the folks at Football Outsiders took a look at the top five overachieving teams in college football, based on their recruiting classes. These are the teams that do the most with less talent, based on how they are ranked on signing day.

One current Big East team, and one future Big East team made the list.

Cincinnati: Since 2007, the Bearcats have 26 victories as the "less talented team." That is despite having classes continually ranked lower than West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Louisville and Rutgers. Credit goes to former coach Brian Kelly and current coach Butch Jones for maximizing the potential of their players.

Boise State: Since 2007, the Broncos have nine victories as the "less talented team." Brian Fremeau writes, "The Broncos have played only 11 games in the last five seasons against teams with a top-60 weighted recruiting profile, and they came away with a win in all but two of those games."

I found this post to be interesting, but not too surprising. To me, recruiting rankings are fun on signing day but do not really mean much come August. I have always felt it is not about the number of four- and five-star athletes in a class, but what coaches do with the talent once they arrive on campus. Too many can't-miss prospects have missed; too many unheralded prospects have soared.

Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti says he already has a short list of candidates to become the next head coach of the Scarlet Knights.

So what exactly is he looking for?

“I think there are a lot of criteria," he said Thursday. "No. 1, we want the right kind of person. Understanding and being able to have your arms around the culture of the tri-state area I think is critical to being successful at Rutgers. So much of it has been built around being able to recruit on a somewhat regional level, that I think not only having a great understanding, but having really deep and strong relationships in the tri-state area. I think those are two very critical factors in this whole thing.”

Who fits the description? Here are a few possibilities:

Temple coach Steve Addazio. In his first season as the head coach at Temple, Addazio went 9-4 and brought the Owls back to a bowl game. He has ties to the tri-state area, having grown up and coached in Connecticut. He also served as an assistant at Syracuse in the 1990s and he clearly has established ties in the past year in the Pennsylvania area. That state has been a huge recruiting area for Rutgers, particularly given what has happened to Penn State.

Florida International coach Mario Cristobal. One of the brightest up-and-coming coaches in the country, Cristobal has done for FIU what Schiano did for Rutgers. He completely resurrected a program mired in misery, taking it to its first-ever conference title and back-to-back bowl appearances for the first time, too. FIU is obviously a much younger program, but Cristobal has got the coaching and recruiting chops. Plus, he worked under Schiano at Rutgers from 2001-03, so he has a familiar with the recruiting area. Cristobal was also a candidate for the Pitt job before ultimately deciding he wanted to stay in the South Florida area. What could Rutgers say to change his mind?

Notre Dame defensive coordinator Bob Diaco. A defensive mastermind like Schiano (who also served as defensive coordinator this past season), Diaco is from Cedar Grove, N.J., and has some coaching experience in the Big East. He was an assistant at Cincinnati under then-coach Brian Kelly before leaving to join Kelly with the Irish.

PITTSBURGH -- An early wake-up call in the Steel City gave way to 17 total penalties, two more head-scratching Tommy Rees turnovers, a missed field goal and, perhaps most fitting, 666 combined yards of offense.

But Irish coach Brian Kelly and his team were more focused on Notre Dame 15, Pitt 12, the luck of the Irish turning after two mind-boggling defeats to open the season.

"It was a tough, blue-collar kind of day, and that's what was required of everybody, and that's what we got from our team," Kelly said, "enough to get the win and get outta here."

That result is all that matters for a Fighting Irish team that has churned out far prettier performances in early-season losses. Notre Dame put up more than 500 yards of offense in two straight weeks, outgained South Florida by a 2-to-1 margin, and held a 17-point lead entering the fourth quarter at Michigan.

And Notre Dame (2-2) lost both games.

On Saturday at Heinz Field, Rees fumbled deep in his own territory, leading to three points for the Panthers (2-2). He lofted a ball to the end zone that was easily picked off by Andrew Taglianetti. And Irish WR Michael Floyd, arguably the nation's best wideout, had just four catches for 27 yards, his worst statistical performance since his freshman campaign three years ago.

"It's not gonna be an instant classic," Kelly said, "but it certainly is, from a football standpoint -- games that you have to win on the road. And you're gonna be presented with some of these kinds of closely fought, last drive, come-up-with-a-big-stop-or-a-big-conversion [games], and that's what we saw today."

Like Floyd's aggressive downfield blocking on Jonas Gray's 79-yard touchdown run, the lone highlight of a rugged first half for the Irish offense.

Or the five times Notre Dame sacked Pitt QB Tino Sunseri, making him earn every one of his 22 completions and 165 passing yards.

And, of course, Rees' second-to-last drive, when he completed all eight of his passes after a rough 15-of-32 start and marched the Irish 85 yards on 11 plays to give them the lead with 6:48 to go.

"Like all the guys say, an ugly win is better than a pretty loss," Rees said. "So a win's a win, and on the road against a good Pittsburgh team here, that's all we can ask for, is coming out with a win."

Rees can thank Kelly's faith in him for that, along with the sure hands of tight end Tyler Eifert, who finished with a game-high eight catches for 75 yards, including three consecutive catches covering the final 27 yards on the go-ahead drive. His 6-yard touchdown grab capped the drive, and he also caught the two-point conversion.

And Rees can thank some of the little things Kelly pointed to afterward -- a potential saving tackle here, a few big plays by freshmen there, an ability to prove it can end up on the right end of one of these close contests.

"I think one of the key plays in the game was Prince Shembo running down Ray Graham, great hustle," Kelly said, recalling Graham's 42-yard first-quarter burst that looked like it could go all the way. "And I guess all those little illustrations are what I like about the team. They keep battling, they play every single play, sometimes maybe not as good as we would like, but it's a group that's learning. Had the big sack, Stephon Tuitt the end of the game there was huge, moved them back after they challenged the play. And some young guys getting in there are making plays for us."

This was supposed to be a breather after a gauntlet of an opening schedule, one that left the Irish with a 1-2 record and plenty of question marks given their perplexing performances.

Notre Dame wasn't supposed to face a serious challenge again until next month against USC, and after Saturday's win Kelly was asked what to make of his squad one-third of the way through its season.

"I told you this many a times, I like the way we compete," he said. "I'd like to have won 37-0 too, but you know what? Winning's winning. It's not easy. You go on the road against a BCS team and limit them to 12 points, and find a way to win, I like that development. We're developing an expectation with our guys that in a close game we're gonna win, and those are good dynamics.

"So we put this one behind us and, believe it or not, we have expectations that we wanna win every game."

Notre Dame's last game of September was an ugly start toward fulfilling that prophecy, but it was a start nonetheless. And after the way this month began, the Irish will surely take it.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- This is how the Notre Dame offense under Brian Kelly is supposed to look. In fact, it looks a lot like the way Cincinnati used to slice through Pittsburgh.

The Irish have put together two long touchdown drives in a row and they have the Panthers' defense on its heels. Kelly has neutralized the pass rush by the Pitt front four with quick throws and inside handoffs from the shotgun. Everybody knows the soft underbelly of the Pitt defense is over the middle, and that's exactly where Dayne Crist is going with the ball.

Crist has 11 straight completions and looks as sharp as he has all year. He's making the right reads, getting the ball out of his hand quickly and doing all the things a Kelly-coached quarterback has to do.

Notre Dame leads 14-3, but Pitt has only itself to blame for not being tied. The Panthers twice drove to the Irish 10-yard line but had to settle for two field goal tries, missing one of the chip shots. Dave Wannstedt's team can't leave points on the field with the way Kelly's offense is humming so far.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Greetings from Notre Dame Stadium, where the weather is postcard perfect: 80 degrees without a cloud in the sky.

This should be a good matchup between two teams who appear fairly even. I want to see if Pittsburgh's revamped offensive line can handle a step up in competition from last week's win over FIU. In particularly, I'm wondering if new starting right tackle Jordan Gibbs can stave off the pass rush from Kapron Lewis-Moore, Kerry Neal and perhaps Darius Fleming. I bet Notre Dame will test him early.

Obviously, Tino Sunseri has to play his best game of the year for Pitt to win. On the flip side, Dayne Crist needs to be more consistent for the Irish, and opportunities should be there for Theo Riddick and Kyle Rudolph against the Panthers linebackers.

For Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly, he needs to get the Irish over the hump against teams from his former league. The Big East has won four straight over the Irish, including Pitt twice, UConn last year and Syracuse two years ago.

Lots and lots of interesting battles today, and I haven't even gotten to the Dion Lewis/Ray Graham situation and Notre Dame's improved rush defense.

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly calls this week's game against Pittsburgh "like playing a conference opponent more than anything else."

Settle down. The Irish aren't considering joining the Big East. But these two programs are very familiar with one another.

Pitt will have to hope that Saturday isn't that much like recent conference games involving Kelly. His Cincinnati teams eliminated the Panthers from the Big East title chase the last two years, winning 28-21 in Nippert Stadium two years ago and then pulling out last year's epic 45-44 thriller in the season finale. Kelly might be all that stood in the way of Dave Wannstedt having taken Pitt to two straight BCS games.

"I don't know if it's one particular thing where you can say, 'Boy, they don't do this well or don't do that well,'" Kelly said of holding the edge over the Panthers. "We know what their personality is, and both games we played came down to the last possession."

Kelly may have a new address, but Wannstedt said the Irish look a whole lot like his old Bearcats teams.

"Both coordinators are with him, so schematically there is a lot of carryover," Wannstedt said. "They’re not quite as far along in their passing game today at Notre Dame like they were last year at the end of the year with Cincinnati, having those kids around him a couple of years."

While Kelly might have had Wannstedt's number recently in the Big East, it's the opposite story for Pitt and Notre Dame.

The Panthers have beaten the Irish (2-3) each of the last two seasons, including an overtime win in South Bend in 2008 and last year's 27-22 victory in Heinz Field. The gold helmets won't intimidate them.

“We’ve played these guys the last couple of years so our players are somewhat familiar with the environment, their players and the scheme," Wannstedt said. "We need to go up there and play well. We still haven’t played close to what we’re capable of playing."

Pittsburgh (2-2) showed some improvement against Florida International after shaking up its offensive line, but it still led only 16-10 after three quarters before shaking free for a 44-17 win. Spread offenses have traditionally given the Panthers trouble, which is one possible reason why Kelly had the upper hand the past two years. But moving Dom DeCicco up from safety to linebacker might help the defense's ability to control the Irish passing game.

Regardless, there won't be many secrets between the two sides.

"They know what we're going to do offensively, and we kind of know what they're going to do defensively, so that's a wash," Kelly said. "I think this comes down to who's better prepared and who executes better on Saturday, because we know each other so well."

(Note: this is the latest in a series looking at former Big East players and where they are now. To suggest a player for a future story, e-mail me at this link.)

Ben Mauk proved in the summer of 2008 that he doesn't give up on a dream easily.

The former Cincinnati quarterback doggedly pursued an extra year of eligibility with the Bearcats, only to be denied repeatedly by the NCAA. It's with that same determination that he's holding out hope of latching on with an NFL team.

"I'm waiting for a call," he said. "Some team that needs an extra arm, a practice-squad guy. I'm just looking for somebody to give me a chance somewhere."

Mauk spent this spring playing for the Cincinnati Commandos of the upstart Continental Indoor Football League. He led the league in virtually every offensive category and guided the team to the championship. Playing arena football didn't seem all that different from his college experience.

"It's really fast paced, but we were a really fast-paced team with Coach [Brian] Kelly," he said. "We had a lot of players from Cincinnati on the team, so we all adjusted pretty easily."

Mauk played one season for the Bearcats after transferring from Wake Forest. He threw for 3,121 yards and 31 touchdowns in 2007, Kelly's first year. Mauk then entered a long, drawn-out appeal process with the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility, claiming he had an unreported injury at Wake Forest. The case went through many twists and turns and left some uncertainty hanging over the program much of that summer.

"The NCAA is just a big bureaucracy," Mauk says. "They're like big brother; they oversee everything but don't have to answer to anybody. It was pretty frustrating. I still don't know why I didn't get a sixth year, but the NCAA has a lot of money that they make off college athletes, so it's not worth going to battle with them for too long."

Mauk felt tinges of regret as he watched that year's Cincinnati team go to the Orange Bowl, but he was also happy for his former teammates. He said the year off helped his oft-injured body heal, and that he felt like new while playing arena ball.

Now he faces the next chapter in his life. He was set to decide this week on two job offers from Ohio high schools to be a teacher and assistant football coach. That has been one of his long-held goals.

"My dad was a high school coach, so I grew up in that environment just seeing how he impacted kids' lives," Mauk said. "I always wanted to have that role."

He is also advising his younger brother, Maty, in his recruitment. Maty is a highly regarded quarterback prospect in the class of 2012 whose many suitors include, interestingly enough, both Cincinnati and Kelly's Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Mauk hopes his accomplishments with the arena team give him some film to show prospective employers. If the NFL doesn't come calling, he'll try to make it in the Arena Football League. Until then, he'll teach and coach and keep holding onto his dream.

"If a team were to call me, I'd be ready to go and give it my best shot," he said.

• Pitt can't afford to be left behind in a possible conference shuffle, Ron Cook writes in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
• Bill Stewart's comments on the Big East possibly disbanding may not have been a wise move but it sparks conversation, Mike Casazza writes in the Charleston Daily Mail.
• What does Jim Leavitt want from his lawsuit against South Florida? More importantly, how much money will it take to make him go away, Gary Shelton asks in the St. Petersburg Times.
• Here's a comparison of Butch Jones' first contract and Brian Kelly's last contract with Cincinnati from Bill Koch of the Cincinnati Enquirer.

This week brought a State of the Union from the president. I thought this week might also make a good time to check in on the state of the Big East in football. So I caught up with commissioner John Marinatto for his thoughts on the recently-completed season and other issues the league faces. This is Part I of my interview; the second part will appear in the blog later this afternoon.

Overall, what are your thoughts on where the Big East stands and this past season?


John Marinatto: I think what we've been able to do in football might be the best collegiate story of the decade after what happened in 2004 and 2005, and what the perception and expectations were. And when you look over the last five years with what we've been able to do and the environment and climate that it was it done, may be the best story of the decade.

This past year, we ended the season with three teams ranked in the final regular-season BCS standings in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and West Virginia. Obviously, Cincinnati went through an undefeated season, which in itself is a tremendous accomplishment. We ended the year on Championship Saturday for the first time in the history of the league with the BCS bid being decided on a head-to-head matchup, and on national TV, in a very exciting game, obviously.

And to just to underscore the accomplishments, in our nonconference games we were 36-10, and that was the second-highest single-season nonconference winning percentage in our history and second among the FBS conferences.

It's pretty impressive when you consider that some people, including yours truly, thought 2009 would be a down year for the league because of all the talent that was lost.


JM: You weren't alone. A lot of people said that. We just kept reminding people that there was a lot of football to be played and these things are cyclical. And just because we didn't have a team ranked in the Top 25 to start the year, it didn't mean that was the way the year was going to end. And certainly that proved to be the case, with a very exciting season. Our combined record in nonleague play over the past five years is 158-61, and that's our best five-year nonleague record in the history of the conference, and it's second among FBS conferences. So it just underscores what we've been able to accomplish overall.

When Texas almost lost in the Big 12 game, were you watching that and thinking that you were going to get Cincinnati in the title game?

JM: Yes. And I thought we did. When the ball hit the ground and the clock ran out, I thought "Oh, my God this is going to happen." As I'm sure you did and others did, too. We were all obviously on the edge of our seats. And we've come close so many times over the past five years, to even more underscore the point of what we've done. We've had several opportunities where we've seemingly been poised to be in the championship game. That's a credit to our schools and what they've able to do.

At the same time, the league did not fare well in the Sugar Bowl with Cincinnati or in the Gator Bowl with West Virginia, your top two bowls. Is that a concern at all?


JM: The Cincinnati situation without Brian [Kelly] there, I think, kind of speaks for itself. It's a letdown for a lot of people, and the results of the game underscore that. Which is too bad. But our conference has posted a 16-6 record in bowl games since '06. So we're doing pretty well.

What are your thoughts about coaches leaving for other jobs before bowl games, and is there anything that can be done at an administrative level to keep that from happening?


JM: It's part of the culture and the way it's evolved. You talk about the Texas game, and the way that ended, I think Brian said publicly that he would have been at Cincinnati had they qualified for the championship game. But the world is such that if you're not in the championship game, the free market allows you to look around. It's certainly not the best of worlds, but I'm not sure what exactly can be done to stop it. You hope it's not the trend.

Speaking of which, you have three new coaches out of eight going into next season, which seems unusually high.

JM: Yeah, three of the eight. Gong into next year there's a little bit of excitement and a little bit of anxiety. I think everybody's excited about the respective coaches who've been hired and what they bring to the table and I'm certainly excited about it all.

We've seen coaches have success and then move on to bigger jobs, like Brian Kelly, Rich Rodriguez and Bobby Petrino. Does that say that the Big East still has more stepping stone type jobs than destination jobs, or is that overstating it?

JM: I think that's overstating it. The fact that you have hired coaches sought after by other programs is a credit to the quality to the people Big East has chosen to hire. And obviously their success has put them in a situation where they've become targets, for lack of a better word, for other programs. And you're always going to have moving around, as you saw with Tennessee most recently. There are going to be coaches who are provided with opportunities, and depending on their interests, they may feel they have better opportunities. It's part of the free-market enterprise.

On the other side, you have coaches like Randy Edsall and Greg Schiano who've now both been at their schools for a decade or more.


JM: Right. They've found a home at their respective programs and are very comfortable there, and certainly they've had great success in order to maintain their situations. We're counting on both of them and others moving forward. And I think the same is true with Pittsburgh. I think Dave [Wannstedt] has done a phenomenal job. He's very comfortable there in his school and his city. He's very much at home, and he's doing a great job.

Do you foresee a day when the Big East will get an at-large BCS bid and place two teams in BCS bowls?

JM: You know, we've come close so often that we've actually felt we were there a couple of times. It'll happen, given the results and the success we've talked about. It'll happen. There's no question.

Of course, a lot of that still depends on selling tickets. Do you think the league has made progress with its reputation for having fan bases who travel to bowls?

JM: You look at what Cincinnati was able to do, even without Brian, to oversell their [Sugar Bowl] allotment. Those kinds of things obviously get noticed and set the tone. When new programs start to do those things, or programs that haven't historically done those things do them, it gives us all cause for satisfaction and for feeling good about it.

(Note: Stay tuned for Part II, when Marinatto discusses future issues for the league, including the always-popular topic of expansion).

Butch Jones and several of his assistants aren't the only ones going from Central Michigan to Cincinnati.

Quarterback Cody Kater, who had committed to the Chippewas last summer when Jones was the head coach there, has now switched his pledge and says he will sign with the Bearcats next week. He is a 6-foot-2, 195-pound prospect from Montague, Mich., who was also being courted by Northwestern, TCU and others. He passed for 34 touchdowns and ran for 11 more as a senior, but Scouts Inc. says it does not see him as a dual-threat guy at the college level.

Kater's commitment could be key because the other quarterback in Cincinnati's class right now -- local product Luke Massa -- is wavering in his commitment and is being wooed by former Bearcats coach Brian Kelly at Notre Dame.

Concluding the countdown of the best Big East games of 2009:

No. 1

Cincinnati 45, Pittsburgh 44, Dec. 5 at Heinz Field

Why this one: You were expecting Syracuse-Louisville, maybe? OK, there was never any doubt this would be No. 1, as it was the best Big East game of the past couple of years, at least. The league title and BCS bid were in the balance on the season's final day, and the two teams lived up to the hype. Pitt raced out to a 31-10 lead and had a 38-24 edge in the fourth quarter, but Cincinnati wouldn't go away. After a botched hold on an extra point left the Panthers up 44-38 with 1:36 left, the Bearcats drove the field and won on Tony Pike's 29-yard touchdown strike to Armon Binns.

What it meant: Cincinnati won its second straight Big East crown and finished 12-0. Pitt, which was 9-1 and in the top 10 with two games to go, had to settle for a 9-3 regular season and a trip to the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

Player of the game: The Bearcats' Mardy Gilyard caught five passes for 118 yards and a touchdown and piled up 256 kickoff return yards and a score. Special mention goes to Pitt's Dion Lewis, who had a whopping 47 carries for 194 yards and three touchdowns in the losing effort.

Play of the game: Trailing 31-10 with 1:26 left in the first half, Cincinnati needed a spark. Gilyard gave it to his team with a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown that reversed momentum going into the locker room.

Memorable quote: "Our guys are resilient," Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly said. "Our guys believe, I believe in them, and you've got to have that belief. We've won 18 consecutive regular-season games. Don't count us out."

Previously:

No. 2: Connecticut 33, Notre Dame 30
No.3: Rutgers 28, Connecticut 24
No. 4: West Virginia 28, Connecticut 24
No. 5: Cincinnati 47, Connecticut 45
No. 6: Pitt 24, Connecticut 21
No. 7: Cincinnati 24, West Virginia 21
No. 8: West Virginia 19, Pitt 16
No. 9: South Florida 17, Florida State 7
No. 10: Syracuse 37, Northwestern 34