Times are Hard for Dreamers: Boys Keep Singing
In Case you BottomFeeder Big East Fans forget that your Conference Blows, here is Colin Cowherd’s view on how much you blow: Click ME
Big East Football rules the world and they always have. (And by “always” I mean “since Louisville beat West Virginia.”) You wouldn’t think pubescent girls had that much power, but you underestimate Big East hysteria at your own peril.
Are Big East Teams even bubblegum football to start with? It’s tough to draw a clean line between bubblegum football and Big Boy Football. Some college football fans take a hard stance here insisting that true bubblegum football teams don’t play “big boy football”—that they are only toothless defensive squads or cartoon creations. Sifting through the football dig of recent BCS history, however, it becomes clear that this facile bit of taxonomy can’t hold. Remember the BCS idols of a couple of years ago? Northern Illinois played like a bubblegum Partridge Family. Utah, Fresno State, TCU, and Boise State all played soft schedules, producing prolific offensive statistics but all they really received was a Liberty Bowl-esqe Bowl that was the equivalent of hard time on the Planet Tiger Beat Magazine. When the quintessential bubblegum croon-master, Urban Meyer, put out his Utah Team up against Pitt (essentially an the Big East’s version of the Archies) in the Fiesta Bowl, he angled for a Big Boy SEC head coaching position destroying the Panthers with offense. Here is the newest version of College Football’s Boy Band (N’Synch?)
Louisville
Just like the Boy Bands of the 90’s, the Cardinals are out there. Think of them as taking dance classes in stripmalls in Louisiana, singing Boys II Men songs in the school hallways in Kentucky, appearing at county fair talent shows and roller rinks. These are ESPN’s kids and they’ve converged on Bristol Connecticut.
ESPN gave us Thursday Day Night Football and with that day, they gave us the “New” Big East. Thursday Night Football gave us West Virginia, Rutgers and of course The Ville. The Big East and ESPN have contracted to showcase Big East Athletics. It is certain that this plays some role in ESPN’s shameless promotion of the Cardinals and the Big East.
(Anyone know what schools are in this Conference?)
Kirk Herbstriet, a man that most college football fans respect, stated that the “Big East is better than most people believe” (that’s code, get it?) Kirk makes his money in reciting what ESPN tells him to say.
ESPN took the Ville to Thursday night TV where the market was much more hospitable to Bubblegum Football teams. After Utah and TCU softened pollsters resistance to bubblegum football, Louisville has popped and locked their way back home to unprecedented BCS dominance. Both Utah and TCU sadly flopped in their follow-ups while in contrast the Ville has closed in on a possible visit to the National Championship Game. Louisville in the National Championship? The brain boggles. The football? Much like their predecessors, a combination of smoke and mirrors with a soft schedule. When they settle into a defensive groove they rely heavily on a mid-‘80s Gap Band vibe that is a bend but don’t break style, and if they break (which they often do) they just score more points. But they make their money with a gooey offense. I say unequivocally… Really, it’s absurd to insist on an either/or definition. Are the Louisville Cardinals a bubblegum football team? Every time Brian Brohm throws a pass, the Louisville Cardinals are undeniably pink and chewy and popping.
Leave a Reply