Is Miami the Tiger Woods of the Big East? Are the Hurricanes the class of the conference, running away from the rest of the league and becoming the standard by which all other teams are measured? A look at recent history says yes.

Larry Coker's team led the league in scoring offense, scoring defense, pass efficiency, pass efficiency defense, turnover margin and at least six other major categories in his first season and allowed only 55 points in conference play. Ken Dorsey led the league in passing yards, passing efficiency and total offense last year and is back for more this year. The defense posted three shutouts in conference play by a combined score of 158-0.

The Hurricanes have 49 lettermen returning to a program that has given up as many as 31 points in conference play just twice since round-robin play began in 1993. With Andre Johnson leading the rest of the returning stars and another cast of blue-chippers arriving on campus, Miami again figures to be looking down at the rest of the conference.

So can the rest of the Big East provide more than a speed bump on Miami's road to a second straight national championship? Some teams are hopeful and some are hopeless, but a quick look at the eight remaining teams (including future member Connecticut) says probably not.

Syracuse
The class of the conference before Miami and Virginia Tech took over, Syracuse has taken a back seat recently. A 59-0 drubbing in Coral Gables last season and a 26-0 blanking at the Carrier Dome in 2000 showed that the Orangemen are not in the same class as Miami lately, and just scoring a few points against the Hurricanes this year might be considered a victory for a team that was once the three-time (1996-98) defending conference champs. With only 10 starters returning and non-conference trips to BYU and Auburn leading into league play, Paul Pasqualoni may be resigned to the monotony of his 11th straight winning season and a sixth bowl trip in seven years.

Virginia Tech
The Hokies were close last year, losing to Miami by two points at home, but they didn't really gain any ground in the offseason. Lee Suggs is reportedly 100 percent healthy, but Grant Noel is playing with an ACL tear and may not last the season. Tech did lead the league in rush defense (71.6 ypg) and total defense (237.9 ypg), though, and even with a rebuilt defensive line could pose a problem for a Miami team that lost last year's top runners to the NFL and an ACL injury. Last season's near-miss surely haunts the Hokies and gives them ample motivation to return the favor, but being picked to finish No. 2 in the conference doesn't mean much when you have to play No. 1 in Coral Gables.

Boston College
BC put a scare into Miami last year even without the services of William Green, and they might be on the cusp again this year with the talented Brian St. Pierre leading an experienced offense. But close doesn't count for much when you haven't beaten Miami since 1984 and have scored just 13 combined points in the last two games against the 'Canes. That's also not good news when you open the conference season on the road with a night game against Miami. The Eagles return a lot of talent on defense (six of lat year's top seven tacklers are back) and look to be headed to a school-record fourth consecutive bowl game, but likely not a Big East championship.

Pittsburgh
Despite two straight bowl appearances and one of the best passing attacks in the league in recent seasons, Pittsburgh will need a little more consistency to move up the conference ladder. The Panthers didn't beat a Division I-A team until defeating Temple on Oct. 27 of last year, giving up more than 31 points per game in a five-game skid immediately preceding that win, but won their final five regular season games while averaging 32 points and giving up just over seven per game. The core of that talented defense is back in the form of three returning starters at linebacker, but Pitt is more likely to be battling for a bowl berth than a conference championship this year.

Temple
All you really need to know about the state of Temple football is this: The Big East has respectfully asked the Owls to vacate the conference in the very near future. No winning seasons since 1990, just 11 conference wins since the inception of the league in 1991 and a home attendance of barely 100,000 last season have conspired to make Temple an undesirable. Coach Bobby Wallace got the Owls to show some measure of improvement last season, squeezing out wins in their final two games, but this figures to be another long season for a team facing a huge talent gap all over the field huge questions about its future.

West Virginia
West Virginia seems to be stuck in the middle of the Big East pack. They have alternated winning and losing seasons over the last four years and had both an eight-win and an eight-loss season in that span. The Mountaineers scored 80 points at home against Rutgers last year but were shutout at home by Virginia Tech, placing them firmly in the middle class. Rich Rodriguez' team led the nation in passing defense last season, giving them at least some hope of hanging with the rest of the conference, and all-league running back Avon Cobourne is back on offense, but a team whose only league win last season came in that game against Rutgers better concentrate on baby steps.

Rutgers
Greg Schiano has made a big recruiting splash and fostered hope for the future since taking over before last season, but the Scarlet Knights still ended last season all wet. Rutgers failed to get a win in the conference and lost those games by an average of 41.2 points, no one on the team rushed for more than 400 yards last year and the program has not had a winning season since 1992. Even though Schiano's friend James Gandolfini has become a spokesman for the university, it will take someone more powerful than Tony Soprano to get Rutgers out of the cellar this year.

Connecticut
Does anyone really expect a team that played in Division I for the first time last year to challenge for anything? Probably not. After all, they're not officially a member of the conference until 2005, they have just 13 seniors on the roster and don't have the full limit of 85 scholarship players. Even 18 returning starters won't help much with a schedule that includes a home game with Georgia Tech and trips to Boston College and Miami. But a solid base has UConn building toward conference membership, and this edition should provide at least some sort of distraction in Storrs until basketball season.

Rico Longria is a researcher at ESPN.com.